18 (simply called Scania BEV) which comes with either a five module battery pack for a capacity of 165 kWh and a range of 130 km, or a nine module pack storing up to 300 kWh and enabling 250 km of driving distance. The Scania BEV integrates one of its battery modules in what used to be the engine tunnel, with the chassis mounting the remaining four to eight modules, and its electric motor produces up to 230 kW. “These were vehicles aimed at urban transportations of people and goods, and hence the kinds of distances needed for driving within city limits, but in 2023 we started production of our first regional truck platform for long-haul freight movement, and in Brussels in October we announced our first regional electric bus too,” Persson notes. Key enhancements for the regional trucks over the urban truck (which comes in both trailer and rigid versions, and up to 64 tonnes gross train weight) include bigger battery packs with up to 624 kWh of energy and so enabling up to 390 km of range between charges depending on driving style, weather, payload and other factors. “Regulations define our pack engineering and integration philosophy somewhat there: legislation dictates that truck drivers are allowed to drive for four-and-a-half hours, and then they must take a 45 minute break before they can drive four-and-a-half hours again,” Persson says. “That strongly influences boundaries for how much energy you want or need to store on the trucks, as do EU rules saying that you can carry up to 40 t of weight on trucks, or 42 t for EV trucks as it’s estimated that electric truck powertrains are about 2 t heavier than their ICE-based counterparts. So we’ve designed the packs to enable 4.5 hours of driving and then to accept fast-charging to replenish them in 45 minutes.” They will also feature larger e-motors, which come as part of Scania’s new EM C1-4 powertrain series. These are designed as single permanent magnet synchronous machines combined in a single unit with a four-speed gearbox. Scania has announced the powertrain will be supplied in five different power levels (270, 300, 330, 360, 400 and 450 kW), enabling the regional e-trucks to match the hauling power needed for varying routes and applications. Similarly, Scania’s regional electric bus will integrate much larger packs than its urban counterpart. One option is to carry four such packs for 416 kWh, with the other being five packs for 520 kWh. Range estimates for either configuration are currently at least 400 km for the lower pack count and at least 500 km for the greater figure; these also come with fast-charging times of approximately 150 minutes and 170 minutes respectively, their packs having been engineered for 200 A DC plug-in rechargers as of writing. Its motor meanwhile will be an e-machine designed for 300 kW peak output and 250 kW of continuous power. Industry 4.0 Future work towards key enabling technologies for commercial e-mobility such as faster-charging batteries, more energy- and power-efficient drivetrains, and more resource-efficient production is aided by the proximity of Scania’s battery factory to numerous electrification-centric universities. Persson highlights for instance KTH (the Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm: that university’s Integrated Transport Research Lab typically has numerous rolling research projects directly testing how differing configurations of electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, and EV route analytics can result in higher usage of sustainable mobility, lower nationwide emissions and better health of the Swedish population. “And there are several more; Uppsala University for example also has extensive research programmes within this field, collaborating directly with Northvolt via a Master’s Programme in Battery Technology and Energy Storage. Northvolt helped design that, though we also have connections there,” Persson says. “And farther afield from just straight e-mobility, there’s a business school in Stockholm which does excellent research in digitalisation. The factory that we’ve built here in Södertälje has all the necessary infrastructure laid for Industry 4.0, which via digitalisation will give us better control over production quality, efficiency, and so on, hence collaborations there are really helpful.” The factory’s module assembly line is fully automated as a baseline for future industrial technologies, with its present throughput consuming January/February 2024 | E-Mobility Engineering In conversation | Tony Persson EU laws state that truck drivers can drive 4.5 hours, then must take a 45 minute break; this sets Scania’s engineering targets for its truck battery packs’ endurance and charging times
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