DAF brings extended cab to distribution market

By Categories: NewsPublished On: Monday 28 February 2022

British market leader DAF will launch a new range of distribution trucks featuring a cab based on the latest XF design before the end of the year. Expected to be unveiled at the IAA Show in Germany in September, the as-yet-unnamed trucks will initially be sold alongside the existing CF range that they may ultimately replace.

The new trucks, currently in final field testing, will inherit the distinctive bow front of the XF, which launched last year (Transport Operator 100), but no extension to the rear sleeper compartment found on the XG model will be offered.

Otherwise, the cab can be seen as a ‘low datum’ version of the new XF, taking advantage of the recent relaxation in EU dimensions legislation to offer a rounded bow front for improved aerodynamics and crash safety, and a reduction in the blind spot to the immediate front of the vehicle.

The integration of cab designs across the long-haul/premium and distribution markets is a new departure for DAF, which has previously maintained three entirely separate cab designs: the XF, CF and LF. The LF, which uses a narrow cab supplied by Renault Trucks and fills the 7.5 – 19 tonne GVW segment, will continue unchanged for the foreseeable future.

Transport Operator under-stands that initial production runs will be on relatively simple chassis (4×2 and 6×2), with right-hand versions being available pretty much simultaneously with left-hand drive vehicles.

Ron Borsboom, executive director of product development at DAF, said the trucks “represented the future of national and regional distribution.

“Direct vision, seating position, ergonomics, fit and finish, will all be of a new league, next to superior vehicle efficiency plus ride and handling,” he said.

Meanwhile, DAF claims to have taken nearly 20,000 pre-orders for the new XF, XG and XG+ trucks before production commenced in November last year, breaking all records for the 93-year-old manufacturer.

The first production examples are now in the hands of British operators.