Swedish truck manufacturer Scania has unveiled a fully electric concrete transport and mixer truck which is already being deployed by Unicon, Denmark’s leading producer and supplier of ready-mixed concrete.
The new battery electric concrete mixer truck was jointly developed between Scania, Unicon, and Liebherr-Mischtechnik, a German provider of concrete technology including truck mixers, mixing plants, and concrete pumps.
Electrifying commercial and construction vehicles requires a myriad of solutions, depending on the specific requirements and constraints of each type of vehicle.
Concrete transport, for example, has long been considered one of the more challenging segments to electrify due to the high energy demand of its trucks, variable operating conditions, and the need to power the auxiliary equipment inherent in such a truck, like the concrete mixer.
The solution developed between Scania, Unicon, and Liebherr, has addressed all of these challenges.
Boasting a 400 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery, the Scania truck was fully integrated with an electric concrete mixer system utilising a fully integrated electric power take-off (ePTO) that powers the concrete drum directly from the truck’s battery system.
The truck was developed over a three-year period and has been designed to meet the requirements of real-world use including off-road driving conditions and continuous mixing along with an operational driving range of around 200 kilometres.
“This project shows that electrification is not limited to standard applications. It can be applied where it matters most,” said Tobias Ejderhamn, global manager of transformation & new business at Scania.
“By combining our modular electric platform with deep application expertise and close customer collaboration, we are demonstrating a viable path towards zero-emission transport, even in the most demanding use cases.”
Unicon has ordered an additional 10 trucks and the company aims to achieve emission-free concrete transport by 2035.
“This is not a pilot, it is a solution designed for daily operations and future scale,” said Christian Elleby, supply chain & procurement director at Unicon.
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