The 66th annual IAA Commercial Vehicle Show 2016 ran from 22- 29 September and featured the biggest names in the commercial vehicle market
With world leading brands such as Volkswagen, Continental, Mercedes Benz, Ford, Hyundai and Michelin attending the event, the world’s technical press and component exhibitors attended in full force to view the technology on show.
There was an additional expansion of natural power technology as LIQVIS and Volvo, as well as others unveiled new products to drive the alternative fuel technology. In addition, urban safety was another on-trend as ZF and WABCO look to increase the safety of Heavy Goods Vehicles and their other road users, drivers and pedestrians safety.
The Iveco Z Truck, pictured above, was unveiled at the IAA Hannover 2016 show. The Z Truck is a zero impact truck which optimizes Liquid Natural Gas technology and the use of Bio-methane. In addition, the Z utilises aerodynamic design and a waste heat recovery system to provide optimise efficiency. The long haul truck has an range of 2,200km of autonomous driving and virtually no emissions. The autonomous driving system has had no reported incidents according to IVECO. The Z truck is a pioneering design, protected by 29 patents.
With the huge growth potential in the African markets, particularly for the Euro-centric brands, made the market appear lucrative. However, there are some drawbacks. For many, it is a lack of capacity to be able to supply to region of that size and potential scale, particularly in single market small or medium sized businesses with few employees. The other drawback, for some, is the fact that the market has different needs to the European markets.
However, for some companies, these challenges have been released and overcome. For MAN, one of the world leaders in HGVs, the unveiling of the CLA range is one that should excite the African market. They focused on two central areas to improve their range for the African market. The first is how to improve cost-effectiveness and the second is how to increase the efficiency across the fleet. Both are important in the African market. They have also introduced a new tyre size which is more readily available on the continent as well as making the chassis stronger to carry overweighing loads and improved the engines ability to use dirtier fuels in tougher conditions, all issues for African HGV drivers. These trucks have a number of specifications, which can include fuel tankers to concrete mixers to refrigeration boxes.
