This Time Scania Goes Electric -

Every truck manufacturer in the world has to have an alt-power truck, some examples are starting to arrive in Australia and this time Scania goes electric and PowerTorque gets a chance to take the truck out for a test drive.

Demand for electric trucks in Australia is ramping up and the manufacturers involved are honing their expertise to be ready for the new technology when it starts to arrive in the years to follow.

It’s not just the new technology in the trucks, it’s also a different type of maintenance regime, ensuring there’s the right infrastructure to support something like an electric heavy vehicle. There’s also an education process for the customers, bringing them up to speed on exactly how the new technology will handle their freight task.

This is the process Scania has engaged in to bring the first electric Scania, for evaluation and technician training, into the country. It will take time but operations like Scania need to start preparing for the arrival of trucks in substantial numbers in the future.

The first generation will serve an evaluation vehicle and when the Scania organisation has become familiar enough with it, it will become a demonstrator for customers. So far, it has not had a body fitted because it has been busy visiting all of the dealerships.

Working on a battery vehicle is completely different, and Scania have had to rethink how they do everything to get the organisation prepared before it goes to market. There are many things to think about, like the provision at each site of a specially marked area where trucks with unstable batteries need to be placed, as a safety measure. There’s a whole different level of risk, one of those batteries has the same amount of power as the old electric chair.

Scania has always been a little bit more conservative than other truck makers and insists on dotting all of the Is and crossing all of the Ts before going to market.

“We are open for business on battery electric trucks,” says Ben Nye, Director of Truck Sales at Scania Australia. “So, if people do want to order one, we’re set up correctly internally, if we sell one tomorrow and it comes back to us for work we know exactly what we have to do.”

The training means Scania now has M-techs, mechanical technicians, and E-techs fully trained to handle the electric technology when it arrives. When they work on a factory truck, they actually have to have two techs, one’s an observer and one’s a worker, as a safety precaution.

From Ben’s point of view, when trucks start arriving, customers will be able to work out the limitations of the technology in their business, from a payload perspective, and from a range perspective.

“The first thing that we do before we quote is discuss the routes and charging infrastructure,” says Ben.

Charging infrastructure is a growing issue for any operation considering electric trucks. Scania has sold a number of bio diesel gensets to those wanting electric truck and bus charging. The lack of capacity in the local grid has meant this is the only way to reduce emissions. They can use lower emission bio fuel to charge and get a better, more reliable power supply.