With much fanfare Scania has launched its ‘New Truck Generation’ range in Australia at a glittering event at Sydney’s new International Convention Centre.
The highly anticipated new trucks were unveiled last Wednesday night to much critical acclaim from the customers, dealers and media who were there to see it.
Scania claims to have invested around $3 billion over ten years on developing the new trucks representing a ground up development program that started with a clean sheet of paper to produce one of the most advanced, safe and fuel efficient heavy trucks to hit the market.
T&TA editor Allan Whiting has driven two versions of the new Scania in the lead up to the launch and was impressed with the trucks. More of his report on the driver will be seen here soon and in the next edition of T&TA.
Scania told the media that along with the massive monetary investment in the new model it has also invested a lot of on road testing in the new Generation citing more than 12 million kilometres with test trucks and in real world conditions across the globe and around 500,000 kilometres here in Australia with various fleets in in a range of local conditions to proof the new truck for our unique combination of climate, dust, distance and heavy loads.
Centrepiece of the new trucks are the power trains with an all new seven-litre, six-cylinder engine offering 220hp, 250hp and 280hp configurations in Euro 6 for fitment in the Urban oriented P series range. The seven-litre engine is common rail injection-fed using SCR after-treatment to meet Euro 6 emissions.
Above that Scania has revised its other larger five, six and eight cylinder engines The company explained that its modular engine system allows the flexibility to offer such a wide range of engines while still returning economies of scale.
The new P-series aimed at the urban distribution and vocational market, can be ordered with a range of five and six-cylinder engines, in either Euro 5 or Euro 6. The five-cylinder can be ordered in 280hp, 320hp and 360hp outputs in Euro 6 trim while in Euro 5 trim the available power options will include 370hp or 380hp ranging up to 450hp for the 13-litre 6-cylinder.
The G-series prime mover cab can be ordered with the 6-cylinder, 13-litre rated for medium duty B-double and single trailer interstate and intra-state work, as well as for urban tipper and dog applications and boasts Scania’s most powerful in-line engine at 500hp with 2550 Nm of torque. The G-series 6-cylinder engines will be available in Euro 6 at 370hp (276kW), 410hp (306kW), 450hp (336kW) and 500hp (373kW), and identical outputs in Euro 5 with the exception of the 370hp engine which is offered at 380hp (283kW) for Euro 5.
The flagship V8 engines have been given some significant efficiency improvements to deliver better fuel economy with 520hp and 620hp in Euro-5 versions available along with greener options in 520hp, 580hp, 650hp, and the whopping 730hp all complying with Euro-6. It is available across the R- and S-series ranges.
Scania says its work on cab aerodynamics have seen fuel efficiency gains of around two per cent while another three per cent has been gained in driveline efficiency gains.
Scania explained that these figures were conservative and that it viewed them as a starting point and not an end result, adding that many of the trucks in local testing were achieving event better fuel efficiency gains.
Side curtain airbags are now standard fitment across the new Scania range bolstering the trucks impressive safety credentials with the airbags fitted to the driver and passenger doors for added side impact and rollover protection.
The new trucks boast an all-steel cab with better impact resistance while also delivering better all round visibility particularly for urban operations where the addition of the City Safe Window, in the bottom half of the passenger door gives better sight lines to see obstacles as well as cyclists and pedestrians.
The new range also scores high-tech safety features such as Advanced Emergency Braking, Adaptive Cruise Control with Active Prediction, Electronic Stability Programme and Lane Departure Warning.
A safety feature that works more in the fatigue space is an auxiliary cab cooler than runs on batter power, so when drivers are on a rest break the temperature is just right.
The company had the order books out on Wednesday night and local MD Mikael Jansson told us that they signed some significant deals; certainly the enthusiasm of the customers for the new trucks was apparent on the night.
Scania says that with the order books open now the first of the regular production new trucks should be hitting our roads around the third quarter of this year.
We will have much more on the new trucks in coming weeks in both print and on the web. Stay tuned.
