No truck manufacturer has ever renewed its entire range at one stroke – until now. Renault Trucks has been able to call on its incorporation in the Volvo Truck Group and the company’s existing relationships with others to help bring this about. The company has used engines originally designed by Volvo Trucks subsidiary UD Trucks of Japan for its new distribution models. As before the 11 and 13-litre diesel engines for the long distance range are shared with Volvo Trucks, but now the integration of drivelines is closer than before. A new light truck has been developed in co-operation with Nissan. Renault Trucks has offered a variant of the Nissan Cabstar light truck, badged Renault Maxity, but the new light truck will extend that co-operation further.
The big news is the replacement of the Renault Trucks heavy range of flagship long-haul Magnum, originally launched in 1990, and Premium, as well as the Kerax and Premium Lander construction models. Renault has designed a new modular cab to replace those used on all these models. Renault has simply named the long distance Magnum/Premium replacements as the ‘T’ range and the construction models with two ranges, the heavy haulage and heavy construction ‘K’ range and lighter ‘C’ range.
Renault claims fuel consumption for the T range is reduced by up to 5% compared with the outgoing models. The cab is available in four different sizes: Day Cab, with standard roof but without a bunk, Night and Day Cab which is longer than the day cab and still with the standard roof. Then there are two sleeper cabs. The smaller Sleeper Cab has the same basic floor area as the Night and Day Cab, plus high roof and optional upper bunk. The flagship High Sleeper Cab model offers thetelematics software package. With the system, the vehicle can be tracked, operational data can be monitored for the driveline and drivers’ hours can also be monitored. Data can also be recovered from the tachograph and driver’s card. Drivers can also use Optifleet to send messages to their operating base. The company’s Optifuel system will monitor driver performance in real time and give feedback to the driver. The data is also available to fleet managers and driver trainers. Optifleet and Optifuel are available across the new Renault Trucks model ranges.
The middleweight distribution models are based mostly on the existing Renault Midlum cabs, updated to accommodate the additional cooling needed to meet Euro 6 emissions regulations. The D range will consist of the 10–18-tonne GVW ‘D’, the ‘D Wide’ for heavier 18–26-tonne GVW vehicles, ‘D Access’ for 18–26-tonne GVW refuse and recycling vehicles and the light D two-metre cab, developed with Nissan to cover the 3.5-tonne to 7.5-tonnes gross weight range. This model will be released at a later date and will use the Nissan Atleon cab from the company’s light truck range. In total, Renault Trucks offers nine types of cab with the D range, excluding the D two-metre range. The D cab is 2.1m wide and the D Wide cab 2.3m wide. D cabs are available as Day, Global and a variety of Crew cabs with four, six, or eight seats. The D Wide cab is offered as a Day, Global, Night and Day and Sleeper Cab while the D Access, designed for waste and recycling operations, is only available with a low entry three or four seat cab.
The D two-metre cab will have up to three seats, while the range will include models at 3.5-tonnes GVW, including a heavy duty model, 5.6-tonne GVW, 6.5-tonne GVW and 7.5- tonne GVW. The 3.5–6.5-tonne GVW models will be powered by a 150hp version of the DTI 3, 3.0-litre engine, while the heaviest 7.5-tonne GVW model will have a more powerful 180hp version of the engine. All models will be offered with a six-speed manual gearbox, while the 7.5-tonner will be offered with an automated six-speed transmission.
The D range models will be powered by revised 5.1 and 7.7-litre engine ranges, derived from engines developed by UD Trucks in Japan. For the D two-metre range, power will come from a 3.0-litre engine supplied by Nissan. There are two power options for the four-cylinder 5.1-litre DTI 5 engine, rated at 210hp and 240hp. The six-cylinder, 7.7-litre DTI 8 engine shares its design characteristics with the DTI 5 engine and is available with 250hp, 280hp and 320hp. Again, automated transmissions are standard equipment, based on six and 12-speed gearboxes. There is also a choice of six and nine-speed ZF manual transmissions.
The C and K ranges will cover the multi-wheeler construction and heavy haulage sector up to 120-tonnes GCW. K is designed to replace the current Kerax range.
The new truck ranges represent a €2bn investment from the Volvo Group and follow on from the launch of the new Volvo Trucks range at the Hanover Show last year. The new heavy-duty cab is not shared with the new Volvo FH, so it
seems likely that the new Renault cab could be used on products from UD Trucks in Japan and Eicher Trucks in India, both Volvo Truck subsidiaries. The development has taken place over five years. 300 vehicles have covered some 10 million km with a further five million hours of bench tests in a range of temperatures between -40 degrees centigrade and +60°C.