Silent, 70-ton Scania semi gets to work on Swedish timber farm [Video]

Swedish truck maker Scania is working with SCA to put the world’s first all electric timber truck into production in a bid to decarbonize the logging industry.

SCA began developing a prototype version of a specialized logging truck with a massive, 70 tonne hauling capacity based on a Scania electric semi back in 2022, putting it to work transporting timber between SCA’s terminal in Gimonäs and the paper mill in Obbola, Sweden. For 2024, SCA is ordering another one – unlike the first electric timber truck in Umeå, the new truck will be equipped with a crane.

“Our new electric timber truck has a better range and will drive to timber storage areas in the forest where it loads the timber for further transport to one of our timber terminals,” says Anton Ahlinder, Business Developer at Industrial Supply, SCA Skog. “We expect the truck to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 170 tons per year compared to a regular timber truck.”

70 tonne electric Scania logging truck in action

SCA transports about 8.5 million cubic meters of wood across Sweden every year. The company is Sweden’s largest private forest owner and producer of sawn wood products, packaging materials, and pulp for paper.

We have come a long way in our industrial processes, which are already 96 percent fossil-free,” says Hans Djurberg, Head of Sustainability at SCA. “We are very pleased that we together with Scania can break new ground to make the heaviest transports fossil-free.”

Electrek’s Take

While it might seem weird to talk about sustainability and logging in the same sentence, the fact remains that wood-based products, sourced sustainable and with proper reforestation practices, have a place in a broader sustainable economy – and Scania‘s efforts to work within that industry to help accelerate the decarbonization of its logistics is unquestionably a worthwhile effort.