working with partners to decarbonise transport
Decarbonising the heavy transport sector is not something that can be done by a single actor. To help achieve this goal, Scania is working with partners across the transport industry and beyond.
Transport infrastructure partnerships
Decarbonising the transport sector in the short term requires the use of renewable fuels and electrification to rapidly increase. Vehicles alone provide only half of the solution – the shift can only happen with the right infrastructure in place. To scale up the infrastructure for renewable fuels and electrification, Scania is working with partners across the whole transport system, from fuel producers and infrastructure providers to city authorities and governments.
By working with these ecosystem partners, together with our customers and customers’ customers, we can push the transport business to increase the use of much-needed alternatives to diesel. By doing so we can create a world where fossil-free transport is no longer considered as the “alternative,” but the normal way of doing things.
To scale up renewable fuel and electrification infrastructure, we work in a holistic way, taking the whole transport system info account. This holistic approach includes Scania, transport companies, buyers of transport services and infrastructure partners.
Working with infrastructure providers
Scania has partnered with a broad range of infrastructure stakeholders to help create the conditions necessary for our customers to decarbonise their fleets. These include oil and gas companies that include renewable fuels in their portfolios, manufacturers of synthetic fuels, and power generation companies. By working with these partners, we are helping to expand the distribution network for renewable fuels, and increase access to sources of renewable energy for transport.
Working with customers to increase biofuel availability
Scania has entered into several strategic partnerships with customers that have an existing or potential access to biofuels through their operations, in order to increase the local availability of biofuels. One example is our partnership with recycling giant SUEZ, through which we are exploring ways to produce biogas using recycled waste from their processes. Other examples include French transport operator Citram Aquitaine, which is running Scania buses fuelled by bioethanol derived from local wine production.
Scaling up demand
Scania is working with major transport buyers who have global reach and influence to specify alternative fuels. Scania’s discussions with these companies are focusing on supporting them in transport tenders to make the shift to sustainable transport. We’re also scaling up demand through new contract structures to reduce total cost of ownership of vehicles powered by renewable fuels.
To drive sustainability in transport, Scania goes beyond the traditional sales approach, not only investing in partnerships with our customers but also working with others across their entire transport network. An example of this holistic approach in action is our partnership with food retailer SPAR International, who nominated Scania as a preferred supplier in 2018.
Through our partnership with SPAR, we are challenging the global SPAR logistics community to shift to renewable fuels. For example, in Ireland, SPAR wholesaler BWG Foods has invested in 14 compressed gas trucks from Scania, and plans to acquire an additional 50 gas vehicles by 2025.
SPAR named Scania its Global Supplier of the Year in 2019, in recognition of our commitment to sustainability.
Driving change in the food retail sector
Partnerships beyond the transport system
Decarbonising the transport sector requires systemic change on a scale that society has never experienced before. Achieving this calls for collaboration and partnerships beyond the traditional boundaries of the transport system. Scania recognises this, and has initiated several strategic partnerships including with technology companies, industry leaders, academics and government decision-makers to drive the shift towards a sustainable transport system. In general our partnerships take two broad forms: those that seek to test, pilot or accelerate commercialisation of new technological or business model based solutions, and those that seek to address larger scale global transport system challenges.
Academic partnerships
Academic research plays an important role in building the sustainable transport system of the future, and Scania has a long history of partnering with academic institutions. Research projects we support include the Integrated Transport Research Lab, a joint initiative between Scania, Ericsson and Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology exploring new approaches in transport that could address global environmental challenges. Another project include the Scania Center of Innovation and Operational Excellence, a research facility set up in partnership with the Stockholm School of Economics exploring business models for the future transport ecosystem.
Technology partnerships
Delivering an autonomous, connected and electrified transport system depends on technological innovation. Over the last two years, Scania has been part of a consortium of seven European partners developing the ProPART system, a software solution that improves the accuracy of positioning sensors in autonomous vehicles. Other technology partnerships include a €10m investment in the next generation battery company Northvolt to develop and commercialise battery cell technology for heavy commercial vehicles. Scania is also working with Haylion Technologies to develop autonomous and electrified vehicles for the Chinese transport industry.
Government/industry partnerships
Within our industry, Scania is taking a leading position in contributing to global efforts to decarbonise the transport system, acting as a key advisor to nations and international bodies on building a sustainable transport future.
To deliver the seismic shift required to decarbonise transport, the industry must work hand-in-hand with government authorities on both a local and national level. Scania’s contribution to developing electric road infrastructure for electrified heavy vehicles is a good example of this kind of partnership in action. Scania has been cooperating for a long time with the Swedish Ministry of Infrastructure and Road Authority around the ongoing pilot in Sweden. In Germany, Scania and Siemens are involved in the Trucks for German eHighways project, co-financed by the German government through BMUB, the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. A similar project is under preparation on a six-kilometre stretch of the A35 Brebemi highway in northern Italy, involving the regional road authority Concessioni Autostradali Lombarde.
Multi-stakeholder strategic partnerships are also an important part of our approach to driving change across our industry. Through the Pathways Coalition we’ve joined forces with H&M, Siemens and E.ON to promote a cross-sector approach to accelerating the decarbonisation of heavy transport. Scania’s other strategic partnerships include Drive Sustainability, an industry partnership bringing leading automotive manufacturers together to build a shared platform for improving the social, ethical and environmental performance of automotive supply chains.
