The Traton Group, previously known as Volkswagen Truck & Bus, held an Innovation Day inside the Scania Demo Center in Södertälje, Sweden, which was renamed the Traton Innovation Campus for the event.

Andreas Renschler, CEO of Traton and with a solid truck background from Daimler AG, began his speech with remarks about the UN Climate Summit held just a week earlier:

“The goal of saving our planet affects all people,” he said. “The reduction of carbon dioxide emissions is probably the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. Transportation is a core element here, so this applies to our industry and our customers. The Traton Group is aware of the responsibility and strongly drives a change to sustainable and fossil-free transports.”

Renschler said that by 2025, within the group, Traton plans to spend $1 billion on electro mobility. Over the next 10-15 years, one third of Traton’s truck and bus deliveries will be equipped with alternative power trains and most of them fully electric.

“However, this will only be possible if the authorities in time contribute in establishing a functioning charging infrastructure along roads and preferably also financially support conversion into these vehicles,” Renschler continued.

Success factors

Renschler also presented Traton's global strategy for success and global expansion, which is mainly based on four pillars: product modularization, software and system development, collaboration within the group and customer-focused innovations.

Today, more than 2,000 engineers work in software alone, which is 30% of the group's combined technicians. Here, Traton's cloud-based logistics brand Rio plays an important role for better capacity utilization of trucks. Today, the utilization rate is only 50 – 60%, according to Renschler.

Cross-border cooperation

“Creative innovation is not just about finding brilliant ideas, it is also about uniting and connecting with the right people, including our customers,” said Renschler.

The collaboration with external partners such as Hino in Japan has resulted in the delivery of an electrified commercial truck in Brazil - equipped with e-driveline components from Hino.

“We have now received a huge order of 1,600 e-Delivery trucks from Ambev for beer distribution in Brazil,” said Renschler.

Key Customers

Christian Levin, Traton’s chief operating officer, held a dialogue on stage with key customer representatives such as Patrik Müller from the beer giant inBev, Helmut Schweighofer, CEO for DB Schenker Europe, and Daniel Mohlin from Nobina.

They emphasized the increasingly high demands placed on the vehicle fleets and emphasized the added value of the new modularization concepts of Traton.

Within the framework of Traton Group, MAN and Scania as brands have agreed on clear principles for joint development projects. This means common platforms for engines, gearboxes, axles and exhaust aftertreatment systems. These can then be modified by the individual brands. One of the two companies is given the management responsibility for each individual area.

Powertrains

Progress has also been made in creating common solutions on the engine side. MAN has the lead engineering role, with management responsibility for the development of the smaller engines between 5 and 10-liters while Scania leads development of engines between 11-13 liters.

Scania is also responsible for exhaust aftertreatment systems for larger engines and MAN for the smaller and medium-sized ones. Scania is in charge of heavy gearboxes while MAN is responsible for medium and light gearboxes as well as all types of axles, driven and non-driven.

An upcoming common 13-liter diesel engine will soon be released called the CBE1, which stands for Common Base Engine. Around 120 engineers have worked on the development of this engine, which is likely to be launched next year at Scania and is expected to be adopted by MAN and Navistar at a later date.