Scania has announced it has entered into a joint venture with what it describes as “a leading digital road freight forwarder”, to lead the way or electric solutions in road freight logistics across Europe.
The joint venture, with German logistics company sennder Technologies GmbH, is to be called JUNA, recently launched in Germany, and aims to advance electric truck adoption and to drive the transition towards a sustainable logistics industry, in line with the vision that “by 2040 all new commercial vehicles sold must be fossil free”.
The newly formed JUNA, is a Berlin-based German company (GmbH) which will be offering an innovative pay-per-use model for electric trucks.
According to Scania, JUNA will effectively clear the way for a large-scale adoption of electric trucks that, on face value, are two to three times more expensive than the diesel equivalent.
The company says that by offering access to guaranteed loads on sennder’s digital platform JUNA removes the obstacles for electric truck adoption for its customers.
Scania says that this includes the financial challenges associated with high upfront costs, residual value, and technology risk, and provides transport companies with commercial predictability through guaranteed incomes.
JUNA will, according to the statement fro Scania, leverage the strength of both companies to ‘accelerate the decarbonisation of European road freight logistics, by combining Scania’s premium electric trucks and tailored services, with sennder’s advanced technology for connecting small and medium carriers with big name shippers”.
Scania says the innovative model offers the full package, including premium electric vehicles, repair, maintenance, insurance, digital and analytics services. In addition to usage-based fees and guaranteed utilisation, through data analysis, JUNA optimises electrification strategies and simulates routes for electric truck suitability.
The company says that JUNA will play a pivotal role in reducing carbon emissions and advancing the transition to low-emission transport, by removing the risks associated with electric truck adoption and streamlining operations,
The new joint venture has recently launched a pilot project , and the first customer is using an electric truck supplied by JUNA, charged with renewable energy and performing up to ten tasks per week just like its diesel predecessor.
Scania says the truck is operating for a well-known FMCG shipper in the Stuttgart region, with the potential to achieve an annual reduction of 93 tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions for the first truck alone, the pilot’s scope will be expanded to include long-distance routes during 2024. The project relies on existing public charging infrastructure, and with per-kilometre costs comparable to current diesel charges.
David Nothacker, CEO of sennder, said this is a pivotal moment for the industry, and they are excited to be partnering with Scania to create a joint venture that will propel the widespread adoption of e-trucks.
“Given that e-trucks cost two to three times more than diesel trucks and that 70 per cent of all trucks in Europe are owned by small carriers with fewer than 10 trucks, the combination of JUNA’s pay-per-use offering and sennder’s capacity utilisation will effectively remove the barriers to adopting e-trucks,” Nothacker said.
Gustaf Sundell, head of ventures and new business at Scania, said that JUNA is the result of a collaboration between two companies with complementary expertise in the areas of electric vehicles and digital logistics, which will accelerate the transition to electrified heavy transports.
“Scania is exploring new solutions to find ways of creating value for our customers now and in the future and we are proud to see this project with sennder come to life. We believe it will play an important role in driving the shift to a sustainable transport system,” Sundell said.
The two parties signed a joint venture agreement in May this year and have obtained necessary approval from the relevant competition authorities.
Sender Technologies, is a leading digital road freight forwarder in Europe, and is offering shippers access to a connected fleet of thousands of trucks. In a traditional industry, sennder now deploys over 40,000 trucks across Europe, with access to more than 120,000 vehicles, and a team of over 1,000 people.
