Is Walmart's WAVE Concept Truck The Fuel-Efficient Future Of Semis?

Heavy-duty trucks spend more time on the road than passenger vehicles, so improving their efficiency can have a major effect on emissions--and their owners' bottom lines.

That's why Walmart is getting into the truck-design business with the WAVE--Walmart Advanced Vehicle Experience--concept.

With its aerodynamic cab, the WAVE certainly doesn't look like any other large truck currently on U.S. roads.

The design was achieved in part by placing the driver in the center of the cab. The steering wheel is flanked by LCD screens--in place of conventional gauges--and there is a sleeping compartment directly behind the driver's pod.

The WAVE features a range-extended electric powertrain, consisting of a Capstone micro-turbine and an electric motor.

To reduce weight, the entire truck is made of carbon fiber--including the trailer.

Walmart says this is the first example of a carbon-fiber trailer ever produced, and that its 53-foot side panels are the first single pieces of carbon fiber that large that have ever manufactured.

Like the tractor, the trailer was also designed for optimum aerodynamic efficiency. It features a convex nose, which not only reduces aerodynamic drag but has the added of benefit of increasing cargo space in the trailer.