Test drive: Mack's brand-new Pioneer

Speaker 1:

Hey everybody. CCJ editor, Jason Cannon here. I am at Max's Customer Experience Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania today, and behind me is Max's brand new truck. The Pioneer Mac is fresh off. It's 120 fifth birthday and for their birthday they gave us the present. That present is Max's pioneer. I'm going to be driving this truck today. I'm excited to get in this truck. Basically for one reason, it's brand new. You don't really have a lot of expectations here, but I'm excited to see the improvement in the ride quality. I'm excited to get in the truck that's a little bit wider. Anthem was a great truck, but it was a little more narrow. The nine extra inches across the B pillars is going to feel like a lot bigger of a truck. Should be a lot more comfortable with a truck. We've got a pretty good ways to go. It's 60 ish plus miles to New Jersey and we're going to spin around and we're going to come right back, but we want to learn a little bit more about this truck before we hop in it and take it off the lot. So I'd like to bring in Fernando Osiro, who is Max VP of On Highway. He's going to tell us about this truck, which is not Augusti up Anthem. This is a brand new truck and he is going to tell us all about it.

Well, Fernando, as I mentioned, this is the pioneer. This is not the pioneer, kind of like the anthem. This is a completely new thing. So what about the Pioneer makes it different from the

Speaker 2:

Anthem? This is an entirely redesigned truck right from the ground up and really focus on having not only a competitive offer on the highway, especially for long haul on the sleeper side, but really have a leading product. So we put no stops, we spend a lot of resources, a lot of engineering hours, a lot of r and d money to make sure we had a leading product for the long haul market, which is going to be a segment that has been a little bit underserved from the Mac perspective. Pretty much everything is new and so you take everything that was good about the anthem and you up one or two notches and that's what you have with the Pioneer.

Speaker 1:

Well, just standing out here looking at it, you can tell the nose is sloped fairly aggressively. The front end's been completely redesigned. This truck has got to be more aerodynamic than the anthem. What's the gain there?

Speaker 2:

So we are getting, just on the aerodynamic, we are getting up to 7% of fuel efficiency improvement compared to the prior anthem. As you pointed out, everything from the exterior, I want to say it still looks as badass as Annie Mac, right? It looks bold and muscular, but it's a super leak and super aerodynamics. So everything has been thought of and designed to improve aerodynamics and that's how we can get up to 7% just out of the aerodynamics. And this is when you compare a standard anthem with a pioneer with all the error equipment and all the error upgrades that are available. There's another 3% of fuel efficient improvement that you're getting from the improve to powertrain. So we get a redesign engine, we have an upgraded transmission or mDRIVE transmission that you get 3% of improvement out of this two components as well. And this truck basically introduces the MP 13, right? That's it. The pioneer is inaugurating if you want the MP 13 era, right? So it's complying with all the emission regulations, but it's as efficient as any other engine we have had before. Also the new MP 13, we're getting up to 515 horsepower and also 19 pound feet of torque. So this is a little bit even more powerful than the MP eight we had before.

Speaker 1:

When this truck launched in April, almost immediately on social media, there were comments made that this is just a Volvo VNL with a bulldog on the hood. I don't necessarily agree with that, but in your estimation, what makes this Mack truck distinctly a Mack truck?

Speaker 2:

Of course, it's no secret that we are Volvo and Mac are part of the same group of the Volvo group. So of course we have an approach to the product development that is called what you call the cas, which stands for a common architecture and shared technologies, which means that of course if you're going to develop a brand new safety system or you don't want to spend the money twice or develop twice, we have the best safety engineers in the world. So we want to take advantage of that. So of course there's a lot of solutions, especially on the feature side and some of the thing on the chassis dynamics that of course is the best of both world. You want to take the best what's available out there and the Volvo Group really is a leader in those kind of developments. So we're taking all the things and put it into a Mac truck. So yeah, there's going to be things that are developed jointly with a group, actually group proprietary technologies. But other than that, everything that you see and touch, it's unique. For Mac, it looks like a Mac, it feels like a Mac, it drives like a Mac, but of course, we're not going to not take advantage of all the good things that the group is developing for the really from a global perspective and incorporate into our own trucks.

Speaker 1:

So it's maintained the distinct, I want to say blocky squareish tough exterior, but it got sort of the ride quality components from Volvo because Volvo is a very well received good ride and you kind of take the toughness from the exterior and some of the finesse pieces from the sister company. You put 'em together.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, Jason, you got it right. So I think it has the durability, the reliability, the power performance of a Mac, but really with this smooth ride and some of the things that our sister brand was known for, so we're able to kind of steal that from us. So I would say you get everything that was good about Mac and everything that the Volvo group has as a leader incorporating the same project. That's really what the result is, the pioneer.

Speaker 1:

I'm excited to hop in this truck and let's go.

Speaker 2:

So what's the engine configuration? This is a five 15 horsepower. This is our top power engine with the 1900 torque. So this engine is or is not turbo compounded. It is turbo compound. Of course we're running bobtail, but I don't know if you can tell the softness of the ride. This is not your typical Mac as far as the quality.

Speaker 1:

So what's the thought process of acknowledging maybe Anthem wasn't the long haul, long highway truck that you wanted it to be? What's the wisdom in coming out with a brand new model versus just tweaking the anthem?

Speaker 2:

I think Jason, that just wouldn't cut it. We have high ambitions for growth in North America and we cannot grow in the overall market share without a very strong, relevant position in long haul. If you want to make a movement in the long haul, we need to get out that there with the best product. And what is the best product in long haul is making sure we have the truck that drivers want. So it's the best ride, it's the best comfort, but of course we have to appeal to the fleet owners as well. And this is where of course the fuel efficiency and the safety comes into play as well. And this truck is as of now, and of course this is a fluid environment, but this is the top performer in fuel efficiency. Again, another thing that you probably would not correlate with the Mac brand, but with the Pioneer, when you add all the aerodynamic devices and you add all the fuel efficiency options, you actually get this is the best.

And we benchmark ourselves with all the trucks that were out there at least last year from our competitors and we're getting the best fuel efficiency in the industry. This is truly a totally new vehicle designed from the ground up new truck. I like to say that it improves the anthem in every possible way, especially for a long haul sleeper application. Of course, when you're talking about long haul, talking about sleepers interior space, that of course goes a long way and not only on the driver environment, but also in the bunk and particularly in the driver environment. Then the cockpit we're adding nine inches as far as wet within the B pillar. So that allowed us to put an armrest on your left arm of we didn't have before. Let's put that down since it's new. Let's use it now. We got both sides. And so this is something, and again, the anthem was as well regarded as it was.

That's one complaint that it would usually get is that it was a little bit tight, especially in the cockpit area. The seeds are completely new. I'm a firm believer that those are the best seeds in the industry, not as far as the design, as the comfortable as it really embraces you. I hope that's how you feel right now, embraced by the seeds. Well, it's 40 something degrees outside, so the heated seed's pretty nice. So we got of course the heated seats, you got ventilation feature and you also get the massage at some point in time. I would say try that as well. I think it's a neat feature as well. So that's something new. And again, we know how important seats are for drivers in particular in long-haul applications. Moving to the bunk area, again, we're talking about now what a 76 inch sleeper size compared to the Anthem or largest sleeper was a seven inch sleeper.

This is 76. So not only are you getting the six inches in length, but it's also you got the same nine inches extra wet and you got all the way up to 11 inch in height if you go with a high roof. So there's a lot of space. Again, this in particular, this unit has the high roof. So the seven 16th sleeper is available both as a high roof and a median roof. The high roof really is the recommended setup for team drivers. So we have a lot of space in the bunk up there. You have the telescopic ladder, which is also a neat feature. Again, a lot of this is something that in the Anthem before in the seven eight Sleeper, it's not something really that would be a great solution in particular for team drivers. So as far as I would say, as far as comfort and interior, basically an entire new truck and really focused around the driver and make sure the drivers are comfortable, both when they're driving and when they're resting. So this is our best engine as far as both performance power and fuel efficiency as well. So this truck, just on the power train alone, there were some changes on the transmission as well. Of course, the shifting is 30% faster than it was in our prior version of the mDRIVE. All in all together, the new transmission with the new engine we're getting 3% better fuel efficiency than the MP eight we had in the

Speaker 1:

Anthem, 30% faster shift as a driver. Is that something a driver would feel or is that just something that shows up when the fuel bill comes due?

Speaker 2:

They should feel, they should feel? I feel when I drive back to back an old Anthem and the Pioneer, I do feel like the responsiveness with transmission for sure. As far as safety features, we used to use a pretty much a industry standard vendor solution with a legacy product and with the new products, with the Pioneer and the new Anthem, we're introducing our own proprietary safety system, which is really a state of the art. As far as commercial vehicles, I think it, it's probably not the same level as a passenger cars because there's always going to be some gap between passenger car and a class A truck for obvious reasons. But within the Class A space, I'm confident to say this is a state-of-the-art safety system, the DMS, that's another great technology. The image is much clearer and that automatically adjust. When you're going to get an exit or something, you're going to notice that the angle we will adjust automatically, and in particular in the weather conditions or night, then it's pun intended, it really is night and day because using the digital mirror at night compared to the regular mirrors, the regular mirrors, you're basically just going to see some headlights going your way.

Right now. We can really see an image with the vehicle and what's out there. So we're getting a great take rate on those. I mean, a lot of people are ordering the trucks with A DMS. Of course it's optional, but we're seeing a much higher take rate than we expected at the beginning because we thought people would just be a little bit hesitant because it's a very new technology. But the fleet's response has been great, so we're very excited about the digital mirror system.

Speaker 1:

They've gotten a lot better. I am not even talking about from a technology standpoint that the first couple of generations that I think the first time I drove one was in maybe 20 19, 20 20, and it always felt like the driver's side monitor is too close. It's kind of in your face, maybe in the way, and there are instances when you want to look over here and you felt like you kind of had to look around it. And this is in a really good spot. It doesn't really feel like it's right in the side of my face and if I want to look to the side out of the mirror, I don't really have to lean to get around it. It's not really in the way. It's in a really smart position.

We just got back to the Mack Experience Center after a test drive up to New Jersey and back to Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was a great drive. This is a fantastic truck, really great ride quality. We didn't actually give up as much of the ride quality as I thought because we were bobtail. It is a little springy, but that's to be expected, but it is a lot more comfortable than what the Anthem was in this application. The truck is noticeably wider. There's a lot more shoulder space in there. You've got the arm rest on the left hand side and the right hand side, which is sort of the industry standard, but now it's also standard in the Mac Pioneer. It is a very comfortable truck. Visibility is outstanding with the camera mirror system, the slope of the hood. You can't even see the bulldog on the hood unless you're leaning forward in the seat. You've got a commanding view of everything around you. A lot of power is coming out of this new 13 liter engine. If Mack is going to get a larger share of the on highway segment, which I believe they will, this is the truck that can get 'em there.