Scania’s new generation buses tested for reliable city operations

7 DECEMBER 2020

Before introduced to customers, Scania’s new generation city buses undergo rigorous testing of the typical challenges that they will face in everyday operations. Buses are loaded with weights to simulate maximum passenger capacity and subsequently subjected to obstacles that are commonplace.

We carry out these tests to ensure that the vehicles perform as our customers expect,” says Test Engineer Joakim Sivborg, Scania R&D. “We subject the vehicles to situations that we know occur in our customers’ daily operations. In these tests, we assess the reliability and durability of the whole bus for the sake of the driver, the passengers and the people who are around the bus when it’s in operation.”

Driving buses in urban environments is demanding. Streets are tight, pedestrians, cyclists and other cars appear unexpectedly and roads may be uneven. The driver must cope with these hazards – and so must the bus.

In repeated tests, these conditions are mimicked. What happens in hard braking? Can the bus absorb the forces when driving over a severe potholed road? And can the bus skilfully manage the sharp turns required when manoeuvring in tight and congested cities?

“We know that city buses are used for quite a long time by our customers so we want to make sure that they can keep using the vehicle reliably, year after year,” says Sivborg.