Swedish authorities backs 'tram' trucks using Siemens current collectors in certain circumstances
August 16, 2012
Scania is again thinking outside the square after announcing trials of a wholly electric truck.
In conjunction with Siemens, the demonstrator truck will run between the town of Pajala and the iron ore mine at Svappavaara in far northern Sweden.
The test truck will rely on overhead electrification in much the same way as trams and urban trains.
It’s envisaged that, if successful, electric trucks could be used on the 150km route between the mine site at Svappavaara and the rail loading terminal at Malbanan where the ore is then transported by rail a port terminal on the Atlantic coast.
This follows a recent report from the Swedish Transport Agency (Trafikverket) recommending electrification as a real alternative on routes such as this.
As a result, Scania and Siemens have developed a wholly electric truck with overhead current collectors.
As there can be movement in the road surface it was felt that overhead power was a better option than a ground based rail.
“Development of our electrified vehicle has to take place on a step-by-step basis,” Johan Lindström, Expert Engineer at Hybrid Systems Development, NBB says.
“We are using electrified gearboxes that were developed in hybrid projects, but then a large electrical motor must be added to the powertrain in order to drive 90 tonnes of payload entirely by electricity.”
The Siemens technology, known as eHighway, is purported to be an advance on the technology used in trolley buses in the past.
The on-board systems in the truck use a laser sensor to detect overhead cables and extend the current collectors.
