The fuel economy of the Mercedes-Benz Trucks Actros was already legendary. Now, engineers have further cut the fuel consumption of the 13-litre OM471 by up to four per cent compared to the previous generation engine. With a change like that, perhaps we should call it the OMG471.
The newly improved 13-litre Actros trucks have started to arrive in Australia and New Zealand and are ready to start saving fuel.
The fuel efficiency improvement was made possible by a raft of minor changes throughout the engine and transmission that add up to a major improvement.
To put it simply, several key engine elements have been redesigned to reduce friction and optimise combustion. At the same time, Mercedes-Benz has introduced the PowerShift Advanced Automated Manual Transmission (AMT), which enables faster and smoother moving off and acceleration thanks to optimised clutch control. The gearshifts have also been improved and are considerably faster than before, further reducing torque interruption.