Sweden special: The secret behind Scania dominance, Part II

Six and a half years ago I breathlessly extolled the virtues of Scania commercial vehicles on these very pages following a revelatory tour through the premises of Scania EA (Kenya Grange Vehicles at the time) in Nairobi’s Industrial Area.

Well, some weeks ago I was invited to step forth into the belly of the beast to find out exactly where this brand hails from, what makes it tick, and where the nerve centre of what has now become an all-round heavy commercial favourite is located. I flew to Sweden.

Full Disclosure: Scania EA wanted me to drive a brand new, 16.4-litre, 730hp, V8 lorry so badly that they asked me deeply personal questions about my love life before informing me that I would be installed into an all-expenses-paid tour into the cold northern fringes of continental Europe to mingle with people who share the exact same temperament as I.

Sweden is a country I could easily get used to — once I grow the necessary body hair to keep warm in winter. It can get very chilly up there.)

Södertälje: Pronounced “Soda-talya”, this is Scania’s hometown, 30 kilometres to the southwest of Stockholm.

At the Scania headquarters, I was introduced to the Kenyan flag flying outside the main reception in honour of us, the guests, before being whisked into the museum for a quick history lesson followed by an introduction into the latest in heavy haulage vehicles from their trucking division.

These are what were referred to as the “next generation” trucks and are due to hit our shores as you read this.

So, what’s new in this “new generation”? The face, among other things. The truck line has undergone a redesign to make it look meaner (not sure that was the effect they were going for); though external aesthetics are largely irrelevant in the transport business. There was some work done to the interior too and this is what matters more.

The interior is more driver-centric. Car lovers may remember the Toyota Supra Mk. IV (JZA80) and the E36 BMW 3 Series (Dolphin). They share one key cabin feature, and that is the not-so-subtle slant of the dashboard towards the driver, and this is a design cue I noticed in the new Scania.

There are some mechanical changes, the most noteworthy being the incipient disappearance of the manual transmission; though there was a mention of some manual transmission vehicles in the test circuit.

However, do not expect to see many of these going forward. The standard fare will be 8- or 12-speed automatics. The brochure lists the existence of my nemesis (as narrated six years ago): range-splitter gearboxes.

There are four main engine types: a 9.0-litre 5-cylinder with outputs ranging from 280 to 360hp, a 7.0-litre 6-cylinder dabbling between 220 and 280, a 13-litre 6-cylinder doing 370 to 500, and of course the giant Euro-specific 16-litre V8 that starts at 520hp all the way to 730.

The updates to the engines include new ECU programming and slightly increased operational pressures in the cylinder heads to increase torque outputs. The engines are all Euro 6 standard, though we may get more casually desmogged Euro 4 or Euro 5 tunes to cope with our fuel “situation”.

Then there are the cabins

1. S is for Essence: Those already familiar with Scania trucks know that the truck cabins come in P, G and R types (and the now-defunct, Brazil-only bonneted T type), aimed at increasing size and hospitality. The P is the bottom-rung breadline spec built for agility and versatility, the G lies somewhere in between, and the R is the Ritz. Then, along comes the S, for Superlative; what the brochure refers to as the high-rise.

It is distinguishable from the rest of the line-up by its long Sarah-Jessica-Parker face and high roof, and of course the S-badge on the grille. It is meant to offer unparalleled luxury for the operator, and sitting inside it, it’s not hard to see why.

A spacious and infinitely customisable interior with high level ergonomics greets you as you haul yourself in. Depending on how much you have spent on the truck, you could get leather, red stitching, V8 badging on the seats and doors, and a flat-bottomed steering wheel which may or may not have a burnished wooden rim to remind you just how special you are.

2. The L Word: There is also another new entry into the truck line-up besides the S: the L Series; the low-entry model. The truck cabin is man-height off the floor, with the cab extended forward to accommodate the engine behind it rather than over it like with the other cabin types.

This version is specifically aimed at inner city use, the same environment festooned by cyclists and pedestrians; so it only makes sense to place the driver at the same sightline as these two classes of vulnerable road users for their own safety.

I think it is also to make it possible for said Les Vulnerables be able to sock the driver right on the chin through his window should he drive in an antisocial manner.

The concept behind the low-slung cabin is for hectic delivery schedules where the driver will be shuttling in and out of the truck numerous times a day. To further enhance accessibility, the truck comes with what they call the “kneeling” function, which is just height adjustment with a bio-physiological label.

There is cross-cab access from the driver’s side to the passenger’s side, where we find a window on the lower side of the passenger door. This extra window allows the driver to see short-statured cyclists/pedestrians on the other side of the truck, or to count his adversaries if he is ever surrounded by a gang of armed schoolchildren.

What they didn’t say is that most of these will see duty as garbage trucks — of course no one will come out to say openly that they have built a garbage truck, but, yeah ….

(The L Series also comes with a pair of raised seats between the driver and passenger that are sure to make any trip longer than two blocks extremely awkward for the occupants because these two seats have their knee level right on the driver’s shoulder. Have fun holding conversations in there …)

3. The G Unit: Those who I have interacted with in heavy commercial vehicle Internet forums will be instantly familiar with this discussion: “The Scania vehicle is an egg and cannot quite handle the vagaries that comprise transport into the Northern Frontier District and other geographical locations of its inhospitable ilk.”

Scania CV AB would beg to differ. Perhaps you have been buying the wrong truck.

I am not one to instigate brand warfare, but for the longest time Japanese trucks have held the fort when it comes to long distance transport into places where the landscape borders on lunar.

One of the beauties of shopping at Scania is the customisability of whatever you “add to cart”. That means that if you provide the correct answers to whatever questions the sales people ask, you will end up with a truck that can waltz in the clag as well as anything that went before it and may come after it. Let me explain.

There is the G Series truck that most of us previously associated exclusively with the construction business.

Rugged, robust and solid, we knew it as a mine worker and a hauler of concrete and sand for well-off construction companies, but what we did not know was that you could buy it as a tractor unit, attach a trailer to it and send it to the Democratic Republic of Congo where passable roads are things they only see on TV.

As part of the new line-up being revealed, Scania has conjured up a new model line called the XT (will the Subaru Forester please stand up), which is part of both the G Series line of hard-core labourers and R Series long distance carriers. Gone is the excuse of a Scania truck being too “soft and delicate” to drive north.

4. Me ‘N’ My Whole Crew: Q: What do you get when you take one P cab and weld it to the back of another P cab? A: A double-cab. Firefighters rejoice, the crew cab truck is now available at a dealership near you.

Drive Time

What would an overseas trip be if there was no driving involved? Boring, that’s what. So, on the afternoon of the first day, after a historical lesson on the provenance of the Scania brand (that is a whole book in itself, just waiting to be written) and some lectures on the direction the company is taking going forward, we were let loose in a trailer park and told to choose our weapons.

“Best for last” only applies to children consuming vegetable-heavy meals with little meat in them; I saw a 730hp V8 truck and I made a beeline for it immediately. There are only so many hours in a day; I wasn’t going to waste any of them on 220hp delivery vans.

It was a sense of déjà vu as I clambered aboard the giant rig, the difference being I got in on the wrong side. They keep right in Sweden.

Take in the very modern, largely computerised dashboard and the ambience of millions of shillings’ worth of heavy commercial road-going menace. Bounce up and down on the seat. Grasp the steering wheel. It is D-shaped, like that of an Audi R8.

In fact, this whole thing feels like an oversized Audi with a cabin the size of an apartment. You can actually stand upright in here quite comfortably, even if you are a hair shy of six feet, like yours truly.

Adjust the driver’s seat, just so. Adjust the steering wheel as well. Like my previous experience in the R Series (420 and 470), the steering has simultaneous rake, reach and height adjustment, electronically assisted. Nice.

Once I am in position, it is time to fire her up. Distant thunder. Sixteen thousand ccs are now alive, spread over 8 cylinders leaning away from each other in two ranks of four each. V8 engines are the second best thing ever invented for men, after wash-and-wear nylon shirts.

Time to go

Nudge the throttle. Deep rumble. No movement. Check the transmission. It’s in Drive. What is?

“Give it some more power,” my instructor coaxes.

More throttle. With a muted roar, we creep away from the parking lot, very slowly. This is not how I envisioned what 730 llama-thrusts would be like. Ah, but you see, unlike six years ago when all I had was the “head”, this time I have a massive trailer attached to my backside.

Not only that, there is also a loaded truck on my loaded truck, piggybacking off my 730hp and neutering them. Gross vehicle weight? 70 tonnes. That is a lot of ballast and I have to harness all 730 donkey-strengths to climb the first hill away from the parking area.

It is surprisingly easy to helm this rig, until you get to some turns and you have to do two things: first, wash off a bit of speed and, second, get your line right.

To do the first, you could follow the simple and silly path and drop anchor the traditional way by standing on the brake pedal, but this way your cost of spares will shoot up, if you survive long enough to see your next service interval.

Truck drivers will warn you about burning out your brakes; the best way to do this being to use the wheel brakes indiscriminately, more so if you are battling the effects of gravity working on 70,000kg. That is why this vehicle comes with a retarder.

The retarder is a wizard’s device. It is essentially an automatic transmission with driver-controlled lock-up. One end is attached somewhere on the driveline, the other to the vehicle frame. The vehicle frame acts as a resistance to the driveline rotation depending on how much of the retarder has been engaged.

It works like magic, that much I will tell you. With a full load it may seem to delay its action a bit but engage it fully and the reduction of speed is almost dramatic, all without using the wheel brakes.

Bus-Car

I have always loved buses, which is why I gravitated towards one immediately after my V8 sojourn round the test facility.

My previous bus experience involved an engine thrumming against my left kidney and rendering discrete conversation impossible. Not this one. This particular bus was special: it had its engine at the rear, and it was a hybrid.

That meant pulling away occurred in unnatural quiet as the bus initially ran purely on electric power. Call it the “whisper drive” because you can sneak up on people in this 14-tonne vehicle and they won’t hear you until you are right on top of them.

As the batteries discharge (rather rapidly, I must add), the engine comes to life and things normalise. My bus this time had 320hp and it didn’t take me too long to put these horses to work as I thundered my way around the test circuit at high speed.

However, the length of the bus called for a bit of care in tight turns; the long overhangs could trick the novice driver into miscalculating the position of the axles and inadvertently wander off the road.

(There was an inter-city coach present as well. Apparently Scania Aktiebolaget bought out a Finnish bus manufacturer and now produces the Scania Interlink coach as a complete product rather than outsourcing the bodywork for mounting on the bare chassis. Perhaps they should bring the Interlink here and teach our local fabricators a lesson or two on how to build a bus properly.)

The Bread Van

I wound up in the delivery van anyway, for a quick lap of the track; and I do mean quick. Having manhandled a 70-tonne juggernaut and a 15-meter city bus, palming the G410 felt like hooning a sports car in comparison; quite obviously, given that one has 410hp on tap in a comparatively small truck.

(There was another multi-wheeled S Line double-articulated tractor-trailer combo that we tried, the S580 pulling about 55 tonnes, but the experience was broadly similar to the one in the 70-tonne S730, so no need for me to repeat the narration. You can instead look at the picture and marvel in its bright shiny red paintwork)

Wrap-Up

This is where I usually ask “Would one buy one?” The answer is “Yes”, for obvious reasons; the reasons being good fuel economy, maximum uptime, and credible ROI. Plus, the Scania brand is cool, that is why every bus company either has them or strives to get at least one. However, that is not the note at which we conclude things today.

There is a lot more than meets the eye at Scania CV AB and its Scania EA local representation. For them, it is not limited to truck and bus sales — they self-deprecatingly refer themselves to a small outfit but anyone with annual global sales of 82,000 oversized vehicles is not “small” on any known scale — there is a lot of customer focus and environmental responsibility that goes into the business as well.

Would you believe it, the primary focus of my trip to Sweden was not really the launch of a new truck line — there is the local event this week to take care of that — but to discuss sustainability in transport and the future of the planet with regard to climate change and the environmental impact of transport systems.

The V8s and bread-vans and bus drives were almost incidental — think of them as a break in between conference sessions where we discuss carbon dioxide, diesel fuel, BRTs and whether or not to kill off the 14-seater PSVs in a bid to ease up congestion in our city.

You of course know this means another write-up is coming. Trust me; it will not be a boring seminar, despite appearances.