While strongly pursuing an electric future with its trucks Fuso made an inter4esting announcement at the Working Truck Show in Indianapolis, last week, by unveiling a petrol powered Canter for the North American market.
In the US diesel commands something like 60 per cent of the medium-duty market, however Fuso believes that there’s a sizeable group of users in North America who want the simplicity of a petrol engines..
To that end, Fuso unveiled its petrol-powered 2019 class 4 and 5 FE cabovers. The new models feature a General Motors 6-litre V8 engine mated to an Allison automatic transmission along with a new cab interior.
Class 4 petrol models will range from 6.5 tonne GVM to 7.2 tonne GVM initially and later in 2018 will also include a class 5 offering up to 8.1 tonne GVM which would be the first petrol-powered class 5 cabover in North America. In all models, the GM V-8 engine will deliver 297 hp and 489Nm of torque.
Fuso has said it will also offer a gas package from the factory allowing buyers to use CNG or Autogas to fuel the trucks. The trucks come equipped with 150 litre rear-mounted petrol tank.
The petrol engine will be paired with an Allison 1000 automatic transmission with Fuel Sense 2.0 transmission management software, including adaptive shifting technology that improves fuel economy by as much as 6 per cent. The software uses a Neutral-at-Stop feature that further reduces fuel consumption.
Moving from the ridiculous to the sublime the Daimler also showed a production-ready model of its battery-electric eCanter, built in the company’s plant in Portugal. It’s now available for sale in Japan and will be soon in the U.S. In the next few months 50 eCanters will be deployed in American fleets, including several at UPS.
The petrol and electric trucks will be sold alongside diesel models, giving Fuso the broadest power offerings in the US market.
Fuso will assemble the petrol models at the Freightliner Customer Chassis plant in Gaffney, South.Carolina, which ironically and for TV trivia freaks is also the home town of fictional House of Cards plotter President Frank Underwood – just saying.
