Along with being a challenging year, for Scania, 2020 was also marked by various milestones that highlighted its progress towards reducing its global emissions.
From the introduction of its first fully electric truck, to the official launch of two far-reaching science-based climate targets, Scania has taken some significant steps towards a greener future.
In its Scania Report 2020 – Annual and Sustainability Report, the truck manufacturer revealed what was achieved from a sustainability standpoint last year. Among this was all 10 of its production facilities worldwide now being powered by fossil-free electricity, its target for 2020.
But perhaps one of the most exciting sustainability developments for Scania was the launch of its first commercially available fully electric truck. Designed for urban applications, the high-performance truck has a range of up to 250km on a full charge.
“A large part of our operation was put on hold during the initial several months of the pandemic. However, a few areas, like sustainable solutions and electrification, continued to move forward at a high pace, accelerating the transformation of our company,” President and CEO of Scania, Henrik Henriksson, said in the report.
“We are in a period of transformative change – a time when the industry will experience some of the greatest shifts in its history. As electrification and autonomous technology disrupts our industry, exciting new business opportunities are emerging. We will reshape our business model in close cooperation with current and new customers to explore these opportunities and use them to drive growth. One key priority going forward is to move away from developing products and services to developing solutions.”
And its efforts in the way of creating sustainable transport solutions haven’t gone unnoticed. For the fourth year in a row, Scania won the prestigious German Green Truck Award for most fuel-efficient truck.
Scania also became the first heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer to have climate targets formally approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, in May. These ambitious targets commit the brand to significantly reducing carbon emissions, not only from its own operations, but from its customers’ vehicles while they are in use too.
“The targets include halving carbon emissions from our own operations from 2015 to 2025 as well as reaching a 20 per cent reduction of CO2 emissions from our trucks and buses when in use,” Henriksson added.
In addition, the manufacturer launched its new V8 range, offering record level power and vastly improved fuel efficiency, especially with the new G33 gearbox included in the powertrain.
And in December, the first Scania self-driving test trucks made their way onto public roads, following a new partnership between the Traton Group and US self-driving technology company TuSimple.
“Our response to 2020 showed Scania has what it takes. We were quick to adapt, while staying true to our values. The whole team showed courage, and that saw us through a challenging year,” said Henriksson.