The EU Commission set a target to cut emission of big trucks and buses by 30 percent by 2030. This is part of the international program to fight the climate change and make the world greener again.
Almost every truck operates with diesel and to meet the goal of a significant reduction of that consumption, optimised aerodynamics could offer an improvement. The most aerodynamic shape is a drop shape, which can be find in birds. The aim is to reduce the air resistance as much as possible.
The picture shows the different kinds of shapes and how the airflow develops around it. The last picture is similar to nowadays common truck and offers the most surface and therefore the most resistance.
You probably know that phenomena from a really windy day. If you walk straight into the wind direction, the resistance and effort to get forward will be much more increased instead of walking sideward. This is the basic idea behind a new aerodynamic truck shape and could reduce the fuel consumption tremendously.
In the video below below, you can see how the company MAN tries to approach this future scenario by closing the gap between the trailer and the driver cabin and creating a drop similar shape.
Do you think that in the near future all trucks could look like that? Or do you have concerns about loading capacity and the efficiency will suffer?
The blog of Logistics at MGEPS at UPV 