OREANDA-NEWS. The Mercedes-Benz Actros 1851 GigaSpace is the most eco-friendly commercial vehicle of 2013. The Euro VI-compliant truck made a direct impact in what was just its first year on the road thanks to its low fuel consumption, as proven last year in these independent vehicle tests.

Key criteria for the assessment include, first and foremost, the vehicle's fuel consumption and thus also its CO2 emissions. Additional factors include its exhaust emission classification and maximum payload. The basis for the calculation of the fuel consumption figures was provided by the test results recorded by German specialist truck magazines 'VerkehrsRundschau' and 'Trucker' on a standardised route.

Contributing significantly to this result, which showed the fuel consumption of the Actros to be almost a full litre lower than that of the second-placed vehicle, was the "anticipatory" cruise control system 'Predictive Powertrain Control' (PPC). PPC recognises the topography of the route ahead and acts to deliver optimum fuel consumption. The new driver assistance system shows its strengths particularly on hilly routes: as the first GPS-based cruise control system in the world, Predictive Powertrain Control not only intervenes in the straightforward control of speed and braking, but also controls the transmission. In a sustainable extension of the use of the EcoRoll function, a standard feature of the Actros that plays an active part in reducing fuel consumption, the system can also very cleverly, when it makes sense to do so, insert single or double downshifts at precisely the right moment.

The Actros was also able to demonstrate the achievement of significant fuel savings right after its world premiere back in 2011. In a comparison drive over 10.000 km between Rotterdam and Stettin, monitored by the German professional automotive services organisation Dekra, the Actros 1845 LS BlueTec 6 demonstrated an advantage of 4.5 percent in fuel consumption over the Euro V model of the previous Actros series.