SCA: World's first 80-tonne electric timber truck now being test driven in Sweden

The vehicle has been delivered to officials at SCA and will be used to transport logs on the stretch between the forestry firm’s timber terminal in Gimonäs and its paper mill in Obbola; a 20-mile round trip. 

Developed together with Scania, the lorry was also designed in close collaboration with the research institute Skogforsk and could reduce carbon emissions by about 55,000 kg per year.

Hans Djurberg, head of sustainability at SCA

If successful, it will see electric vehicles used more widely by SCA in its operations. 

Hans Djurberg, head of sustainability at SCA, said: “We have come a long way in industrial processes, which are already 96 per cent fossil-free. We are very pleased that we together with Scania can break new ground to make the heaviest transports fossil-free.” 

The new electric timber truck can be driven with a total weight of 64 tonnes on public roads and 80 tonnes on private roads.

Fredrik Allard, head of e-mobility at Scania, said: “The 80-tonne battery-powered timber truck shows that even really heavy transport can be electrified. 

“The partnership with SCA is an early show of what is possible – a clear signal that it is possible to electrify even heavy transport. A change of pace is needed to make Sweden fossil-free in time and meet the goal of the Paris Agreement. 

“An electric timber truck is a symbol of something pretty cool. Shipping of timber has been talked about as something that might never be possible to electrify. The development in recent years and what we are now presenting together with SCA shows how fast the development is taking place both in terms of vehicles and batteries.”