High performance industrial battery major Northvolt recently spoke with Nils-Gunnar Vågstedt, Head of Innovation, R&D at Scania, the interview said “on his outlook on how the industry is shifting, the trends driving change and what’s at the heart of Scania’s approach to the decarbonistion of transportation.” The full version of the interview can be read at https://northvolt.com/design-architecture-at-scania
The interview highlighted that Scania has recently unveiled two vehicle concepts which set the tone for the company’s vision for the future, it’s an ideal time to hear about how one of the world’s leading heavy-transport vehicle manufacturers is approaching an industry is the midst of great change.
One of those concepts is Scania AXL – the fully-autonomous cabless concept truck, designed for driverless-operations in mining & construction environments (which has been well covered already in IM). The other is Scania NXT – a battery-enabled, fully-electric self-driving urban transport system.
The Northvolt interview states: “Battery-powered electrification, as used in Scania NXT, is certainly one of the key aspects to Scania’s future portfolio. Scania NXT takes electrification further by incorporating something at the core of Scania’s approach to innovation: modularity. With this concept vehicle, front and rear drive modules can be fitted to a bus body, a distribution truck body or a municipal refuse collector. Scania estimate that its range with present-day batteries is estimated at 245 km.”
Nils-Gunnar is quoted as follows: “Modularity is about minimising the number of components while maximising possibility to offer customers a dedicated solution. More or less, you can combine and mix those components; so choose the number of axles, type of propulsion, steering specification. Then choose a cab, or even not a cab at all.”
The article also highlights that as being applied at Scania, modularity also highlights how the company is open to technology types. “Electrification is not the singular solution for the future of all transport options in our outlook. It has a great role to play in sustainable transport, but as will other technologies.”
Scania’s AXL provides an insight on this thinking, says Northvolt. The Scania AXL can load up to 40 t and has a combustion engine running on a type of biodiesel called Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO). However, incorporating Scania’s modular approach, Scania AXL can be equipped with any engine and wheel configuration available in the Scania modular system.
“It is reasonable to imagine that Scania AXL could be adapted to a battery electric powertrain,” says Nils-Gunnar in the interview. “But it’s important to highlight that it is a concept vehicle, built to pilot learnings in terms of the autonomous capabilities.”
“By keeping novel technologies apart, it brings advantages for testing. It facilities the learning process by isolating domains over which we’re testing. Development in self-driving vehicles has made great strides in recent years but we still don’t have all the answers. Through concept vehicles like Scania AXL we break new ground and continue to learn at great speed.”
