“We are excited to offer our customers a choice of a gasoline-powered truck with the trusted commercial-grade Allison transmission in a market where demand for gasoline trucks continues to increase,” says Justin Palmer, president and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America Inc. “Our partnership with Allison is a win-win for Fuso truck owners as Allison produces exceptional transmissions balanced around performance and fuel efficiency.”
The new 2019 Class 4 line-up, which debuted at the 2018 Work Truck Show in Indianapolis, features a PSI-GM V8 6.0L gasoline-powered engine paired with a fully automatic Allison 1000 Series transmission along with FuelSense 2.0 with DynActive Shifting as standard equipment.
“We are honored that FUSO choose our fully automatic transmission to enable customers to work more efficiently,” says David Graziosi, president and CEO of Allison Transmission. “With Allison’s long-standing leadership in the work-truck segment, we are committed to delivering our brand promise of unmatched reliability and value, with a lower overall total cost of ownership.”
The Allison transmission makes Fuso the first cabover manufacturer to offer a powerful commercial truck transmission in Class 4 and Class 5, the companies say. The transmission has been designed from the ground up for use in commercial trucks, and includes a provision for an optional power take-off (PTO) that can drive a wide range of vocational-truck accessories, like lift bodies or dispensing pumps.
The Allison transmission also includes Fuel Sense 2.0 transmission management software with DynActive shifting technology. Instead of shifting gears based on a data table of fixed shift points, Allison says DynActive technology continually refines shifts via a proprietary learning algorithm to provide the optimal balance between performance and fuel economy for each operator’s specific duty cycle. These Allison technologies yield a 2 percent to 6 percent improvement in fuel economy. In addition, Fuel Sense 2.0 transmission management provides a ‘Neutral at Stop’ feature that further reduces fuel consumption, the company says.
The PSI-GM V8 gasoline engine and Allison transmission will be initially available in three Fuso Class 4 models: the FE140 (14,500 lb. GVWR), FE160 (15,995 lb. GVWR) and FE160 Crew Cab (15,995 lb. GVWR). The combination will soon be available in Fuso’s Class 5 FE180 (17,995 lb. GVWR) model, making it the first Class 5 cabover with an available gasoline-powered engine, Allison says.
In future models, the engine also can be equipped to use compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as fuels, for those fleets looking to reduce their emissions footprint. Allison says its transmissions use a torque converter which enables more responsive acceleration, overcoming the slower startup sometimes associated with alternative fuels.
