“The benefits of lightweighting are centered on payload — to carry more freight, or to offset the weight of other features added to the tractor and trailer,” said Andrew Halonen, president Mayflower Consulting LLC, and one of NACFE’s subject matter experts.
Halonen, a long-time advocate of lightweighting, was the study team leader on NACFE’s recent update to our Confidence Report on lightweighting.
One interesting point from the team’s research is that current lightweighting activities are largely aligned with those of the Department of Energy’s SuperTruck program and mainly are focused on the cab, chassis components, and the frame. I think too often people believe that government projects are like science projects with no practical applicability. This report showed alignment between the science and the market. And truck OEMs are releasing and producing these features as we found the weight of tractors has decreased since our prior report. That is a good thing because we need these theoretical ideas to work in the real world.
When we first conducted the study five years ago, aluminum frame rails were showing some promise. That is no longer they case, and that product is no longer available. However, lightweight frame cross members are becoming popular with even more new developments on the horizon.
One area where there has been a lot of progress is with wheels. Manufacturers of both steel and aluminum wheels have reduced wheel weight by 5 lbs. We think that is a significant development.
We also found that there are several new products in development that are focused on reducing vehicle weight. This includes a film to replace paint, new frame processing and composite cab structures. The industry is working hard to come up with a variety of lightweight options.
Because of NACFE’s belief that the future of commercial vehicles is electric, as part of the report we looked at lightweighting and electric vehicles. Electric trucks are 2,500 to 5,000 lbs. heavier than their diesel counterparts for the same duty cycle. That is a significant amount of extra weight and the industry is going to have to figure out ways to offset that weight or sacrifice payload, which will negatively impact freight ton efficiency.
We fully expect the industry to rise to the challenge and continue to innovate on “big ticket” weight reduction items like frame rails and the battery boxes needed for electric vehicles.
And given the creativity of folks in the trucking industry, I have every reason to believe we will figure out ways to lightweight all commercial trucks, including those EVs, in order to maximize efficiency.
