Daimler Trucks North America has received about $40 million in funding through the U.S. Department of Energy's 21st Century Truck Technology Partnership, which will be shared by DTNA's sister company, Detroit Diesel.

Through this $115 million program, the DOE will provide funding to qualifying OEMs for research projects aimed at improving the freight efficiency of Class 8 trucks. The funding will go toward building vehicle prototypes that can move large volumes of freight at efficiency levels beyond today's standards. Freight efficiency is defined as ton-miles per gallon of fuel.

"This is an essential partnership that will ultimately create highly efficient technologies that will benefit the environment and the commercial vehicles industry," said Martin Daum, president and CEO for Daimler Trucks North America.

The DTNA SuperTruck project team will begin operation immediately. The goal of the project is to demonstrate a 50 percent total increase in vehicle freight efficiency through a five-year research and development process focusing on advanced vehicle systems and engine technologies.

"This funding enables us to significantly accelerate our research and development of advanced technologies," said Elmar Boeckenhoff, senior vice president, engineering and technology for DTNA and director of the DTNA SuperTruck project team.