Volvo’s 2021 Roadshow: First drive

Volvo Australia has recently launched its latest range of all-new trucks, marking the biggest launch year in the history of the company.

A selection of the new trucks is currently on a Roadshow around the country and we were invited to jump aboard for a run. This was our first chance to check out the latest technology across a range of different trucks.

It was also the first opportunity to drive the latest FM model that now shares many cab panels with the larger FH – taking a leaf out of Scania’s commonality book.

Unfortunately, the Roadshow FM 540 wasn’t fully loaded, so we’re hoping for a full road test in a loaded truck in the near future.

The only fully-loaded vehicle in the convoy was the latest 700hp FH16 and it was our first opportunity to steer one that was fitted with all the latest Volvo electronic gear.

We were particularly impressed with the new XXL sleeper cab that we’ve previously tested, but this version had a wide bunk with an electrically adjustable section that could be raised – like those on hospital beds – allowing the recumbent driver to view the above-door TV screen at an optimal angle. Absolute luxury!

When I jumped in this very ‘green’ low-kilometre truck the cumulative fuel gauge was sitting on 1.5km/L. That figure reflected city driving and the long climb out of Sydney to the south, but it had improved to 1.7km/L, by the time I got out, after mainly freeway driving, so I think Middo’s previous figure of around 1.8km/L is a reasonable expectation – not bad for a high-performance, 700hp truck.

Of particular interest on these new Volvos were the latest adaptive cruise control, featuring I-See GPS interface; Dynamic Steering and the reintroduced turbo-compound 13-litre powertrain.

I-See is an addition to Volvo’s adaptive cruise control system (Cruise-E) and integrates with I-Shift transmission software, including the fuel-saving, I-Roll function. I-See relies on internet ‘cloud’ data that recognises the GPS location of the truck and ‘knows’ the profile of the road.

Cruise-E allows the driver to select a desired, powered cruising speed and an ‘overspeed’ road speed for unpowered, downhill running.

Adaptive cruise control uses a forward-facing radar unit in the truck’s grille to ensure that the truck remains at a selected distance from a vehicle in front of it, regardless of the cruising speed and overspeed pre-sets.

The system integrates with emergency braking to activate the service brakes, in addition to the engine brake, should the truck get too close to the vehicle in front.

With Cruise-E it’s possible for the driver to select Soft Cruise, where speed reduces near the crest of a hill, to avoid excess fuel use and overspeed on the following descent; Extended I-Roll, where the transmission neutralises to let the engine revs drop to idle speed when power isn’t required to maintain momentum and fuel-saving lower-rpm upshift and downshift points.

The I-See option looks for road data via a GPS link, giving the truck a virtual view of the road gradients ahead. If an I-See-equipped Volvo truck has driven on that section of road, the ‘mapping’ is available to any other I-See-equipped truck, via the ‘cloud’.

The system automatically adapts power and transmission settings to suit imminent conditions, including increasing vehicle speed in advance of an upcoming hill; allowing temporary overspeed at the end of a downhill run and adapting speed at the crest of a hill, to suit the downhill section that follows.

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On this Volvo Roadshow drive we experienced I-See in a couple of the evaluation trucks and found it very relaxing to use. However, on a few occasions it was eerie to look at the rev counter and discover that, near the crest of a grade, the revs had dropped to idle, while the truck was still maintaining momentum.

With conventional cruise control it’s normal for cruise control to continue powering the truck over the crest and then have to intervene on the descent with engine braking and even service braking. Fuel is literally wasted every time power is added and reduced quickly afterwards, but I-See stops that happening.

Volvo Dynamic Steering (VDS) preserves an existing hydraulic power steering box, but adds an electric motor on top of the box, at the base of the steering column. The motor is connected via an electronic control unit to the truck’s forward-facing camera.

A lane-keeping function is an obvious reason for the introduction of VDS. The truck’s camera monitors road markings five to 50 metres ahead of the truck and, if the front wheels approach a lane or fog-line marking, it automatically inputs a gentle steering correction to the steering column.

I liked the subtle intervention of the latest VDS design, because some of the aggressive systems fitted to electric-steering cars and 4WDs are irritating, to the point where many drivers turn off these great safety systems.

A converse reaction is counter-steering, should the Volvo drive wheels slew sideways on a loose or slippery surface. In response to a rear-wheel skid the truck’s yaw sensor powers the steering box electric motor to steer into the skid. The steering response is also linked to the truck’s electronic stability control system that applies selective braking to help the driver regain control.

Another function of the electro-hydraulic steering box is the ability to vary steering ‘feel’.

When I slid behind the steering wheel of the Roadshow FH16 XXL prime mover that was pulling a 62-tonne B-Double set, I didn’t like the very light steering. Easily fixed, I discovered, by tapping an input program on the central display module that altered four parameters: straight, cornering, damping and return.

By using a touch-screen slide schematic it was easy to change the feel of the steering. Very clever.

On-highway, I liked a firmer rim-pressure setting, with stronger return-to-centre action and the damping turned up to limit input from the Hume Highway’s somewhat irregular surface.

One of the trucks on the Volvo Roadshow was the FH 500 TC, with the TC standing for turbo-compound.

I remember driving a Scania turbo-compound engine in Sweden almost 30 years ago and loved it. However, subsequent testing by fleets and magazines didn’t discover much fuel consumption improvement, just smiling faces on drivers who liked the performance buzz.

Since then, other makers have gone down that route, including Volvo, but the technology didn’t get much market support. It made a smaller engine behave like a larger one, but fuel economy wasn’t automatic. You could get economy benefits, but only with strict driver control.

Volvo’s latest turbo-compound engine, the D13K500TC, is a Euro 6 engine that comes with a fixed-geometry turbocharger, engine and exhaust braking and a rear PTO option. It has a familiar turbo-compound exhaust-gas-driven gear-train at the rear of the engine, powered by waste exhaust gas from the primary turbocharger – potential power that would be wasted as exhaust pressure and heat.

Where the D13K500TC differs from its predecessors is in its powertrain packaging.

In the Australian market, the engine comes as a 500hp unit only, but there is a 460hp version for Europe and the USA. Here, it’s rated at 70 tonnes GCM for B-Double work, so the 500hp setting makes sense. If 500hp seems light-on for 68 tonnes work, note that peak torque is a hefty 2800Nm, across the very low 900-1300rpm band.

Looking at the chopped-off power and torque curves it’s obvious that this engine could produce at least 600hp, but the power curve has been trimmed to maintain peak power from 1250rpm up to 1600rpm.

It’s obvious that the designers have intended this engine to operate below 1600rpm, and to make sure that happens it’s available only with I-Shift automated transmission and a very tall 2.83:1 final-drive ratio. The engine tries to operate all the time in the highest possible gear and the prodigious torque at low engine revs saw the tacho showing as little as 1200rpm when highway cruising.

Our test truck was hauling only a tandem-axle trailer and had a very ‘green’ engine, so we’ll wait for it to accumulate some more demo kilometres and get it to slide under a bigger load before we draw any fuel-consumption and performance conclusions.

Volvo always seems to do enough to keep the brand near the forefront of the Australian heavy truck market and the latest models are right at the cutting edge of driver-assistance technology.

We can’t wait to get the behind the wheel of these all-new Volvos again for some more real-time testing.