Volvo North America is starting the year off with a big announcement and the truck maker is having a bit of fun by serving up one interesting teaser video before the new VNL line is officially revealed. The teaser video sees the new VNL parked at a busy truck stop in America, wrapped in black and white camouflage and stripped of any marks or badging. Throughout the video, we see the truck attract a gathering of intrigued truck drivers. They closely inspect the vehicle, pondering its origin and speculating about the manufacturer responsible for its creation.
In the video, because the truck is heavily wrapped with the zebra stripe camo, it’s hard to pinpoint where the new VNL differs from the old one, but we did find a few things of note. At the front, the all-new VNL has a new grille design, instead of the honeycomb pattern in the old VNL, this one features vertical slats. At the side of the engine bay, the cab-behind-engine (CBE) VNL still sports a pair of scoops, but they have been modified to be slightly shorter and wider. Up top, the roof cap lost a bit of curvature, appearing much simpler than the outgoing VNL.
Thanks to the teaser showing quick glimpses of the truck’s interior, we’ve spotted an array of sensors mounted at the upper back of the cab. Advanced driver assistance systems have been fitted on the VNL before so these sensors may be there to facilitate autonomous driving. According to Volvo, the new VNL will be unveiled via a virtual launch on January 23, 2024. There, the VNL will lose its camo wrap and all the details regarding the new truck will be revealed.
As for us here in the Philippines, don’t expect the VNL to come to the country any time soon. That’s because CBE trucks are less popular than cab-over-engine (COE) configurations. The reason behind this preference is that unlike America and some parts of Europe, trucks in the Philippines have to tackle much more narrow roads and thus need to be more maneuverable. That’s also why Volvo sells the FH for the Philippines instead of the VNL. Speaking on the FH though, Volvo has recently introduced an all-electric version of the FH called the FH Electric. Though the Philippines is still in the early stages of adopting electric vehicles (EVs), the FH Electric does give us hope that the local trucking industry will move to cleaner and more sustainable transportation options.
