You wouldn’t know until you’d barely heard it go past.
There’s no end of benefits delivered by the IRTENZ conference – anything that keeps you abreast of where today’s tech and trends are taking us and where it might all be by tomorrow afternoon is worth its weight in gold. Exaggerated as that might sound, the pace at which the game is changing is certainly difficult to keep within your frame of reference.
There are other reasons such events are great too. When blokes like Alfons Reitsma, senior product engineer at Scania New Zealand, tap you on the shoulder and say “Do you want to take the Scania 45R for a drive in the break?”, you suddenly cease your cerebral battle attempting to deal with the sheer weight of conference information being processed, and the world becomes infinitely clear. “Yes Alfons! I do … I most certainly do.” It’s my old elixir to everything – when in doubt, drive a truck.
The Scania 45R BEV 6×4 demonstrator parked outside is one of three in the country, the other two in customer hands and in the early stages of a full-on, heavy-BEV, work life. There’s still a little permitting to come that will allow them to work at optimal weights, but in all other respects, they’re off and running.
The work Alfons and crew at Scania New Zealand have done to make a New Zealand-ready heavy BEV ‘a thing’, is quite remarkable. “These aren’t merely off the line tractors, we’ve done a huge amount of work to make sure the driveline, performance, gradeability, range, and cooling is where it needs to be. I have no hesitation that in the right application and environment, these are ready-to-work, New Zealand-spec trucks that will give exceptional service and life.
“Are they all they could be? No, but within the VDAM regulations we have to work with currently, they’re on the money. If we could get 8.2 tonne on the front axle it would make a world of difference, but this is a start, and at least there’s dialogue and understanding on the part of the regulator.”
In tow was Fruehauf New Zealand’s Euro-spec Schmitz Cargobull S.K0e three-axle full electric semi with SAF e-Axle. It’s been here since the company’s expo last year. Its function is demonstrating the technology to the customer base, and as an in-house training and learning tool. All-up tare of the combination was around 23 tonne.
Scania has never had an issue with fit and finish, and that’s just as well, because if it had, then a programme to address it would be high on the agenda. Releasing the electronic park brake, flicking the right-hand stalk tumbler to ‘D’, and brushing the throttle with my right foot, the big electric Swede simply glided off. If there’d been a rattle in the cab, someone on the footpath watching would have heard it!
For those in the know, we turned right out of JetPark Hotel at Hamilton – roughly opposite the Mystery Creek turnoff, shot down to the SH21/SH3 roundabout, back the way we’d come, on to Tamahere, then down the Waikato Expressway to Cambridge and back. About 30km I reckon.
Again, refamiliarisation with the electron world comes quickly. As I entered the round-about and swung on the wheel, the Scania reacted immediately and directly to the input. Electric steering doesn’t have the fluid nature or malleability of the analogue driving experience, it’s the human who shepherds the electrons, and like sheep, you can either scare and fluster them, or gently and calmly encourage them. Having the electric cars in the business has taught us a hell of a lot about driving EVs and so once I was in ‘EV mode’, we were right.
“The truck has acceleration management, so the power to the wheels is managed,” says Alfons. For those not familiar with EVs, that’s a good thing. In their natural state, EVs have full and flat torque curves across 100% of the operating range. I remember driving the MAN eTruck in Germany, loaded to 43 tonne, and crapping myself at the rate of acceleration. This capability management is therefore a good thing.
Having said that, a 770S would stand no chance lifting off from the lights alongside the 45R. The EVs boggle the senses in their smooth relentless progress to road speed with only the faintest of whines emanating from the floor. “What’s that noise?” I said. “Oh, the sun visor is out of its clasp,” said Alfons. He popped it back and near silence once again reined.
The new Electrical Generation SESAMM 7 Dash. Yes the coffee maker is an option.
The new digital smart dash is superb. Scania as done what it does so well, you know instantly you’re in a Scania, it’s just evolved. The digital dash actually does them a favour as they’ve always been a ‘busy’ cockpit – it certainly cleans it up a little, even if that’s a perception thing.
No hand control for the trailer, that’s a device soon consigned to history’s archives generally speaking, although it is still an option if the customer really wants it.
Like the eVolvos, the Scania is all about deliverables within the framework of emotional comfort and familiarity. The name of the game is zero emissions at this stage so keep what’s known, well understood, and able to be easily supported in place – transmissions, rear drive set-ups, suspensions, cabs. Outside of infrastructure, the key to success for operators and OEMs alike in this bizarre new reality facing us, is support. Southpac CEO Maarten Durent’s words at the 2022 IRTENZ conference came back to mind – to paraphrase: ‘what you buy is your call at the end of the day, but for goodness’ sake, buy an OEM-built and nationally supported truck’.
Will this machine I’m in be the Scania of 2035 or even 2030? Absolutely not, but this one will likely deliver you to that future truck in a commercially manageable state, not to mention a mentally manageable one.
My next roundabout at Tamahere was much tighter, but I was back in the groove by then and we glided around no problem. The rise to the expressway was undetectable and before you knew it I was selecting cruise.
I’ll box all the spec bits below, but to give you a heads up, 450kW nominal electric propulsion (that’s 610hp continuous) and 3500Nm torque from the first rpm. Gearbox is a GE281 6-speed Opticuise, with RBP835 hub reduction rear end on air suspension. Oh, and if you’re an eNerd already; 625kW installed battery and 375kW per hour charge rate – MCS capable when we’re there.
The sound of silence. Well, almost – the occasional click and whirr and a gentle hum.
There are going to be some amazing realties in the new world. Take the Scania range for instance. Just because it might be a P cab doesn’t mean it’s not a hot-rod because radiator size is not a determining element of overall vehicle form factor any longer.
I have to say, it did look funny seeing a Euro-spec semi in the mirror; “Am I in Hamilton or Hampshire?”
The regenerator comes in five stages, set up exactly like the retarder on the ICE truck’s right-hand stalk.
“Don’t pull it right back,” said Alfons. “It’ll be too effective.” The thought of one pedal driving a full size 6×4 Scania seems bizarre today, but it’ll be old hat by ‘tomorrow’. Stage two slowed it down, three to a crawl, a little tap on the brake to arrest the last .0002km/h and we were stopped at the lights at the end of the Hautapu off-ramp. Whether I needed to tap the brake or not on a day-to-day basis would come down to the infinite configurability you can apply to these machines – do I want creep, or not? It’s all in my hands. Me? Yes, I do like creep.
Driving big trucks through the next tranche of history is going to be all about energy and the conservation of it. Predictive driving will take on a whole new dimension and driver scores may well become a request or even a requirement on CVs.
“You have to drive them well ahead down the road and make the most of coast and regeneration,” said Alfons. It’s the mantra of the EV. The irony? Nothing’s changed. Energy conservation has always been at the heart of it all – both in terms of range, as well as wear and tear. The truth is we’ve been ruined by a cheap, incredibly accessible, incredibly dense, form of energy that’s refillable in minutes, and doesn’t weigh that much. Driving the doors off vehicles and throwing them around has been easily remedied and repaired. In the immediate future, at least a couple of those parameters have changed … significantly, and falling short of the mark may not be as easily remedied.
The truth is, we’ve all squandered billions of barrels of oil over the past 100 years, just because we could. It’s been fun mind you and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Power … on! The cars following must get somewhat of a surprise.
Driving back, I was once again reminded of the BEV story, regardless of the size of vehicles. They’re smooth, effortless, and anyone can make them go. Rev matching and double-de-clutching are no longer rites of passage into the cab, or ‘the club’. However, driving them? That’s a whole other world. Making an electric heavy BEV move is easy; driving it will be as much a skill as it’s ever been. Hammering a BEV and hanging off the regenerator into bends will wear you out quicker than a diesel ever could, simply because acceleration and deceleration perform at different levels, yet the mass is still there.
Back at JetPark, ready to face the discussion on just what it is we have to overcome, solve, invent, provide in the next 40 years. I have to say it was fantastic to take a break from all the issues, to go out to have a drive of one of the solutions.
Vital stats of the drive truck
R 450E A6x4HA
Power Unit: EM C3-6
- 450kW / Electric Propulsion – Nominal
- 610hp Continuous
- 3500Nm Torque @ 0rpm
Battery Packs: 625kW – installed
SOC = 83 % (State of Charge)
Charging speed: 375kW per hour. MCS (Megawatt Charging System) capable
GVW: 28,000kg
GTW: 64,000kg
NZTA wheelbase: 4825mm
Front Axle: 9000kg
Rear Axle Group: 19,000kg
Gearbox: GE 281 Opticruise 6-speed
Rear Axles: Hub Reduction Rear – RBP835
Suspension: Air
Brakes: Disk / EBS / ESP
Full ADAS systems: AEB, ACC, LDW , Vunerable Road user , Blind Spot Monitoring etc
Electrics: Sesamm 7 architecture
- Digital Dashboard
- Full cyber security
Steering: Electro Hydraulic
Tyres Front: Michelin – Super Single 385/55 R 22.5
Rear: Michelin – 275/70 R22.5
Turntable: JOST low maintenance
