Scania launches its first fully-electric truck range
Logistics on the continent may be about to experience significant disruption. Scania – manufacturer of heavy commercial vehicles – announced this week that it is launching its first fully electric truck range to keen buyers in the industry.
The new vehicles are available in 165 and 300 kWh varieties and will offer 250 miles of range on a single charge. The power will come from a 230 kW electric motor placed just under the cabin section of the vehicle.
Image by me-myself-and-I from Pixabay
Scania hopes that the considerable range will encourage more fleet-operating companies to go electric. Buyers are still worried about the range that their vehicles offer, but the brand says that its Combined Charging System will allow drivers to connect directly to any grid connection.
The vehicles have a short turnaround time. Scania figures suggest that drivers can complete battery pack charging in around 55 minutes – a significant improvement over the consumer automotive market.
The new vehicles will cater to the short-distance, intra-city market at first, particularly night-time distribution. As battery technology improves, Scania will market the trucks as long-haul solutions. The hope is that the new combination of technologies will reduce pollution and improve health while lowering costs for businesses.
Henrik Henriksson, Scania’s CEO, says that the company is currently feeling a great deal of pride with the new release. It hopes to move the haulage industry in the direction of electrification, providing win-win solutions to the current climate problems faced by society.
Eventually, he says, Scania will electrify its entire range, honouring its 2016 commitment to become more sustainable.
Ninety per cent of the CO2 the company produces, it says, is emitted after vehicles leave the factory. While Scania has been reducing its internal energy usage, it also wants to do the same for customers that use its lorries. Consequently, it has been dedicating significant resources to achieving this goal.
The new trucks will still be compatible with important safety technology, such as the ever-popular II39782N50 ES2053 Knorr-Bremse EBS trailer module. The company will also be releasing a plug-in hybrid that can provide additional, fossil-fuel-derived energy for companies worried about the flexibility of fully-electric vehicles. The range in electric mode will be around sixty kilometres in this version.
With major players such as Scania moving in the direction of battery technology, it appears that the haulage industry is about to go through a change similar to that occurring in the consumer vehicle market. Just like Mercedes, Scania is delivering new technology, hoping to push the cost curve downwards.
The launch of this new electric vehicle range marks the next step in the company’s evolution. The firm says that it will use the technology to decarbonise its UK operations and assist operators with their own carbon-neutral ambitions.
The company is now looking to share the new technology with its customers, helping to create more responsible business practices. Currently, it is canvassing industry, looking for potential early adopters who will be willing to test the new technology immediately. The firm expects more orders to follow.
