UD highlighted its heavy duty line-up at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show with its new Quon and Quester heavy-duty trucks, particularly launching the new Quon prime mover/tractor model.
Like their counterparts at Hino UD also revealed a downsized engine revealing an eight-litre downsized power plant, which will be available in Quon models in Japan from the second half of 2018.
The Japanese subsidiary of Volvo appears to be concentrating on the heavy end as its parent company has in recent times. UD continues to broaden its heavy-duty product lineup with its stated goal of becoming the leading Japanese heavy-duty truck provider.
Quon’s driveline, will continue to feature the larger GH11 engine, which has had an increase in horsepower and torque, along side the new downsized eight-litre, both mated to UD’s latest ESCOT-VI automated manual with what it claims is enhanced fuel efficiency.
The entire UD stand had a distinctively European feel about it and certainly reflected the sensibilities of its Swedish parent company.
While there was nothing earth shattering at UD it demonstrated the increasingly strong influence of Volvo in what has always been the truck company with the greatest engineering reputation amongst Japanese makers.