The team over at SCS Software has been on a roll lately (no pun intended) when it comes to delivering new trucks to American Truck Simulator. In a recent teaser trailer, the team dropped some stealthy glimpses of a modern, new big rig that will be pulling up to the scene in-game soon.
The emblem of the truck and its overall design is hidden pretty well in the trailer, with extreme close-ups showing off very specific portions of the vehicle’s body. Regardless, eagle-eyed truck fans have already picked apart what this new release is going to be: the Freightliner Cascadia. This is also confirmed at the very end of the trailer via a legal blurb at the bottom in fine print.
Here’s what a real Cascadia looks like:
The Cascadia is considered to be a “heavy-duty” semi and also the “flagship model of Freightliner.” It’s also all-American, as it is both manufactured in the USA and sold primarily in that market. There’s been a model of the Cascadia every year since 2007. But, it’s the latest model which takes the prize for being the most interesting.
For the 2021 production model of the Cascadia, Freightliner has dived into the world of electric vehicles. This has led to the development of the e-Cascadia, an all-electric truck with a range of 250 miles and 730hp. When it comes to electric trucks, you may be most familiar with the Tesla Semi (which we’re still waiting to officially come to ATS, dev team, just sayin’). Freightliner has actually designed the e-Cascadia to compete with Tesla’s big rig, though the mileage of the e-Cascadia is half of Tesla’s proposed 500mi per charge range.
It’s unclear if the e-Cascadia is exactly what SCS is bringing over to American Truck Simulator, but if that is the case, then it would be the first time that an electric truck has officially come to a sim developed by SCS.
The team hasn’t stated when we can expect to see a release for the Cascadia, but it shouldn’t be too far off. Whenever it releases, it would be the fourth release of a truck for American Truck Simulator in just a year: a new record for SCS. Just earlier this year we got the Western Star 49X and Mack Anthem. Last year was the International LoneStar. The team has come pretty far from the lowly days of having just two trucks in the simulator. Of course, the release of the Freightliner Cascadia will be free just like all the others.
Of course, SCS hasn’t only been developing new trucks for ATS, but also new maps too. Just recently it released the Colorado expansion, which I found to be quite impressive.
