Freightliner just majorly updated its M2 medium duty and SD severe duty trucks. Here’s what’s new!
While the pickup truck world has seen a host of revamps and technological updates over the past several years, things have appeared slower on the commercial truck side of the industry. Freightliner, for example, has one of the best-selling vocational truck lines in North America: the M2 line. It’s been around for two decades now, and Daimler Trucks has enhanced both the M2 and the SD (severe duty) trucks with new “Plus” versions, offering new interiors and more advanced safety technologies to keep up with the rapidly evolving landscape.
In this video, Kase headed out to Detroit, Michigan to see what these new trucks — specifically the 108SD Plus and the M2 Plus range — are all about.
The first portion of the video below shows the 108SD Plus on an off-road course, with Kase at the wheel. Loaded up with some gravel, he and Greg Treinen discuss how the trucks have physically changed and how you can spec them up. According to Freightliner’s official information, the M2 and SD Plus update brings new trim levels “designed for customer preference and applications”, as well as improved insulation for both sound deadening and temperature control. There’s a new dash and driver information center, a fully customizable switch layout to suit your upfitting needs, a new steering wheel with integrated controls, and a new transmission control stalk that allows shifting and engine braking functions from the column for automated manual and fully automatic models.
Freightliner says the new dash panel offers 2-1/2 times more space for truck equipment manufacturers to use. Finally, the automaker updated the seats with “precise adjustability” to minimize driver fatigue and improve comfort.
New tech with the Freightliner Plus series
In the second portion, Kase is in the passenger seat with Steve Collins to show the trucks’ advancements in safety tech. Freightliner M2 and SD Plus trucks get access to the Detroit Assurance 5.0 safety suite, either when you spec it with a Detroit turbodiesel engine or, for the first time, Cummins engines as well. The new Detroit Assurance system brings in standard active brake assist, lane departure warning, and “Side Guard Assist”.
The M2 112 and 114SD will also offer the latest Detroit DD13 Gen 5 engine, as well. Going further, you can also spec the DT12-V 12-speed automated manual transmission for vocational trucks. Doing so brings an off-road mode, hill start assistance and a “Rock-Free Mode” to reduce the chance of getting into a wheel-stuck situation. Depending on the model, you’ll have access to the Cummins B6.7, L9 and X12 turbodiesel engines, as well as the L9N and ISX12N natural gas units.
Freightliner’s Plus series will go into production later next year (Q3 2023) at Daimler Trucks’ Mount Holly, North Carolina and Santiago Tianguistenco, Mexico manufacturing plants.
Check out more on Freightliner’s latest updates below:
