Test driving Volvo's all new VNL

Jason Cannon

Hey everybody. CCJ Editor Jason Cannon here. Behind me is the brand new Volvo Vnl. This is the 860. This is the big boy. We're going to be driving it from Mount Ville, South Carolina to Charlotte, North Carolina. That's about 90 or so miles. This trailer is loaded, so we're at around 70,000 pounds plus or minus. When this truck debuted last year, it was billed as 90% new.

Jason Cannon

Well, does that mean it's 90% better? We're going to find out on this test drive.

Jason Cannon

In this test drive you'll hear firsthand my impressions inside the cab, along with my thoughts after the drive, and you'll get a full picture on what I think of the all new Volvo van.

Jason Cannon

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Jason Cannon

Joining me on this ride is Volvo product marketing manager Duane Tales.

Duane Tegels

So yeah, just as we mentioned, we're at 69,280 pounds today.

Jason Cannon

Hauling miscellaneous goods.

Duane Tegels

Miscellaneous goods? Yes. We have a beach in the back. Nothing but sand.

Jason Cannon

I'm interested to see how our fuel economy does this powertrain delivers 7 to 10% fuel economy improvement over prior generations.

Jason Cannon

As we started the drive, the wine explained where Volvo got that 7% to 10% fuel economy gain and it's not all from the engine.

Duane Tegels

But, you know, when people think about fuel economy, the one thing they always gravitate to is the engine. You know, we did improvements on the engine internally, just those little internal changes. We've captured about 3%. But when we look at the overall truck, we're looking at up to 10% difference. So where does the other part of this come from?

Duane Tegels

Well, it comes from, you know, the aerodynamics that you see here with the windshield. The windshield is wrapped around, it's slanted back significantly at a greater angle and the cab is wedge shaped. We'll close out cab extenders. Fuel economy is one of those things that's really death by a thousand paper cuts. All those things combined make a big difference.

Jason Cannon

To make the most of this increase in efficiency, I made sure to use some of the truck's fuel saving features like adaptive cruise and eco road weight.

Jason Cannon

I mean, I've got most of this thing on, auto mode. I mean, this is like level two autonomy here. I'm just the the mate in the seat, so to speak.

Duane Tegels

But on these hills, as you start to crest over the hill, the clutch just engages with the engine on the transmission. And that's what we referenced as far as eco roll. So then the engine starts to just idle and then we're just taking momentum down the hill. So that's where it gives us some extra fuel economy. But yeah right now you're you're just rolling.

Duane Tegels

There's no engagement of any of the powertrain right now.

Jason Cannon

I'm getting 23.5 miles per gallon.

Duane Tegels

That's fantastic.

Jason Cannon

33.6, 58.8, 235 miles per gallon. Like at that point you're putting fuel.

Jason Cannon

Back in it.

Duane Tegels

Right? That's how it's going.

Jason Cannon

Eco roll is tied to Volvo's AC system, which anticipates the terrain ahead to manage the truck's momentum and limit throttle input.

Duane Tegels

How do we disengage and engage that clutch? Where do we do it? You know, we're consistently knowing the terrain. So I see knows where this truck is on this road. So it knows the road and its terrain. You'll see a little mountain light up there. If it's actually functioning on the bottom of the screen, it'll turn green. And that means it sees engage so it knows the road at that point in time.

Duane Tegels

And then again, it'll engage and disengage that clutch. And trying to get that vehicle to roll as far as it possibly can.

Jason Cannon

Looks like we're fixing hop on the interstate.

Duane Tegels

Yeah. That's what it looks like going on 26 West.

Jason Cannon

As we merge down to the interstate, Dwayne, ask me how I balanced using the mirrors with the new camera system. Since federal law still requires traditional mirrors, the vnl still comes with them. But you can also spec on the new camera system.

Duane Tegels

So you using, the monitors are used in the mirrors?

Jason Cannon

A combination of the two. I like to use the monitors when we make a turn like that. Just to confirm, I'm not.

Jason Cannon

Going to clip the curb, but also watch the mirrors for, a lot of times, it's just not a habit.

Jason Cannon

Yeah, the camera mirror system and the traditional mirrors, they work together really well. It's that, system of safety redundancy as far as I'm concerned. So if I look at my mirror, I can see a vehicle in the mirror, I can look at the camera system, and it gives me a better idea of exactly where that vehicle is along the side of the truck.

Jason Cannon

Specifically, if it's a little bit further back, closer to the trailer where you know it's there, you can see it a little bit, but the camera's going to pick it up because the camera goes all the way down the side of the trailer. So it's a superior safety layer, but it's very complementary of the traditional layers. I wouldn't say that it's, replacement for traditional mirrors because traditional mirrors are required by law, but if you give them a chance and you will use them as a supplement to your traditional mirrors, I think there's absolutely a place for a camera system on a tractor.

Jason Cannon

So I need to break. I was looking for work. There you go. You got a little bit lighter than I wanted it to.

Jason Cannon

The highway driving also gave me a chance to test some of the truck's safety features, like Volvo Dynamic Steering.

Jason Cannon

The thing that really stands out about this truck is the Volvo Dynamic Steering, which sort of adjusts how much weight and how much input the driver needs to put into the wheel based on how they want it to turn. So in instances where you're going to do a lot of maneuvering, you probably want a lighter wheel. In instances when you're wanting to go faster, you probably want a heavier wheel that's all selectable through a display screen to the driver's immediate right.

Jason Cannon

And it's fully customizable, so you can kind of make it do what you want it to do when you need it to do it.

Jason Cannon

That customization works both ways. The lane keeping assist piece of Volvo's Dynamic Steering dinged me a couple of times, reminding me to focus on driving. Focus on driving.

Jason Cannon

What do you think? Do.

Duane Tegels

What it feels that you're wandering a little bit in the lane. It'll throw that.

Jason Cannon

Up. The system detected that I had pinging from the left side of my lane into the ride a couple of times. While I never left the lane itself, the system offered a warning because it sensed that I might be getting tired.

Jason Cannon

After traveling at highway speed for a little over an hour, I got a clear sense of the cabin environment and just how quiet this truck really is.

Jason Cannon

The inside of a conventional tractor has not been what I would call loud in a very long time, but this cab is surprisingly quiet. It doesn't take a lot of road noise. You don't get a lot of engine noise. You don't get a lot of noise. In general, it's really easy to talk in there. It's really easy to hear.

Jason Cannon

And I can tell you this is probably the quietest conventional tractor I've been in in a very long time.

Jason Cannon

Dwane explained that much of that quiet ride comes from the powertrain itself, with peak horsepower delivered at a lower rpm, cutting both noise and vibration.

Duane Tegels

Here's the thing that you'll notice in the Volvo. You notice that you know the engine RPMs aren't very high and it's not screaming at you. This engine makes peak horsepower right at 1300 rpm. Some of the older engines with higher numeric ratios. Historically, they've been used to, you know, that that engine a little bit RPMs, that kind of feels like it's power.

Duane Tegels

But this again, this engine makes 455 force and right at 1300 RPMs. That gives us noise and vibration and definitely a little lower level. It gives us a nice quiet environment to talk at.

Jason Cannon

As we wrapped up our 90 mile drive, the wine circle back to Eco Row, asking what I thought after nearly two hours behind the wheel.

Duane Tegels

So what's your thoughts on this, eco roar functionality.

Jason Cannon

When it's doing its thing.

Jason Cannon

You don't even really think about.

Jason Cannon

It like it's, I guess, unobtrusive. I mean, even I don't know if you noticed, but when we got where it bunched up a little bit, I got on the engine brake as soon as we got out of there, but I flipped it back up to to a, and I like driving that engine brake on just because I like that supplemental brake.

Jason Cannon

Even if it's, you know, I'm on the lower setting.

Duane Tegels

Yeah.

Jason Cannon

But, I don't know why you would ever turn that off. Like what we're doing now. I don't know why you have the engine brake on at all.

Jason Cannon

So we just pulled into the welcome center in the state of North Carolina that ends our roughly 90 mile journey from South Carolina to here.

Duane Tegels

We made it stick.

Jason Cannon

It was a very uneventful drive, which is just the way you like it. Volvo built this new generation Val as 90% new over the prior generation. I'd ask the question is 90% new? Make it 90% better. I would say it's at least 90% better. This is a very comfortable truck. It's a very strong truck. We talked 70,000 pounds through half the state of South Carolina into North Carolina and still managed to get nine miles per gallon, and I am not a fuel efficient driver.

Jason Cannon

That's not one of my driving superpowers. So I was very satisfied with that very technology forward truck here. A lot of fuel friendly technologies will help guys like me, and a lot of safety technologies that we didn't have to use, but they were actually there. Thank goodness we didn't have to use them. So I would say as far as prior generation to new generation, the new Volvo here now is a home run.

Jason Cannon

I mean, this is just been great, free and easy.

Jason Cannon

We hadn't had any.

Jason Cannon

Yeah. And I don't mind traffic. It's crazy people that I don't really care for. I haven't really had any crazy people. Everything's just kind of gone the way it needs to go. It's good.

Duane Tegels

Yeah. It's just this is not a stressful truck to drive. Yeah.