Editors and journalists from 23 of Europe’s leading truck magazine have voted on and announced that the 2018 International Truck of the Year is DAF’s new XF/CF truck range .
The jury of 23 commercial vehicle editors and journalists, representing 23 major trucking magazines in Europe deliberated over the choice and announced the result at a Commercial Vehicle Show in Lyon last week.
The award was accepted by, president of DAF Trucks, Preston Feight, at the press day for the Solutrans Commercial Vehicle Show.
The new DAF scored 104 votes in a close run competition with Iveco’s Stralis NP long-haul 460hp natural-gas engine model and Scania’s XT construction range, which finished in third place.
The International Truck of the Year rules specify that the annual award is presented to the individual vehicle or model range introduced into the market in the previous 12 months, which has made the greatest contribution to road transport efficiency.
The award is based on several criteria including technological innovation, driver comfort, road safety, drivability, fuel economy, environmental ‘footprint’, and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
The new XF/CF innovative drivelines, based on optimised versions of Paccar’s MX-11 and MX-13 in-line six engines, integrated with the ZF Traxon 12-speed automated transmissions and new DAF rear-axles, deliver improved drivability, greater fuel efficiency and seamless gear-changing characteristics, according to the jury.
The Truck of the Year jury members appreciated the new XF/CF’s energy efficiency features, which include improved combustion, a reduction in internal engine friction losses, engine down-speeding, intelligent auxiliaries, driveline component integration, different gear-shifting strategies, enhanced predictive features running on a new electronic architecture as well as weight reductions in selected components such as the compact after treatment system.
In particular, during a recent extended test drive in Belgium and the Netherlands, the ITOY jury members praised the advanced characteristics of the latest XF/CF drivelines, which allow for longer fuel-saving ‘Eco-roll’ periods, due to the increased integration of the engine and automated-gearbox equipped with the latest GPS-based Predictive Cruise Control function.
