New electric timber truck in operation

The yellow timber truck moves almost silently into the timber terminal in Östavall. Behind the wheel sits Rolf Lövgren of Lövgrens Åkeri & Entreprenad. He owns the new timber truck with support from SCA and has driven it for a few days.

“It is very quiet and comfortable to drive, and I don’t get as mentally tired as I can after a full day with background noise from the engine. It is very positive," says Rolf and continues:

"It takes a while to get to know the truck and learn how to drive it in the best way to conserve the battery. You want to charge more than you consume. If I have 50 percent battery left at the end of the day, I have stood still and charged unnecessarily. It will be exciting to see how it performs during the winter.”

Important milestone

The new electric timber truck marks another important milestone for SCA and the work to electrify heavy timber transports. The truck is expected to result in 170 tons lower carbon dioxide emissions per year compared to a regular timber truck.

"This is an important project for us to continue contributing to a more sustainable society," said Ulf Larsson, CEO of SCA. “By managing the forest and making renewable products that can replace those with a high carbon footprint, SCA creates about 13 million tons of positive climate benefits each year. That figure can become even better as we transition the heavy road transports in our value chain.”

“It is exciting that it’s finally in place. From the first conversations with Scania, it took just over two years for this electric timber truck with a crane to become a reality. Our first electric timber truck only runs between the terminal and Obbola paper mill, but now our development work continues as we electrify the transports from the forest to the terminal," said Anton Ahlinder, Business Developer at SCA Skog.

The new electric timber truck is part of the forest industry’s innovation project TREE, which aims for half of the new trucks in the forest industry to be electric by 2030. SCA is one of several participants.

“Östavall is one of the places where there should be electric timber trucks. We are aiming for a total of 12 trucks, six like this one that SCA has now put into operation and six chip trucks," said Gunnar Svensson from Skogforsk and coordinator for the TREE project.

SCA is responsible for a significant part of the financing of the electric timber truck, but the vehicle is owned by Lövgrens Åkeri & Entreprenad.

“To make the transition successful, we need to have haulage companies with us, and therefore it is good that this vehicle is owned by a local company. Then, we will need price pressure on the vehicles, more charging infrastructure, a better power grid, and that working time regulations offer flexibility related to charging. Then the heavy traffic will gradually move towards more electrification," says Ulf Larsson.

Photo: Olle Melkerhed

TREE stands for Transition to efficient electrified forestry transport. Projektet last between November 2023  and November 2026 with support från FFI (Fordonsstrategisk Forskning och Innovation) at Vinnova. If the project reaches its goal of having 50 percent of the new trucks in the forest industry electrified by 2030, it will result in a reduction of 260,000 tons of emissions.