Global Viewpoints North America Body and chassis developments

Advanced technologies are enabling light trucks and SUVs to close the ride, handling, and safety gap with passenger cars.

Suspension upgrades, networked systems, and nontraditional body structure production methods are gaining application momentum and pushing pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles toward ride and handling attributes commonly associated with passenger cars. As engineers find new ways to address safety aspects, add convenience features, and improve the vehicle dynamics of pickups and SUVs, long-held perceptions about the high-center-of-gravity vehicles begin to fade.

“Frankly, why should truck and SUV drivers have to sacrifice. We essentially want to banish ‘this rides like a truck’ from the equation,” said Scott Bailey, Director of Engineering for Energy & Chassis Systems at Delphi Corp. “We've advanced the state-of-the-art enough that [customers] no longer have to accept trade-offs. As one example, to have sufficient roll resistance when cornering typically would have translated to reduced ride comfort. With advanced technologies, [we] can all but eliminate ride and handling compromises.”