"Green" funding boost for Meritor at Cwmbran
£31.9 million grant awarded to develop integrated electric driveline
Truck News - Colin Barnett
March 22, 2021
Newell & Wright’s first new Truck Generation MAN TGX is proving to be the most fuel-efficient truck on the haulier’s 120-strong predominantly Mercedes-Benz and MAN fleet.
Commenting on the First Edition 510hp flagship, which has just been joined by 10 470hp variants (pictured), Newell & Wright Group operations director Stephen Newell, says: “The fuel return we have had has been unbelievable. The best we previously had on the fleet was the mirrorless Actros, but this is beating it by the best part of 1mpg. We’re getting double figures, which is unbelievable on containers, and that’s a 510. They tell me the 470s should be better.”
The trucks, which have been purchased outright and will be maintained in-house from the outset, will be double-shifted for the first five years. Then they will run on single shifts for the next few years, by which time they are likely to have covered in the region of 1.3 million km.
Newell says the new MAN’s have gone down well with the drivers too. “They absolutely love them, and the feedback is all positive,” he says. “They reckon the interiors are more welcoming, better built, and quieter than the Mercedes’.”
He adds: “We have run MANs for a long time, and have had the good times and the bad times. But theTGX3 is unbelievable, and I have no doubt that it will sell.”
