Title: Starship 2.0 FC
Duration: 08.55 minutes

Description:
Starship 2.0, Shell’s hyper-efficient truck featuring a new chassis and drivetrain, fuel saving technology and advanced lubricant Rotella T6 Ultra 5W-30, demonstrates how Class 8 truck sector usage can be reduced by leveraging today’s existing energy efficient technologies to reduce CO2 emissions, increase fuel economy and decapitalize freight ton efficiency.

Starship 2.0 FC Transcript

[Music]
Music starts with pounding drums.

[Video Footage]
Camera pans over a road. Rapid sequence of shots of the side of Starship, a truck’s spinning wheels, a highway overpass and Starship’s headlights with large on-screen text.

Introduction

[Voiceover]
What if you could build a truck that sets new standards for fleet efficiency?

[Text displays]
WHAT IF YOU COULD BUILD A TRUCK THAT SETS NEW STANDARDS FOR FLEET EFFICIENCY

[Video Footage]
Rapid sequence of shots of a road, Starship’s cab and headlights, and highway overpasses with large on-screen text.

[Voiceover]
By moving more goods with less fuel to reduce carbon emissions.

[Text displays]
BY MOVING MORE GOODS WITH LESS FUEL TO REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS

[Video Footage]
Drone footage of Starship parked at WLA Trucking site with on-screen text. Quick close-ups of Starship’s grill and opening panels between the tractor and trailer with on-screen text.

[Text displays]
SHELL’S STARSHIP 2.0

[Voiceover]
Shell’s Starship 2.0.

[Video Footage]
Wide-angled shot of Starship with on-screen text at the bottom.

[Text displays]
THE FUTURE IS HERE

[Voiceover]
The future is here.

Test Run

[Video Footage]
Wide-angled shot of Mount Airy, North Carolina. Lush green landscape with forested foothills. On-screen text top left.

[Text displays]
Mount Airy, North Carolina

[Voiceover]
On the road, North Carolina. Starship 2.0, one of the world’s most advanced trucks is undergoing a series of tests.

[Video Footage]
Footage of Starship 2.0 driving on a road amid green scenery.

[Voiceover]
The aim is to find ways to maximise the efficiency of transporting goods by road.

[Video Footage]
Further footage of Starship driving on a road with interspersed close-ups of the vehicle.

[Voiceover]
Improve fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions.

[Video Footage]
Footage of a highway network with vehicles driving in both directions. In the middle, two electricity pylons between the highways and electricity wires hanging overhead. Aerial shot of urban highway network with over and underpasses and adjacent carpark. Quick drone shot zooming in on a parked Starship. Side-angle shot of Ryan Manthiri, a fleet of trucks behind him, and on-screen text.

[Text displays]
RYAN MANTHIRI
PROJECT LEADER

[Voiceover]
Ryan Manthiri is the project leader for the team from Shell that created Starship.

[Video Footage]
Drone footage of Starship pulling into the WLA Trucking site where several dark blue trucks are parked. A group of individuals approach. Close-up of Starship’s tractor as an airplane-style door opens and lowers. Ryan Manthiri speaks into the camera. Behind him, a fleet of dark blue trucks.
Ryan Manthiri
Currently, the on-highway freight transport industry accounts for around 9% of global CO2 emissions. That has to come down.

[Video Footage]
Quick close-up of the rear of a truck driving on a road. Aerial shot of a truck driving on a road. Drone shot of Starship in the carpark panning over the solar panels installed on its roof.
Ryan Manthiri
Solutions like Starship help move us closer to meeting that challenge.

[Video Footage]
Footage of two trucks driving side by side on a road with mountains in the background as night draws in. Close-up of the side of Starship with the Shell pecten logo and text in red reading Shell and Rotella in black.

[Voiceover]
To achieve that goal, the team bought together readily available technology and combined them into one super-efficient truck.

A Lab on Wheels

[Video Footage]
Footage of Starship pulling into a garage while a man signals to the driver. Close-up of Starship’s tractor panning upwards to the cab. Ryan Manthiri speaks into the camera.
Ryan Manthiri
Think of Starship 2.0 as a lab on wheels.

[Voiceover]
Carbon fibre aerodynamic design allows Starship to slice through the air.

[Video Footage]
Shot of Starship driving on a road in green scenery. A yellow and green line flows over the body of the vehicle illustrating its aerodynamic design. On-screen text at the bottom.

[Text displays]
Advanced Aerodynamics

[Voiceover]
Low rolling resistance tyres improve fuel usage.

[Video Footage]
Close-up of Starship’s tyres. On-screen text at the bottom.

[Text displays]
LOW RESISTANCE TYRES

[Voiceover]
Solar panels reduce draw on the engine.

[Video Footage]
Drone footage of Starship driving on a road in green scenery. Moving yellow lines highlight the solar panels on the roof. On-screen text upper right.

[Text displays]
SOLAR PANELS

[Voiceover]
Predictive computation analyses road conditions to control vehicle velocity.

[Video Footage]
Close-up of a hand turning the ignition key inside Starship. Wider angle of the driver inside Starship as the dashboard displays light up. On-screen text centre-screen.

[Text displays]
PREDICTIVE DRIVING

[Voiceover]
A lightweight optimised drive train configuration ensures maximum efficiency.

[Video Footage]
Low-angled close-up of Starship driving past the shot. Camera pans over the drive train. Drone footage of Starship driving with superimposed CGI of the drive train. On-screen text bottom right.

[Text displays]
OPTIMISED DRIVE-LINE

[Voiceover]
And at the heart of Starship, Shell’s latest and most advanced lubricant. Shell’s Rotella T6 is delivering remarkable results to improve efficiency.

[CGI]
CGI of Starship’s engine and transmission with Rotella T6 lubricant in action.

Freight Ton Efficiency

[Video Footage]
A garage door opens as Starship waits to exit.

[Voiceover]
Today, Starship is taking a 400-mile test run carrying 11.25 tonnes of cargo.

[Animation]
Animation of a map with Starship’s route for its test run. On-screen text.

[Text displays]
NORTH CAROLINA
WLA, Mt. Airy
Lumberton
400 MILE ROUND TRIP

[Video Footage]
Footage of Starship exiting the garage. Ryan Manthiri speaks into the camera.
Ryan Manthiri
This replicates real-world operating conditions encountered by Class 8 trucks day in and day out.

[Video Footage]
Side-angled shot of Starship pulling into the carpark. Drone footage of Starship in the carpark, several cars and trucks parked to the sides.

[Voiceover]
To assess Starship in these real-world scenarios, the metric of freight ton efficiency is being used.

[Video Footage]
Close-up of Starship driver turning the steering wheel. Low-angled close-up of Starship driving past the shot.

[Voiceover]
Freight ton efficiency takes into account the amount of cargo being transported on each journey. It’s calculated by multiplying the load carried, measured in tonnes, by the fuel used, measured in miles per gallon.

[CGI]
CGI of Starship driving on a road. Red blocks of cargo start to fill up inside the trailer. On-screen text centre-screen. CGI of a weight representing ton load and fuel gauge representing miles per gallon.

[Text displays]
FREIGHT TON EFFICIENCY
1 TON LOAD X MPG

[Video Footage]
Ryan Manthiri speaks into the camera.
Ryan Manthiri
It forces you to think much harder about how fuel is being used and critically where it’s being wasted.

[Video Footage]
Close-up of Mike Roeth’s face. Side-angled shot of Mike Roeth standing up using a laptop, a white truck behind him. On-screen text upper left.

[Text displays]
MIKE ROETH
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NACFE

[Voiceover]
Mike Roeth from the North American Council for Freight Efficiency has been brought in to capture data and independently verify results.

[Video Footage]
Side-angled close-up of Mike Roeth’s face. Close-up of Mike’s hand pointing at his laptop. Various graphs and data displayed on the screen. Mike Roeth speaks into the camera, dark blue trucks in the background.
Mike Roeth
We are fitting Starship with high precision telematics that will give us a live readout during the test.

[Video Footage]
Close-up of a device being fitted inside Starship on the driver’s side left under the steering wheel. Close-up of Mike Roeth opening up his laptop. Close-up of Mike’s hand connecting a cable to his laptop. Drone footage of the WLA Trucking site, a building and large carpark with several parked trucks and cars, the main road to the left.

[Voiceover]
The tests are being run out of WLA Trucking in North Carolina, Starship’s home base.

[Video Footage]
Drone footage of Starship on the main road adjacent to the WLA site. Close-up of Ryan Manthiri, Mike Roeth and two unidentified males sitting next to each other working on laptops.

[Voiceover]
Joining the team today via link from the UK is Bob Mainwaring, lubricants expert and the lead technologist behind Starship.

[Video Footage]
Close-up of Mike Roeth and Ryan Manthiri watching Bob Mainwaring via video link on a laptop. Still shot of Bob Mainwaring and on-screen text.

[Text displays]
BOB MAINWARING
TECHNOLOGY MANAGER INNOVATION, SHELL LUBRICANTS

[Video Footage]
Close-up of Bob Mainwaring in a dark lab examining a beaker half-filled with an orange substance. Bob Mainwaring speaks into the camera from his lab.
Bob Mainwaring
The entire Shell Starship project is about energy efficiency in transport and we’re trying to drive the fuel consumption down, the CO2 emissions down and drive that cargo transporting efficiency upwards as high as we possibly can.

[Video Footage]
Footage of cars and trucks driving on a highway as Starship approaches. Starship drives on a road amid green scenery.

[Voiceover]
The team found that one of the most effective ways to maximise efficiency is through advanced aerodynamic design.

[Video Footage]
Drone-shot of Starship as on-screen text appears at the top.

[Text displays]
ADVANCED AERODYNAMICS

[Voiceover]
By mimicking the shape of an aircraft, Starship can cut through the air with reduced drag.

[CGI]
CGI of Starship. A yellow line outlines the tractor. Green lines fly past the sides of Starship illustrating its aerodynamic design. Squiggly red lines appear between the tractor and trailer illustrating reduced drag.

[Voiceover]
At cruising speeds, automatic panels extend, sealing the gap between the tractor and the trailer, ensuring smooth airflow as it passes along the body.

[CGI]
Yellow outline appears in the space between the tractor and trailer as panels fold open to seal the gap.

[Voiceover]
Side skirts minimize air from passing under the vehicle. And at the rear a boattail allows air to exit the trailer with minimal turbulence.

[CGI]
Yellow outline forms around the side skirts at the bottom of Starship. At the rear, yellow outline forms around the boattail. Green lines flow throughout representing air flow.

[Video Footage]
Low-angled close-up of Starship’s side skirts as it drives. Bob Mainwaring speaks into the camera.
Bob Mainwaring
A typical American truck has a drag coefficient in the region of 0.6. Our truck has more than halved that down to 0.25. That’s an exceptionally good value. In fact, it’s better than most road cars.

[Video Footage]
Various close-ups from different angles of the panels opening up between the tractor and trailer. Drone footage of Starship driving on a road.

Rotella T6

[Voiceover]
In the engine, Starship is running a brand-new synthetic lubricant, Shell’s Rotella T6 5W-30.

[Video Footage]
Drone footage panning around a parked Starship. On-screen text to the right.

[Text displays]
ADVANCED LUBRICANTS

[Voiceover]
As the world’s leading supplier of lubricants, it’s an area Shell has decades of research and development to draw on.

[Video Footage]
Close-up of a Shell Rotella T6 jerrycan in a garage as a mechanic picks up a tool next to it. Close-up of lubricant being poured into a funnel. Bob Mainwaring speaks into the camera from his lab.
Bob Mainwaring
And with that comes a huge amount of expertise and knowhow, all of which is being brought to bear on the development of Shell Rotella T6.

[Video Footage]
Drone footage of a parked Starship, its hood open as two individuals inspect it. Close-up of the two individuals by Starship as one of them does an oil inspection. Drone footage of Starship’s hood open as the two individuals continue their inspection.

[CGI]
CGI of turning gears.

[Video Footage]
Return to close-up of Rotella T6 jerrycan in garage.

[Voiceover]
Shell scientists developed triple protection plus technology, an advanced formulation that uses a synthetic reduced viscosity based oil to improve efficiency and reduce emissions.

[CGI]
CGI of lubricated gears, oil formulation, then back to turning gears showing Rotella T6 lubricant in action.

[Voiceover]
In extensive bench and road testing, T6 delivers gains of over 2%.

Test Run Results

[Video Footage]
Close-up of Starship driving on a road amid green scenery. Bob Mainwaring speaks into the camera.
Bob Mainwaring
Many of the freight fleets in America operate a huge number of trucks, so 2% of their fuel bill also translates into a very, very large financial saving. And then in terms of the environment, that equates to a very large impact on CO2 emissions as well.

[Video Footage]
Low-angled close-up of a truck’s spinning wheels on a road as another truck drives past. Close-up of the side of a passing truck. Aerial footage of a busy highway network with many cars. Scenic shot of trucks driving past the shot on a road at dusk. Timelapse footage of the WLA Trucking site in North Carolina.

[Voiceover]
Back at command control, Starship is delivering some encouraging data. Science and technology are producing important gains, but one area that often gets overlooked and is key to achieving good freight ton efficiency is the weight of the truck itself. The lighter the truck, the more cargo can be carried for the same amount of fuel, resulting in better economy and less CO2 emitted.

[Video Footage]
Close-up of Mike Roeth and unidentified male looking at laptops. Footage of Starship driving through green scenery. Close-up of Ryan Manthiri and Mike Roeth looking at laptops. Close-up of Mike Roeth’s hands and laptop displaying data and a series of graphs. Footage of Starship on the road. Ryan Manthiri speaks into the camera.
Ryan Manthiri
When we were designing Starship 2.0, we knew reducing our tractor space weight would be key. So we specified Navistar’s LT chassis, Cummins 2020 X15 next generation engine and Eaton’s Endurant transmission. This integrated pairing reduced our tractor weight by almost half a ton.

[CGI]
CGI of Starship’s chassis, engine and transmission outlined in yellow.

[Voiceover]
The research being done to improve freight ton efficiency has never been more important. Changes in legislation and the Paris agreement mean that the transport sector must reduce emissions by over 80% in the coming years.

[Video Footage]
Close-up of Starship’s driver. Drone shot of Starship driving on a road. Aerial footage of an extensive urban road network with over and underpasses. Low-angled shot of a truck driving on a road. Drone shot of Starship driving in green scenery.

[Voiceover]
After six hours and 400 miles, Starship returns to base.

[Video Footage]
Footage of Starship pulling into the WLA Trucking site. Ryan Manthiri walks and speaks into the camera.
Ryan Manthiri
Three years of planning, thousands of hours of R&D all come down to this moment.

[Voiceover]
And the results are breath-taking. A freight ton efficiency of almost three times the US national average for Class 8 trucks, delivering a freight ton efficiency of 210 ton miles per gallon.

[Video Footage]
Drone footage of parked Starship, a group of individuals by the tractor applauding. On-screen text to the right.

[Text displays]
ALMOST 3 TIMES US AVERAGE

[Video Footage]
Drone footage panning over the top of Starship’s solar panels over which on-screen text appears.

[Text displays]
210 TON MPG

[Video Footage]
Close-up of Starship name on the side of the vehicle. Quick zoom out. Drone footage of Starship on the road approaching a highway.

Coast to Coast Test Run

[Voiceover]
But how good could Starship be if it maximized how much cargo it was carrying? To answer that question, the team devised an ultimate challenge. A coast to coast test run.

[Video Footage]
Starship driving on highway as other trucks approach. Quick shot passing by rows of palm trees and low hills. Footage taken from inside a vehicle driving under an overpass.

[Voiceover]
San Diego, California to Jacksonville, Florida. A mammoth 2,315-mile journey, hauling 23.5 tonnes.

[Animation]
Animation of a map with Starship’s route and on-screen text.

[Text displays]
SAN DIEGO
Liberty Station
Jacksonville
2,315 MILES

[Video Footage]
Footage of a forklift truck loading cargo into the back of the Starship trailer. Shot from inside the trailer as more cargo is being loaded. Bob Mainwaring speaks into the camera.
Bob Mainwaring
The results we’ve obtained on the coast to coast run are truly staggering. We’ve ended up with a freight ton efficiency which is 3.5 times higher than that of the current US average.

[Voiceover]
Drone footage of Starship driving on a highway. On-screen text.

[Text displays]
254 TON MPG

[Voiceover]
If this approach was applied across the entire US trucking fleet, CO2 emissions would be reduced by a staggering 71%.

[Video Footage]
Aerial shot of multiple-lane highway in both directions with various vehicles. Adobe logo and Adobe Stock watermark superimposed centre-screen. Large on-screen text fills the screen.

[Text displays]
71%

[Voiceover]
The consequences of that as the world strives towards net zero would have a huge impact on the environment.

[Video Footage]
Aerial footage of a different multiple-lane highway with various vehicles. Adobe logo and Adobe Stock watermark superimposed centre-screen. Aerial footage of vehicles on a two-lane road snaking through forest-covered foothills. Mike Roeth speaks into the camera.
Mike Roeth
I’ve spent my whole career working on lowering emissions in road transport and what Shell has done here is put together a vehicle that will help be the example for a lot of truckers to save fuel and lower emissions.

[Video Footage]
Low-angled close-up of Starship’s tractor driving on a road amid green scenery. Drone footage of Starship driving on a road by green fields. Quick zoom in on Starship parked at the WLA Trucking site as the camera hovers.

[Music]
Shell jingle plays.

[Video Footage]
White background with Shell pecten logo and on-screen text at bottom.

[Text displays]
© SHELL INTERNATIONAL LIMITED 2021