DAF’s New Generation XD series has
been elected International Truck of the
Year 2023. Harald Seidel, President of
DAF Trucks, received the prestigious
award during an award ceremony at
the IAA Transportation in Hanover,
Germany. The XD series, including a
full array of fully electric variants with
ranges of over 500 kilometres on a
single charge. Was officially unveiled at
the IAA.
Based on the International Truck of
the Year (IToY) rules, the annual award
goes to the truck introduced into the
market in the previous 12 months,
making the most significant contribution
to road transport efficiency. This judg-
ment relies on several critical criteria,
including technological innovation,
comfort, safety, drivability, fuel econo-
my, environmental ‘footprint’ and Total
Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Summing up the jury vote,
International Truck of the Year Chairman
Gianenrico Griffini commented: “With
the introduction of the new XD series,
DAF has delivered a state-of-the-art
distribution truck that sets a new bench-
mark in its class. The truck range signifi-
cantly improves direct and indirect vision
thus safety, a key factor for distribution
vehicles. Also, the vehicle’s efficiency
and driver comfort are introducing a
new standard in this segment.”
In addition, the 24 jury members
praised the performance of the new,
highly efficient powertrains of the
XD, featuring the powerful PACCAR
MX-11 engines with ZF TraXon auto-
mated gearbox with advanced pre-
dictive features. The announcement
of a series of brand-new, fully electric
powertrains also impressed the jury
committee. BFA
Volta Trucks, the leading and disruptive
full-electric commercial vehicle man-
ufacturer and services provider, has
completed a rigorous programme of
hot weather testing of its full-electric
16-tonne Volta Zero.
Taking place over six weeks at the
purpose-built Nardo Technical Centre in
Southern Italy, the hot weather testing
programme was designed to ensure that
the Volta Zero will deliver outstanding
levels of reliability and durability when
series production of customer specifica-
tion vehicles starts early next year.
The vehicle development team at
Volta Trucks completed more than
2 500km of customer-focused driving cy-
cles at motorway, town and city speeds.
Undertaken in temperatures of up to
39 degrees Celsius during the day and
28 degrees Celsius at night, the air condi-
tioning system and thermal manage-
ment of the battery and powertrain of
the Volta Zero have been fully evaluated
and pushed to the extremes to ensure
optimum operational reliability.
Although unlikely to be experienced
in its natural urban surroundings, testing
has also been undertaken on coarse
dustier surfaces, which provided an even
tougher challenge for the Volta Zero’s
chassis, pushing the vehicle’s suspension,
steering, traction control and braking
system beyond the expected limit of
normal customer usage. In addition, dust
accumulation was studied for cabin and
load box ingress, as well as how it sits on
components such as lights, wipers and
panels.
The Volta Zero is the world’s first pur-
pose-built full-electric 16-tonne vehicle
designed for urban logistics, reducing the
environmental impact of freight deliveries
in city centres. Designed from the ground
up with an operating pure-electric range
of 150 – 200 kilometres.
In November 2021, Volta Trucks
announced Europe’s largest purchase of
full-electric trucks with DB Schenker’s
order of 1 470 vehicles. This followed
Petit Forestier’s order of 1 000 Volta
Zeros. Volta Trucks now has a total order
bank of around 6 500 vehicles, with an
order bank value of circa €1.4 billion. BFA
Volta Zero undergoes hot weather testing
DAF XD awarded International Truck of the Year 2023
October 2022 | BUSINESS FLEET AFRICA
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