25 Jan 08 Freightliner hybrid brewery truck

American truck makers and operators certainly aren’t dragging their heels when it comes to embracing hybrid trucks. Indeed Freightliner is now offering this Business Class M2 106 Hybrid drop-frame beverage truck with Eaton’s medium-duty hybrid electric system. Moreover, Freightliner reckons it’s the first manufacturer in America to offer a drop frame hybrid beer wagon.

The M2 106 hybrid has a regular diesel engine coupled to an electric motor/generator and batteries which, thanks to a clever transmission and driveline control system can run on either electric or diesel power separately or together.

More importantly it can deliver up to a 30% saving in fuel consumption and 87% reduction in idling time Mark Lloyd, market development manager for Eaton tells BLB. And naturally the added benefit of reducing idling time is that the M2 106 produces less noise, allowing for quieter loading and unloading in urban settings.

Click through here to read more about the green beer waggon….OK it’s red but just do it OK?

Freightliner’s engineers have also maximized the amount of space of the truck’s 12-bay beverage body by mounting most of the integrated hybrid gubbins underneath and behind the cab.

Ideal for easy access to cargo and featuring simplified loading and unloading, the drop frame truck maximizes load capacity while maintaining superior manoeuvrability, visibility and driver comfort which the Business Class M2 is known for. The aerodynamic aluminum cab offers a 55-degree wheel cut, sloped hood and a 2,500-square-inch windshield for excellent visibility and increased safety. The M2 106 Hybrid originally entered the market as a prototype at the 2006 Great American Trucking Show. Since then it’s travelled across the US showing off its wares to customers interested in testing it within their fleets. Clearly they liked what they saw…otherwise Freightliner wouldn’t have decided to luanch a full-blown production version.