Freightliner Product Design & Validation

Our team of dedicated engineers constantly pushes the envelope of innovation and sets the gold standard for trucking technology. As a result, each Freightliner truck model undergoes tough and rigorous testing to ensure that it exceeds our customers’ expectations and business needs.

Freightliner’s forward-thinking design process and demanding testing procedures enable us to produce quality products that build businesses. With dedicated departments for fuel economy improvements, aerodynamics and innovative safety and technological features, each Freightliner truck is tailored to our customers’ needs.

Product Design

Real Cost of Ownership is at the core of Freightliner’s design philosophy, and improving operational costs is a key component in every design decision we make. Our engineers balance uptime, weight and fuel efficiency to produce the highest-quality truck that will consistently deliver cost-efficient results, year after year.

With every truck we build, we work to meet our customers’ specifications and exceed their expectations. We also get input from professional drivers who are out in the field every day. Drivers tell us what they want and need out of their truck, and we work to integrate their comments and suggestions into our new designs. 

Based on their specific trucking application and needs, customers choose their own configuration for each Freightliner model. Customers can choose the frame, cab type and height, drivetrain configuration, paint color and scheme, and many other aspects of the truck to ensure that they get exactly what they need. Other variations include building trucks for different regions with differing exhaust emission standards and even building right-hand drive vehicles.

Clean Drive Technologies

The BlueTec® emissions technology from Detroit^® offers increased fuel efficiency on the road and at the jobsite, while reducing emissions for a cleaner, greener drive. We specialize in creating diesel trucks equipped with the latest in innovative engineering to keep your trucks on the road.

Combining our efficient, clean-drive systems with alternative fuels, the future is clear: the road ahead will be powered by emission-free commercial vehicles. We are developing these technologies to drastically reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions in commercial vehicles of all classes.

Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) and BlueTec Emissions Technology are the clean-drive systems that help our heavy-duty trucks exceed EPA standards while remaining cost-efficient, practical and proven for years to come. When combined with Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) and our advanced aerodynamic designs, these emissions technologies help our trucks achieve better fuel efficiency than ever before.

BlueTec has been proven to:

• Increase performance with every drop of diesel
• Reduce more pollutants from exhaust gases
• Improve profitability from every mile covered

Paired with Detroit engines, you’ll efficiently meet and exceed emissions requirements. BlueTec Emissions Technology treats the exhaust gases, requiring no complex changes under the hood. The resulting emissions—nitrogen and water—are safe elements already in the air we breathe.

Freightliner Natural-Gas Vehicles

Natural gas is one of the most abundant, efficient and clean-burning fuels on earth. Compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) have greenhouse gas (GHG) levels up to 20% below those of diesel fuel. With the rising cost of diesel, trucking companies can reduce operating costs by using comparatively inexpensive natural gas. Combined with federal and state incentives, natural gas is truly a smart business decision.

Freightliner’s natural gas-powered truck models, the Business-Class M2 112 and vocational 114SD, can be specified to utilize the Cummins Westport ISL G, a spark-ignited natural gas engine that shares a common bloc with Cummins’ ISL diesel engine. The ISL G uses stoichiometric-cooled Exhaust Gas Recirculation (SEGR) combustion, leveraging proven technology to for a higher-performance natural-gas engine. Available to handle both CNG, or LNG in a variety of axle configurations for nearly every local haul and vocational application, the ISL G offers other advantages as well, including a maintenance-free aftertreatment system with a three-way passive catalyst, requiring no additional aftertreatment devices. Customers can also feel confident knowing that Freightliner offers the only factory-installed (and warrantied) natural-gas solution in a conventional truck. 

Shaping Future Transportation

At Freightliner, we understand the importance of balancing the transportation of goods and people in a globally connected economy with sustainability and environmental consciousness. We are proud to take on this challenge, and we have a goal of creating an emission-free commercial truck, providing a foundation for economic growth all over the world. We call this initiative “Shaping Future Transportation.”