SuperTruck REDUX

A year plus into phase two of the promising DOE program to dramatically improve freight efficiency, project leads from three of the participating truck OEMs share their progress thus far and technology paths moving forward.

In fall of 2016, truck makers that participated in the first five-year phase of the SuperTruck program made like the Blues Brothers and “put the band back together” for phase two of the U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored initiative. Navistar's SuperTruck 2 (ST2) team, for example, is “almost 100% identical” to the one that finished SuperTruck 1, according to Dean Oppermann, chief engineer for advanced vehicle technologies and the company's SuperTruck program.

“The core team is about 15 engineers strong, who are responsible for multiple subsystems and controls,” he said. That number fluctuates at any given time, drawing upon resources throughout the entire organization-not just the advanced-technology group-depending on the work being done. “We get up to almost 50 people in some very high productivity months.”