SCANIA (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd’s New Truck Generation is set to enhance the experience of long haul commercial vehicle drivers and offer businesses fuel-efficiency via its G-series and S-series cabs.
Assembled at Scania’s plant in Port Klang, these trucks are highly configurable to suit the needs of drivers who travel across Malaysia’s roads and terrains.
“Scania has been in Malaysia since the early 1970s and we have an assembly plant in Port Klang, as well as service centres where our experts are always ready. We are here to support our customers.
“We look into the long-term aspects of planned maintenance, data analysis and driver skills to help customers get the most uptime and revenues from each vehicle they buy,” said Scania Southeast Asia managing director Marie Sjodin Enstrom.
Designing a Scania truck entailed a lot of details, while the reengineered powertrain was a result of a decade’s worth of research, said , Scania Southeast Asia Pre-Sales director Tom Kuiphuis.
“The New Truck Generation’s new cabs have been redesigned to be sleek and aerodynamic. We also want to offer the best fuel-efficiency as possible by improving the powertrain.
“With the truck’s aerodynamic design and new powertrain, they are able to deliver a fuel consumption reduction of three per cent,” said Kuiphuis.
While these freight haulers are able to handle load, internal enhancement has also been done to deliver roomier cabs with multiple storage facilities and a myrid power sockets. An infotainment system with a seven-inch touchscreen is also among the standard offerings.
The cabs’ winged area that distinguishes the driver’s area from the passenger is basically a cockpit full of controls that are easily reached, not only across the instrument panel but also on the door’s side panel.
Visibility for the driver gets better with more adjustment options for the seat, lower dashboard and rounded windscreen.
“Safety is a very important feature in our trucks. Among the many safety features, we have become the first to offer the roll-over curtain side airbags. This option can be featured on the driver’s as well as the passenger side,” said Kuiphuis.
“Internal studies have shown that the number of casualties caused by roll-over accidents, which is a fairly common incident, can potentially be reduced by 25 per cent.”
The Scania engineers behind this innovative feature were recognised with the European Traffic Safety Award for Commercial Vehicles in 2017, an accolade presented by the European Association
for Accident Research and Accident Analysis, DEKRA and the German Road Traffic Safety Council.
Kuiphuis said the New Truck Generation was equipped with the antilock braking system (ABS) as standard across all cabs. Other add-ons include Electronic Stability Program (ESP), lane departure warning, advanced emergency braking system and camera sensors.
As the Malaysian market is made of various industries, Scania’s modular range is ready to cater to its customers’ specific needs.
“With the New Truck Generation system, we allow ourselves to make up to eight million variants. If you were to order a unique vehicle, the chance of someone else having exactly the same vehicle in other parts of the world is very small,” said Kuiphuis.
Apart from the needs of drivers and businesses, Scania is also facilitating a focus shift towards sustainable transport systems by organisations in Malaysia.
Enstrom said the company was currently looking at all the alternative solutions to include biodiesel, electric and even hydrogen fuel cell.
The 128-year-old Swedish company last year introduced Scania Ecolution, a partnership between customers and Scania, with the purpose of reducing fuel consumption by up to 10 per cent and lowering CO2 emissions.
Scania’ s range research of alternative fuel and technology solutions on its new trucks includes engines that operate on natural gas, hydro-treated vegetable oil, bioethanol, biogas, biodiesel as well as hybrid drivetrains, platooning and autonomous vehicle systems.
