TRATON sees super efficient diesel alongside battery electric as the route to a low carbon future

The TRATON group, which includes Scania and MAN, believes the EU's target of cutting carbon emissions from heavy trucks over 16 tonnes by 15% by 2025 can be achieved largely with conventional engine technology but the much tougher target of a 30% reduction by 2030 will require significant sales of alternative drive trains, mainly battery electric.

Speaking at the TRATON innovation day for media and key customers at Scania's HQ in Södertälje, Sweden, CEO Andreas Renschler (pictured) said that in the next 10 to 15 years one third of the group's trucks and buses would have an alternative drive train, “most of them fully electric”.

Renschler added that the one in three vehicles forecast to be non-diesel was “a conservative calculation” but warned that the success of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) required governments to play their part in helping fund the development of a “seamless” charging infrastructure across Europe. He claimed that despite the higher purchase price of BEVs, battery prices will fall and this, together with the lower running and maintenance costs, means total cost of ownership of battery electric distribution trucks would be “comparable” with fossil-fuelled equivalents in the “mid term”.

TRATON is investing €1bn (£900,000) in common battery electric technology that will be shared across the group brands including Scania, which has until now has focused on natural gas and adapting conventional Euro-6 trucks to run on biodiesel. MAN already has 26-tonne eTGMs on test with customers in Austria, the eTGE electric van (of which 150 have now been sold) and a 34-tonne 4x2 battery electric distribution tractor unit demonstrated at the innovation day.

Also at the innovation day was a new concept vehicle, a light delivery electric truck from TRATON's Brazilian subsidiary Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus (VWCO), equipped with drivetrain components from TRATON's Japanese partner Hino.

The sharing of electric vehicle technology is part of a wider TRATON “modularisation” strategy that will see 80% of drivetrain components being common across the group with just 20% being “optimised” for each brand to maintain product differentiation. Cabs will continue to be developed separately.

TRATON is also developing a new highly fuel efficient diesel drivetrain based on a 13-litre, 6-cylinder engine that will appear in Scania trucks towards the end of next year. MAN will get the new engine later as it is launching the replacement for its TG range in 2020 and does not want introduce a new cab and engine at the same time. But by 2025 the new drivetrain will be “the basic solution” across the Traton group, Renschler said.

In a statement, Traton said: “The activities of the brands in the group are clearly aligned: Scania is the innovation leader for sustainable transport solutions, working on many different non-fossil alternatives. As a full range business partner, MAN pursues a broader strategy ranging from light to heavy commercial vehicles. And VWCO's approach is to offer tailor-made solutions with the best value for money ratio, especially for markets in Latin America and Africa.”