SCA’s new electric timber truck with a crane is finally rolling in the Östavall area in Sweden. The truck, which is a collaborative project between SCA and Scania, is the first in the world to collect timber in the forest for further transport to a timber terminal. Source: Timberbiz Photo: Olle Melkerhed
The yellow timber truck moves almost silently into the timber terminal in Östavall. Behind the wheel sits Rolf Lövgren of Lövgrens Åkeri & Entreprenad. He owns the new timber truck with support from SCA and has driven it for a few days.
“It is very quiet and comfortable to drive, and I don’t get as mentally tired as I can after a full day with background noise from the engine. It is very positive,” Mr Lövgren said.
“It takes a while to get to know the truck and learn how to drive it in the best way to conserve the battery. You want to charge more than you consume. If I have 50% battery left at the end of the day, I have stood still and charged unnecessarily. It will be exciting to see how it performs during the winter.”
The new electric timber truck marks another important milestone for SCA and the work to electrify heavy timber transports. The truck is expected to result in 170 tons lower carbon dioxide emissions per year compared with a regular timber truck.
“This is an important project for us to continue contributing to a more sustainable society,” said Ulf Larsson, CEO of SCA. “By managing the forest and making renewable products that can replace those with a high carbon footprint, SCA creates about 13 million tons of positive climate benefits each year. That figure can become even better as we transition the heavy road transports in our value chain.”
Anton Ahlinder, Business Developer at SCA Skog said that it was exciting that it’s finally in place.
“From the first conversations with Scania, it took just over two years for this electric timber truck with a crane to become a reality. Our first electric timber truck only runs between the terminal and Obbola paper mill, but now our development work continues as we electrify the transports from the forest to the terminal,” he said.
The new electric timber truck is part of the forest industry’s innovation project TREE, which aims for half of the new trucks in the forest industry to be electric by 2030. SCA is one of several participants.
“Östavall is one of the places where there should be electric timber trucks. We are aiming for a total of 12 trucks, six like this one that SCA has now put into operation and six chip trucks,” said Gunnar Svensson from Skogforsk and coordinator for the TREE project.
SCA is responsible for a significant part of the financing of the electric timber truck, but the vehicle is owned by Lövgrens Åkeri & Entreprenad.
“To make the transition successful, we need to have haulage companies with us, and therefore it is good that this vehicle is owned by a local company. Then, we will need price pressure on the vehicles, more charging infrastructure, a better power grid, and that working time regulations offer flexibility related to charging. Then the heavy traffic will gradually move towards more electrification,” says Ulf Larsson SCA CEO.
