Karin Rådström, Mikael Jansson and Karolina Wennerblom at the Scania BIC Dinner.
Global Head of Bus and Coach visits Hobart
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arin Rådström, Global Head of Bus and Coach for Scania and Karolina Wennerblom, Director of Product Management and Presales for Scania Bus and Coach, both visited Hobart in November along with Fredrik Langsmo, KB area manager to join the industry at the Scania Dinner at the Bus Industry Confederation Conference. Karin and Karolina took time out to talk to local bus media as well as meet many customers and industry luminaries, hearing about their operating environment and talking about the rise of renewable fuels and the prospect of battery electric vehicles joining the mix of bus technologies.
At the Scania Dinner, Scania National Manager Bus and Coach Julian Gurney announced that one of the new Scania diesel electric hybrid buses would be tested in Australia next year, one of three global markets (along with Hong Kong and Singapore) to trial the technology. “The hybrid’s powerplant is a 9-litre Euro 6 diesel engine supplemented by an electric motor,” Julian said. “It can meet the needs of intercity and CBD operators, running silently in the city, while the electric motor gives the diesel a boost on hills on inter-city routes. “Buses such as this hybrid bring to life our commitment to sustainability that delivers real-world solutions. These are on
the verge of becoming a commercial reality for Scania in Australia. We are making our buses and coaches cleaner and kinder to the environment, but critically, without losing sight of the importance of maintaining total operating economy for our customers. “When we talk about sustainability we see it as a marriage of innovation, technology, and efficiency combined to deliver our customers new vehicles that sustain their business, enhance their profitability, and allow them to meet increasingly stringent environmental operating conditions,” Julian said. “Scania doesn’t consider environmental and commercial sustainability as competing objectives.”
Touring to launch Down Under
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cania will bring a 2-axle version of the highly successful Touring coach to Australia in 2018, to service the needs of school and charter bus operators who require additional luggage space. The Touring, which recently won a significant victory in a European fuel test against many rivals, will be offered in Australia with 9.0-litre 5-cylinder and 13.0-litre 6-cylinder powerplants, fitted with a 3.8 m high body that is 12.3 m long. “The Scania-Higer A30 has been a great success for us in Australia with more than 300 now on the road, many in the hands of school and charter bus operators,” said Julian Gurney, Scania’s National Manager for Bus and Coach. “It has opened up Scania to many new customers, as well as supporting our existing www.scania.com.au
clients’ business needs across the country. “The Touring will sit alongside the ScaniaHiger A30, and it is a Scania from bumper-tobumper.
“The Scania Touring has been a huge success in Europe, Asia and South Africa, so we are very confident it will be similarly well received here in Australia,” Julian said.
N o 1/2018 • SCANIA EXPERIENCE 15