Freightliner has produced its one millionth Cascadia, the first Class 8 truck model to reach the seven-figure milestone, Daimler Truck North America announced last week.
The Cascadia debuted in 2007 as an aerodynamic, lightweight and uptime-improving vehicle. Innovations over the course of four generations of the platform have improved driver comfort, increased safety and reduced fuel consumption, according to the OEM.
“For more than 80 years, Freightliner has been dedicated to serving its customers with purposeful and innovative transportation solutions to help businesses succeed,” said David Carson, SVP of sales and marketing at Daimler Truck North America. “With our flagship Cascadia, our commitment to making a safer, cleaner, and more cost-efficient solution for our customers has never wavered. And we are not done yet.”
The truck maker has increased the fuel efficiency of a Cascadia by more than 35% since its introduction. Other fuel-saving advancements have come with the 2022 debut of the battery-electric eCascadia, which has driven over 6 million real-world miles for more than 50 customer fleets in the U.S.
The Cascadia serves as the vehicle base for the Department of Energy’s SuperTruck initiative to explore next-generation technologies and potential product integration.
Daimler has also designed an autonomous-ready Cascadia with redundant safety features such as braking and steering, “for a truck tailor-made for autonomous driving functionalities and prepared for the integration of any virtual driver,” the company said.
Daimler subsidiary Torc Robotics is testing the autonomous-ready Cascadia as a self-driving truck in real-world operations, the OEM said.
