Future Cars - Colani Reinvents the Truck

" This is Future Car."

" I don't understand this industry. It's absolutely insane."

" Innovation in the truck business is so necessary. They're so far behind. Look at all the automobiles being streamlined for more fuel efficiency."

" Big boxes moving down the road present a very large coefficient if dragged. Conventional thinking has taken truck design only a short distance to create efficiencies of 12 to 14 percent. But Luigi Colani thinks outside and beyond the big box. And his trunk designs manage to slice through the air even while hauling huge loads."

" This machine is super aerodynamic. We call it, internally, the Concorde on Wheels because it's so streamlined. With this kind of truck, we reduce the consumption by 50 percent."

" Of course, this is in no way his first attempt at a trunk."

" It's an aircraft wing."

" Professor Colani has already done the impossible."

" We built the first aerodynamic trunks 30 years ago and put down consumption by 20 percent. And now, we are here. This is the apogee. This is the absolute top of the line that could not be better anyhow."

" The same challenges apply to trucks as apply to cars. But underneath the surface when we look at the details, the electronics, the materials, that's where we see a revolution."

" We are right in the middle of the building of this million-dollar experimental trunk. This is a steel skeleton which has a 3-dimensional nose section. And in order to steer it, we have adjoined there around this one. That whole thing swivels and this can turn nearly to 90 degrees sideways. Though we have a very short cycle of maneuvering on the street, this is not steered by a steering wheel but by a joystick. Pull and push. And I think that with this kind of aerodynamics, we reduce consumption by more than 50 percent without touching the engine. We could, if we touch the engine, even go further ahead."

" Where that power plant is going to be, that's uncertain. This is gonna be a very difficult job for a fuel cell. But my guess is that certainly, we're going to see in the heavier trunks hybrid technology really have a pretty profound impact."