In what the companies are calling a “world’s first,” commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania AB has delivered its first electric timber truck to SCA – Europe’s largest private forest owner. The all-electric timber truck has a massive capacity of 80 tons and represents Sweden’s next step in becoming an entirely fossil fuel-free society.
Scania AB is a commercial vehicle manufacturer based in Södertälje, Sweden with over 110 years of experience. It currently exists as a subsidiary of Traton Group, which itself is a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group.
Despite its long history, Scania is just beginning to enter the commercial EV space, having recently debuted its regional long-haul electric truck that will be available in Europe as both a rigid truck and a tractor-trailer. Scania’s latest model joins a growing lineup of all-electric trucks, buses, powertrains, and charging solutions. The company has also shared a roadmap to electrification through 2030.
Recently, Scania has been working with Swedish forest industry company Svenska Cellulosa AB aka SCA, to develop and deploy zero emissions transport to its timber transportation routes. Now, the first electric timber truck has been delivered in Sweden and will face testing by SCA this summer.
Electric timber truck joins SCA to test future transport
SCA shared news of the arrival of Scania’s electric timber truck in a recent press release, outlining what the company plans to do with it as it prepares for a zero-emission future of transport throughout its 2.6 million hectares of forest in Northern Sweden.
According to SCA, it is already 96% fossil free, and developed the heavy-duty electric timber truck with Scania to remove carbon emissions from its most difficult transport segment – heavy duty hauls. Scania head of E-mobility Fredrik Allard spoke to the first truck delivery:
The 80-ton battery-powered timber truck shows that even really heavy transport can be electrified. The partnership with SCA, is an early show of what is possible, is a clear signal that it is possible to electrify even heavy transport. A change of pace is needed to make Sweden fossil-free in time and meet the goal of the Paris Agreement. An electric timber truck is a symbol of something pretty cool. Shipping of timber has been talked about as something that might never be possible to electrify. The development in recent years and what we are now presenting together with SCA shows how fast the development is taking place both in terms of vehicles and batteries.
The new truck can haul a total weight of 64 tons on public roads and 80 toes on private roads, and is expected to transport timber on the stretch between SCA’s timber terminal in Gimonäs and paper mill in Obbola, outside Umeå. But first, the electric timber truck will endure testing by SCA all summer.
According to SCA, the summer testing will be continuously studied by the research institute Skogforsk, who will collect relevant data to form comparisons with conventional diesel-powered timber transports. Data will include energy consumption, productivity, and comparable costs to existing vehicles to map out what will be required to ensure broad implementation of electric timber trucks across Sweden.
After testing, the Scania truck is expected to join SCA’s daily operations. Here are some additional tidbits provided by SCA:
- This initial electric truck traveling between Gimonäs and Obbola will help SCA reduce its carbon emissions by about 55,000 kg per year
- The truck will complete 6 turns/day between SCA’s Gimonäs wood terminal- Obbola paper mill, Monday-Friday 7:00AM – 5:00PM – 30 km (~18.6 mi) roundtrip
- Estimated 75 minutes per trip (includes both loading and unloading)
- The truck will be recharged using a 180 kW ABB charger at the Obbola paper mill
Here’s a video from SCA from this past January outlining its development process with Scania to bring an electric timber truck to life:
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Author: Scooter Doll
Source: Electrek
