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Volvo Trucks Fall in Love, Fly to the Clouds, End Up Making Out on the Beach at Sunset

Fun truck drives down love lane and meets Efficiency truck sitting at the Lonely Truck motel. Fun and Efficiency drive away, wheel to wheel, gently touching their cabins and flashing their headlamps while seamlessly driving through the pink clouds of Scandinavian turbodiesel precision heaven.
Volvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love Story 12 photos
Photo: Volvo
Volvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love StoryVolvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love StoryVolvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love StoryVolvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love StoryVolvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love StoryVolvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love StoryVolvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love StoryVolvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love StoryVolvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love StoryVolvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love StoryVolvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love Story
It’s the latest Volvo take on their long-hauling range of the FH-class trucks’ performance, wrapped in the shape of a commercial ad on the company’s YouTube Channel. This a nice little sample of Scandinavian automotive humor about a range of very serious matters for the transportation sector.

Better efficiency, for starters. That can translate in several aspects – fuel economy, payload capacity, increased reliability, low-cost maintenance, and the list could go on longer than the roads on which the Volvo trucks roam harmoniously. But Volvo hints at its trucks’ capabilities to optimally tackle every operational challenge they encounter.

From sophisticated engine design, construction, management, and operability, the new Volvo is I-governed. I-Save, I-See, I-Shift, I-Torque. I got it. Volvo says truckers no longer need to “choose between outstanding drivability and excellent fuel economy.” They can now have both in one vehicle at the same time.

The two heavy-hauling machines share a truck-struck love story in this commercial. Still, the truth is that technology sits at the core of their mechanical romance: a state-of-the-art gearbox that selects the optimal gear ratio for top engine performance. This, in turn, is dictated by the I-Torque software feature, which gathers cloud data about the itinerary to adjust the six-cylinder output for peak results.

Volvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love Story
Photo: Volvo
The network connectivity capability, dubbed I-See, monitors the truck road coordinates and correlates data about the road conditions with the truck’s speed and payload. That’s why the loving pair of Volvos in this commercial can take off at the top of the climb (with some help from their love-grown wings).

Or, to put it in the Swedish mechanical poetry wording, “Achieving the perfect marriage of fun and fuel savings is what the updated Volvo FH with I-Save is all about. Bringing down fuel consumption without compromising productivity, performance, or the joy of the road ahead. Simply put, it’s a truck that’s easy to fall in love with.” (Especially if the love-struck happens to be a truck of the same make and model, I would add).

The diesel-powered Volvo romance-on-wheels story is the age-old matrimony between two seemingly unmixable chapters of motorized transportation: get the best possible outcome with the least amount of resources. Although it doesn’t look like much, the latest I-Save version is 13% more efficient than the first variant from 2019, according to the Scandinavian truck manufacturer.

So, whether the rolling-in-the-sand-on-a-beach-at-sunset amorous affair between the Viking cousins of Optimus Prime will be a “they lived happily ever after” type of wedding remains to be seen. Judging by their mutual head over wheels (that’s right, the w is not a typo) for one another, the I-Save is quite a remarkable asset.

Volvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love Story
Photo: Volvo
Of course, we couldn’t talk about fuel efficiency in trucks without mentioning aerodynamic performance (I know, trucks are not the most striking definition of sleekness, seamless airflow, or fluid motion). Still, watch the second video to learn about how (apparently) minor improvements can have a significant effect on a moving hunk of steel. After all, a pink heart shape in the bulging clouds is something only smooth love can materialize.

To stay on this topic, the love bird pair in the film is a couple of Volvo FH16 tractors. As the nameplate subtly suggests, the inline-six turbodiesel engine is a 16-liter (or 976 CID) powerplant, which can output as much as 737 hp (750 PS) and a massive 2,618 lb-ft of torque (3,550 Nm). Talk about the power of love…

The gearbox that bears the responsibility of all this enormous force is a twelve-speed splitter and range with an automated gearshift. The transmission is so sophisticatedly helpful that the driver doesn’t need to engage Drive, Stop, or Reverse without touching the shift knob. Just pushing the accelerator – or releasing it – controls the movement of the heavyweight equipment.

“We are very proud of the I-Save features, and with this love story, we want to give those features the attention they deserve. For our customers, I-Save has come to stand for outstanding fuel economy and great drivability, and the majority of the Volvo FH trucks we sell today are equipped with I-Save,” says Peter Franzén, Product Manager Engines at Volvo Trucks.

Volvo FH16 Fun and Efficiency Love Story
Photo: Volvo
To conclude this story, please note that the ad was filmed in Croatia, and all real-life driving was performed under safe conditions in a closed-off area. No trucks were hurt or (heart)broken during the shooting of this film.

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About the author: Razvan Calin
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After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads.
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