Scania electrification projects: from hybrids to wireless charging

[kscarbel2]

Scania Group Press Release  /  May 3, 2017

Scania is working on several projects to help increase the use of electrification technology within both urban and long-haul transport. All Scania’s hybrid vehicles are Euro 6 certified.

Tractor with a hybrid electric powertrain

Swedish coffee roaster Löfbergs recently put a hybrid electric truck into operation. The Scania P 320 tractor drives on electric power for nearly two kilometres on just a ten-minute charge, lowering the fuel costs by 18 percent and making it possible to perform silent deliveries without disturbing residents. In parallel with the electric battery, the truck runs on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO). The combination reduces carbon emissions by more than 90 percent in comparison with conventional diesel.

Battery electric city bus

At the end of 2017 Scania will start field tests of battery-powered electric buses in the northern Swedish city of Östersund. The three Scania Citywide LF buses – with an additional three to be added during 2019 – will be charged through a roof-mounted pantograph at two charging stations at both ends of the 14-kilometre bus line. With a 10-minute charging time, the buses will run every 15 minutes for a total of 100 journeys each day.

Hybrid truck for quiet deliveries

Scania’s 18-tonne distribution truck can operate solely on electric power for up to two kilometres. The powertrain has an electric motor that delivers 130 kW (174 hp). Electric operations are primarily intended for city distribution in noise sensitive areas or where exhaust fumes must be avoided. The truck was awarded the prestigious German prize Green Truck Future Innovation 2016 by the leading trade magazine Verkehrsrundschau.

Breakthrough for hybrid city bus

With the launch of the hybrid powered Scania Citywide bus in 2015, Scania took another step towards carbon neutral transport solutions. The hybrid unit, comprising an electric motor and automatic clutch, is located between the engine and gearbox. The combustion engine runs on up to 100 percent biodiesel, providing CO₂ savings of 60-65 percent. 2016 saw a major commercial breakthrough, when Scania started delivering 51 of these buses to the city of Madrid.

World’s first electric road

In June 2016, the world’s first electric road for heavy goods traffic was inaugurated near the Swedish city of Gävle. A Scania electrically-powered truck now operates the route, in open highway traffic, using conductive technology developed by Siemens. The truck operates as an electric vehicle when on the electrified road lane and as a Euro 6-certified hybrid vehicle running on biofuel at other times, such as when overtaking.

Wirelessly charged city bus

In December 2016, a Scania electric hybrid city bus, equipped with wireless inductive technology, was inaugurated in Scania’s hometown of Södertälje, as part of a joint research project between Scania and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The batteries are wirelessly charged while the bus stands at the terminal stop, providing it with the power it needs to complete its 10 km route in just seven minutes.

Solar-cell produced hydrogen

Together with Asko, Norway’s largest convenience goods wholesaler, Scania will start testing trucks with an electric powertrain in which the electrical energy is converted from hydrogen gas in fuel cells on board the vehicles. The hydrogen gas will be produced locally, using solar cells. The three-axle 27 tonne trucks will run in distribution service with distances of almost 500 km.

.

[kscarbel2]

Empowering the future

Scania Group Press Release  /  May 2, 2017

The pace of development for electrified heavy vehicles, such as wirelessly charged city buses, tractor units with hybrid electric powertrains and electrically powered trucks running on electric roads, is intense. And interest in these sustainable transport solutions is gaining speed every day.

When Ann-Christin Landman reaches Karlstad city limits in south-west Sweden with her Scania P 320 tractor, she pushes a button. This changes the source of the truck’s power from Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) to battery power. She makes the final leg of the journey to the city centre coffee roastery using electricity.

“At first I thought there was something that was wrong,” she says. “It is unusual; the truck is  completely silent.”

Landman carries out daily deliveries for the Swedish coffee roaster Löfbergs, whose commitment to sustainability extends over the entire value chain – from coffee beans to coffee cup; from the farm to the end-consumer. That’s why Löfbergs has now put its first Scania hybrid tractor unit into operation. The hybrid truck can make a total of 15 daily round trips between the roastery plant and the  warehouse in the suburb of Välsviken.

Massive interest in electrification

This is just one of many examples of the massive interest in electrification and the impact that the technology is starting to have on the transport industry. An interest that is heightened as costs for batteries and other related equipment continues to decline and global standards for common infrastructure, such as charging stations, take shape.

“There is a big shift right now,” says Urban Löfvenberg, Sales Manager within Scania Sustainable Solutions. “In major bus tenders in Europe today, municipalities nearly always ask for different kinds of electrified solutions. The largest interest is in fully electric buses.”

Useful in city centre traffic

Löfvenberg says that battery-powered electric buses are particularly useful in city centre traffic, but adds that in a typical urban area these journeys only account for about 20 percent of the total.

“For most journeys, to and from city centres, which account for about 80 percent of the total traffic in urban regions, hybrid electric solutions are more suitable, especially if biofuels are used,” Löfvenberg says. “These longer trips are ideal for recovering energy from braking, which means that up to 20–25 percent of fuel can be saved.”

Zero carbon footprint

Nils-Gunnar Vågstedt is responsible for Scania’s research into electrification. He also sees a tremendous momentum for electrified solutions and its environmental benefits, including the zero carbon footprint, quieter vehicles and zero particle emissions.

“A lot has happened just during the last year and a half,” Vågstedt says. “We have gone from treating electrification primarily as a research area to having many discussions with customers who want to make the shift to sustainable transport.”

Electrified solutions becoming financially viable

Today, the driving forces for electrification come mainly from cities and city regions and the fact that electrified solutions are beginning to become financially viable in their own right, without subsidies. China is the front-runner. The country accounts for over 95 percent of the world’s electric city buses, a total of some 100,000 in rolling stock so far.

“In urban traffic, both for city buses and to an increasing extent for distribution vehicles, the commercial driving forces are already in place,” says Vågstedt. “An electrified vehicle still has a higher initial investment cost, but it has the long-term benefit of lower operating costs.

“The development for electrified long-haul transports are lagging a few years behind, but I am convinced that the same sustainable trend will occur here, and that we will see the same commercial driving forces,” Vågstedt adds.

Broad approach to sustainable technologies

Scania’s philosophy is to have a broad approach when it comes to research into sustainable technologies, rather than putting all its eggs into one basket. That’s why the company continues its research into hybrid technology, plug-in hybrids, fully electric vehicles and different kinds of biofuel.

“We want to address concrete customer needs instead of convincing them of a particular solution. In cities where access to biogas for use in buses is good, biogas is a suitable solution. Another city might produce electricity from its biogas – then electric vehicles are a good solution there.”

“And,” Vågstedt adds, “in places where hydrogen gas derived from solar or wind power can be  produced, fuel cells make suitable energy transmitters to electric vehicles.

[kscarbel2]

Electric Trucks Charge Ahead

Heavy Duty Trucking  /  May 2, 2017

Autonomous trucks get all the headlines these days. But it’s starting to look like your first, hands-on exposure to all the new transportation technology emerging today may just be with an electric truck.

Oh, stop it. I can hear you grumbling from here in Alabama – and I’ve got Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers cranked up loud, too.

If you’re yearning for a simpler time in terms of truck tech, I understand. Until very recently, “cutting edge” was a term not usually associated with American truck fleets. Even in the hallowed halls at the ATA's Technology & Maintenance Council, discussions on emerging technology are often sprinkled with a great deal of caution or even outright pessimism. The technology in and of itself is often fascinating, they’ll often tell you. But they get paid to make sure freight gets delivered and trucks keep running. And new technology can get really scary fast then you’re looking at things through that particular prism.

Still, the trend lines are plainly visible. There is a lot happening in the electric commercial vehicle space right now, with Nikola to Tesla here in the States, Mitsubishi Fuso and Hino in Japan, Mercedes-Benz in Germany and now Scania in Sweden. Electric trucks are already here in small numbers. And it seems reasonable to assume that electric trucks will be attempting to break into the American market in an even bigger way soon – quite possibly within the next couple of years.

Scania is the other Swedish truck manufacturer over in Europe: The one that doesn’t sell trucks over here in the States [It does sell industrial engines in the US]. But its approach to electric trucks is interesting because the company is not limiting itself to one particular technology path. It has embraced a wide range of new EV technologies, including “conventional” battery powered vehicles, buses that recharge wirelessly, tractors that connect to an overhead power line – even a new hybrid system that runs a hydrotreated vegetable oil-electric drivetrain.

The full story is here, but there are several interesting takeaways in the piece that lend support to the view that EVs in the U.S. are a matter of when, and not if:

• Interest in low-emission commercial vehicles from consumers in Europe is growing daily. As a result, the pressure among OEMs and suppliers in Europe to develop viable systems and vehicles is “intense.”

• China is the leading market for electric commercial vehicles today and accounts for 95% of the world’s stock of electric buses in service today with more than 100,000 units on the road.

• The price points on battery technology and associated technologies are falling rapidly.

• Acquisition costs remain high, but long-term operating costs are lower for fleets.

• Development of long-haul electric commercial vehicles currently lags behind buses and urban and regional vehicles, but market forces are already starting to ramp up work on these models.

One of those market forces, I would add, is stiff competition from here in the United States.

So, the stage is set for some interesting developments in the coming years. And who’s to say? Maybe it will be the Americans who take the lead in terms of long-haul electric tractors. Which would be ironic considering the current lack of enthusiasm for the technology here in America on the fleet side of things. But hey – stranger things have happened.

[kscarbel2]

For many years, the U.S. market truck industry media largely did not report on Scania. However over the last year, it's interesting that they now find it necessary to do so, even though Scania is still not in the US truck market (aside from powering Oshkosh trucks).

Daimler has an incredible organization, but Scania is arguably the most advanced truckmaker in the world.

[kscarbel2]

A “wind-power driven truck”

Scania Group Press Release  /  May 4, 2017

Scania’s portfolio of electrified vehicles includes a number of different solutions. One of them is the hybrid truck that operates the world’s first electric road.

Scania’s philosophy is to have a broad approach in researching sustainable technologies. That’s why the company’s research programme encompasses hybrid technology, plug-in hybrids, fully electric vehicles and different kinds of biofuels.

“We see a number of different solutions,” says Nils-Gunnar Vågstedt, Scania’s Head of Electrification. “Alternative fuels are gaining more and more ground, but electrification is one part of the solution.”

One promising solution is the world’s first electric road for heavy goods traffic where a Scania electrically-powered hybrid truck now operates a route in open motorway traffic with conductive charging technology. Sweden has the advantage of clean electricity generated from air, water and wind.

“So it’s actually a wind-power driven truck, with a potential of up to 100 percent reduction of fossil CO2 emissions,” says Nils-Gunnar Vågstedt, as he presents Scania’s portfolio of electrified vehicles.

.

 

[kscarbel2]

Hydrogen a fuel of the future?

Scania Group Press Release  /  May 23, 2017

Why hydrogen fuel cells could be one of the solutions for a future of sustainable transport.

Electrification, automation and various hybrid and alternative fuel solutions are already attracting a lot of attention. However, one possibility that has been overshadowed in comparison is hydrogen fuel-cell technology.

And yet Scania’s efforts to drive the shift towards sustainable transport include work in this area, too. The company is in partnership with Norwegian goods wholesaler Asko to test hydrogen gas propulsion in trucks.

The trucks are fitted with an electric powertrain, and electrical energy is converted from hydrogen gas in fuel cells on board the vehicles. The fuel-cell-powered truck or bus will always have a battery, and be hybrid. Therefore with this solution it can run at a more stable power level. The battery can capture moments when extra power is needed, and times when the vehicle needs to recuperate power from brake energy.

Hedvig Paradis is the Project Manager in charge of Scania’s collaboration with Asko. With a PhD in fuel-cell technology from Lund University, she has been studying and working in this rapidly-evolving area for several years. She is excited by its potential.

“Different customers in different regions around the world will need different solutions, and hydrogen fuel-cell technology can be one of those solutions. We can see for example in Japan, South Korea and California that they are pushing for hydrogen-based solutions, and building hydrogen gas stations,” she says.

Zero-emission technology

A major strength of hydrogen-based solutions is the fact that it is a zero-emission technology; only water is actually emitted locally by the truck itself. This is based on the fact that the hydrogen is produced in a renewable way.

Another real positive for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, and a reason for the growing interest, is that they have attributes comparable to conventional vehicles, such as refuelling patterns and infrastructure build-up. That’s attractive to those who are wary of making the dramatic change some new technologies require.

However, as with all new technologies, there are also challenges.

“The technology is not so mature yet,” explains Paradis. “It needs us to take greater steps in a shorter time, such as trying to solve the issues of degradation and lifetime of the fuel cell.”

Sustainable transport solution

There’s also the central issue of how and where the hydrogen fuel is produced.

“Hydrogen gas stations are not that developed yet, although there is more infrastructure emerging. Some, like Asko, are actually building their own refuelling stations so they are in control of their own ecosystem. There’s a need for sustainable solutions that have less environmental impact.”

Added to this is the need for a lot of space on the truck or bus for the hydrogen tanks. The solution available today takes up a lot of volume to maintain a good range that could otherwise be used for transporting goods or people.

Nevertheless, Paradis is confident that the technology will overcome these hurdles, and will establish itself as one of the sustainable transport solutions.

“I believe there is a bright future for fuel cells,” she says.

“It will certainly be one of the options for the future. We can see around the world that things are happening – in passenger vehicles, with different companies, with pilot fleets.”

“I’m sure there will be different solutions for different regions, and one solution won’t necessarily fit all, but hydrogen fuel-cell technology will have its part to play.”

How it works

A fuel cell creates electricity by an electro-chemical process using hydrogen and oxygen.

The electricity generated by the fuel cells powers the electric powertrain. The system has an integrated battery buffer.

The only emissions are pure water.

.