Electrification of heavy transport

The collaboration between leading transport solutions provider Scania, EVBox and Dagab has entered its next phase. Dagab, the logistics company of Axfood, is now starting daily food deliveries throughout Stockholm with Scania's new electric trucks, powered by EVBox charging solutions.

Electrification of the truck fleet

The electrification of heavy transport is essential to decarbonise the transport industry. With their shared vision for sustainable transport, Dagab, Scania, and EVBox work jointly to develop new solutions for the electrification of heavy transport.

To help turn Dagab’s electrification ambitions into reality, Scania has delivered two new trucks (one full electric and one hybrid) and EVBox has installed one EVBox Ultroniq with a customised charging cable.

The ambition of this project is to design, test, and scale up electrified food deliveries in Sweden by allowing more companies to electrify heavy transport logistics flows and collaborate on charging points.

Deploying Scania’s heavy-duty electric trucks for food deliveries contributes to Dagab’s ambition of diversifying the renewable energy sources it uses to power its fleet. This is an important step in the journey toward fossil-free transport.

Flexible charging solutions

Two distribution vehicles have now entered service, Scania's new plug-in hybrid, and Scania's all-electric truck, which is Scania's first series-produced all-electric vehicle delivered to a customer in Sweden. With an optimised charging strategy, Dagab can now deliver food to stores with these vehicles without compromising on availability or efficiency.

Thanks to the smart charging features of EVBox Ultroniq and EVBox charging management software, Dagab is also able to minimise idle costs at its warehouse in Jordbro and increase transport efficiency.

“In order to meet the logistical needs, we have installed a high power (up to 175 kW) fast charging station at the warehouse gate together with load balancing between the parked trucks.” says Björn Utgård, VP Sales at EVBox.

Charging with green electricity significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions—an estimated 40 tonnes per year for an all-electric vehicle compared to a diesel vehicle. Each of the new trucks deliver food to 5-10 stores daily. This involves five routes covering a distance of around 300 kilometres. By transitioning to electric transportation, this significantly reduces the Dagab’s carbon footprint.

Toward a greener future

Scania, EVBox, and Dagab agree that developing the charging infrastructure is critical to accelerate the electrification of heavy transport.

“The transition to electrification is many times more complex than it seems, as public charging infrastructure for heavy vehicles is partly or completely lacking. This challenges the fundamentals of a traditional and well-functioning transport system. The technology and the electric vehicles already exist. But it requires much closer cooperation between several stakeholders in the industry, and also the city, to develop smart city solutions in practice.” says Jessica Björkquist, Senior Product Manager Sustainability, Scania Sweden.

As Helena Blom, Transport Manager at Dagab explains, the companies involved will gain deeper knowledge with regards to heavy transport electrification as the project progresses.

"Now, we are gaining even more knowledge about efficient logistics patterns and how to make the best use of the vehicles. Battery capacity affects range, and here we need to find suitable charging solutions and locations that fit our transportation needs. It will also be exciting to see how the cooling unit affects the battery and thus the range."

“To succeed with electrification, we’ve collaborated with Scania as well as with EVBox which has helped with identifying the best charging opportunities here in Jordbro,” concluded Helena Blom.