Scania signs MOUs with alternative fuel providers

Commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania Australia has signed memoranda of understanding with Wilmar BioEthanol, Ecotech Biodiesel and NGV Group — infrastructure suppliers and consultants for the natural gas and biogas industries — enabling the adoption of more sustainable and cleaner transport solutions for its customers.

“Having held many discussions at high levels with a number of transport-related entities throughout the course of the year, from governments to operators and suppliers, and having noted significant enthusiasm for actually turning this into action, Scania is now moving to facilitate the adoption of alternative-fuelled vehicles in Australia,” said Anthony King, Scania Australia’s Sustainable Solutions Manager.

“We have therefore embarked on a program of creating MOUs with a number of key suppliers who will supply reliable, consistent and widely available fuels for customers nominating alternative fuels for their future Scania vehicles.

“This is all part of our drive towards creating a sustainable transport future.”

With transport contributing one-quarter of total energy-related CO₂ emissions, King noted operators no longer have to wait to adapt their businesses to a sustainable transport system. Scania can provide a broad range of platforms and services to support its customers, he said, with sustainable fuel pathways to help its customers reduce their emissions.

“Scania has a long heritage of designing and engineering and putting into production alternative-fuelled vehicles across our bus and truck divisions as well as our industrial engines,” King said. “We already have a long-running association with gas engine supplier Sandfirden, with the first industrial gas engines already in use in Australia, able to run on waste-generated methane.

“The arrangements we are putting in place now with Wilmar BioEthanol, Ecotech Biodiesel and NGV Group are the first steps in the program to be able to import, distribute, sell, service and maintain vehicles that run on alternative fuels, or hybrids that run on alternative fuels as well.”

Scania is currently awaiting the arrival of its first hybrid buses, which will be in Australia within 6–7 months according to King. In use in Madrid, these buses are showing a 25% reduction in fuel use, reducing emissions by the same amount.

“We are also looking at alternative-fuelled trucks for some customers, and we have seen in Sweden the success of the Scania Hybrid truck for urban distribution,” added King. “These have the ability to run short distances on battery power alone, which allows them access to densely populated urban areas at night for deliveries or waste collection, which leads to a reduction in congestion during daylight rush hours.

“In the UK, Scania has worked with the John Lewis Partnership, a leading, premium, country-wide supermarket and department store chain to deliver biomethane-fuelled trucks for medium-duty distribution work. These vehicles have a range of up to 800 km and achieve a CO₂ reduction of 70%.

“As Scania has been a leader in the provision of Euro 6 emission control compliant vehicles in Australia — notably with the fleet of close to 100 Euro 6 buses delivered to Transport Canberra since 2014 — plus the delivery of many Scania trucks similarly compliant, it is only natural that we now look at rolling out access to further alternative fuel vehicles to a wider body of customers.

“We are partnering with three different alternative fuel providers because our philosophy at Scania is to always offer solutions that meet our customers’ needs.”