Scania Dynamic R and S Series: 2% Less Energy, More Driver Comfort
Scania has given its R- and S-series trucks a sizeable mid-life makeover, introducing the new Scania Dynamic package with improved aerodynamics, digital mirrors, a better bunk, upgraded lighting and a claimed reduction in total energy consumption of around two per cent. None of it involves fitting a bigger grille or adding another 400 horsepower, which may disappoint the pub experts, but for anyone actually paying the fuel bill, there is quite a bit here worth looking at.
Scania Dynamic targets lower energy use and improved driver comfort across the latest R- and S-series range.
Truck manufacturers are rather fond of telling us they have completely transformed something when, on closer inspection, they have changed the stitching on the driver’s seat and moved a switch three centimetres to the left.
Scania Dynamic is a little more substantial than that.
The new package covers the R- and S-series and attacks the truck from both ends of the equation. Scania has tried to make it cheaper to push through the air while making the bit where the driver lives for ten or twelve hours a day noticeably nicer.
And that, frankly, is not a bad place to start.
Digital rear-view mirrors are one of the most visible Scania Dynamic changes, designed to improve visibility while also reducing aerodynamic drag.
Scania chases another two per cent
Two per cent doesn’t sound terribly heroic when written on a PowerPoint slide. It is the sort of number capable of causing most normal people to wander off in search of a biscuit.
But put it into Australian linehaul numbers and it suddenly becomes rather more interesting.
Take a Melbourne-to-Sydney run of roughly 880 kilometres. A prime mover averaging around 2.0 km/L would burn about 440 litres of diesel on the trip. With diesel at $2.72 a litre, that’s nearly $1,200 disappearing through the injectors before the truck reaches Sydney.
If Scania’s claimed two per cent reduction in energy consumption translates into roughly two per cent less diesel in that operation, that’s about 8.8 litres, or almost $24, saved on every leg.
Do that five nights a week, and you’re looking at roughly $6,200 a year per truck. If the truck is doing five Melbourne-Sydney-Melbourne return cycles each week, the theoretical saving climbs to around $12,450 a year.
Put ten trucks on the same work and suddenly that apparently insignificant two per cent has become more than $120,000 a year.
Now the bloke in accounts has stopped looking at his biscuit. Because transport operators don’t buy diesel one teacup at a time.
A truck travelling big annual kilometres turns small percentage improvements into real money remarkably quickly. The same principle applies to battery-electric trucks, where using less energy means getting more useful work from the electricity being carried around underneath you.
Scania says the improvement applies across its different powertrains rather than being confined to diesel.
A fair chunk of the gain has come from that old enemy of every highway truck: air.
Scania’s new digital rear-view camera system replaces conventional mirrors and contributes to both improved visibility and lower aerodynamic drag.
The mirrors have disappeared
One of the most obvious changes is the arrival of digital rear-view mirrors.
Conventional mirrors have been hanging off the sides of trucks since roughly the invention of roads. And this is where the story becomes rather interesting, because the rear-view mirror itself has never had quite the noble history you might imagine.
One of the earliest commercially marketed automotive rear-view mirrors was not promoted primarily as a great road-safety breakthrough. It was called the “Cop-Spotter”, because apparently the first thing motorists really wanted to know about what was happening behind them was whether the local constabulary was catching up.
Which, when you think about it, is a wonderfully honest piece of early motoring marketing.
From the wonderfully named “Cop-Spotter” to digital camera mirrors, rear-view technology has come a long way. Scania’s latest Dynamic cab continues that evolution by replacing large conventional mirrors with compact camera systems.
More than a century later, Scania is effectively taking the next step. The piece of glass that once helped motorists spot the copper coming up behind is now being replaced by a camera.
And there is some sound engineering logic behind it.
Removing those large mirror housings reduces aerodynamic drag, while Scania says its camera system can also improve the driver’s view when reversing and manoeuvring in confined spaces.
Inside are two full-HD displays with standard, zoom and wide-angle views. Adjustable reference lines can also be displayed to help the driver judge distances.
The camera lenses have heating to combat fog, ice and snow and have been positioned to provide some natural protection from dirt.
Whether Australian flies have been consulted during development remains unknown.
The mirrors aren’t working alone in Scania’s attack on drag. The Dynamic package also includes extended side skirts, redesigned A-pillars, new door handles and changes to the front of the truck.
None of those things will cause crowds to gather at a truck show, but air travelling around a cab at highway speed is extraordinarily good at finding every awkward edge, gap and protrusion a designer has left for it.
Smooth enough of them out and eventually the fuel bowser notices.
Scania Dynamic brings revised materials, lighting, seating and everyday driver features to the R- and S-series cab.
A truck cab is also somebody’s office
Scania has also spent considerable effort inside the cab, which is encouraging because drivers tend to spend rather more time looking at the inside of a truck than the person who signed the purchase order.
There is a revised colour scheme, new upholstery and increased use of recycled materials.
The curtains are now made from 100 per cent recycled material, while Scania says the wall and ceiling panels contain 70 per cent recycled material.
More importantly for the person sitting in the thing, the seats have been updated for both comfort and new headrest safety requirements.
There is also an 800 mm reclining bed option, with the back section adjustable through as much as 60 degrees.
That effectively turns part of the bunk into something resembling a lounge chair, which should be handy for reading, watching a movie or contemplating why the transport company has scheduled tomorrow’s first delivery for 5.30am when you are still 600 kilometres away.
It is one of those features that might sound rather trivial to somebody who goes home every afternoon.
But, to a long-distance driver, it probably doesn’t.
The Scania Dynamic sleeper can be specified with an 800 mm reclining bed, with the backrest adjustable by up to 60 degrees.
Northern lights without leaving the bunk
Scania has also expanded the interior lighting choices.
At the sensible end there is functional white lighting.
Further up the range comes Ambient+, offering different solid colours and lighting themes, including one called Northern Light.
So, you can now sit in a Scania sleeper cab and admire the aurora without actually having to park somewhere north of the Arctic Circle.
It sounds slightly theatrical, but good interior lighting has a practical side. Harsh lighting is useful when you’re trying to find something, but considerably less charming when you’re trying to wind down after a long shift.
Giving the driver control over the cabin atmosphere makes sense.
Scania Dynamic introduces a broad update across the R- and S-series, with changes targeting driver comfort, visibility and energy efficiency.
Better headlights where they count
More serious illumination changes have taken place outside.
The updated headlamps provide a longer high-beam range, wider and brighter illumination and improved low-beam performance.
Automatic high beam adjusts the lights to avoid dazzling other road users, while Scania says the improvements should reduce strain during night driving and provide better visibility through bends and when approaching oncoming traffic.
For Australian linehaul work, that is likely to be rather more useful than another row of mood lights behind the bunk.
Our wildlife has a longstanding habit of appearing on the road at precisely the moment physics makes avoiding it most difficult.
A few more metres of useful light is never something I’ve heard a driver complain about.
Scania Dynamic introduces expanded interior lighting options, including configurable Ambient+ themes for the R- and S-series cab.
More electronic help, but the driver still drives
Scania Dynamic also brings an expanded collection of driver assistance functions.
These include Safe Stop Assist, Forward Distance Alert and Vulnerable Road User functions, along with Speed Sign Cruise Control and Curve Speed Cruise Control.
The important bit is that Scania describes these systems as supporting the driver rather than replacing driver responsibility.
That distinction is worth making. Driver assistance should be exactly that: assistance.
The person behind the wheel remains responsible for reading the traffic, road and conditions rather than surrendering the entire process to a collection of cameras, computers and beeping noises.
Used properly, however, systems that manage speed through curves, monitor following distance or identify vulnerable road users can reduce workload during a long shift.
And anything that removes a little unnecessary workload without removing the driver’s involvement deserves consideration.
Scania Dynamic introduces expanded interior lighting options, including configurable Ambient+ themes for the R- and S-series cab.
Finally, somewhere for the wet gloves
Curiously, one of my favourite Dynamic additions may also be one of the cheapest.
Scania has fitted a ventilated glove hanger tray in the external storage compartment.
This allows wet or filthy work gloves to stay outside the cab while they dry.
Anyone who has climbed into a truck containing damp gloves, muddy boots and yesterday’s lunch will understand immediately why this is a good idea.
Truck interiors have an astonishing ability to accumulate smells.
A pair of wet leather gloves placed beside a heater overnight can develop the sort of aroma normally associated with something a kelpie discovered behind the shearing shed.
Keeping them outside seems remarkably sensible.
Practical storage is a focus of the Scania Dynamic interior, with dedicated space helping drivers keep work gear organised and within reach.
There is also a 15-watt magnetic wireless phone charger designed to hold the phone securely while allowing air to circulate underneath it to reduce heat build-up.
Scania Dynamic R and S Series cabins gain improved everyday storage, including a convenient wireless phone charging area.
Again, hardly the stuff from which truck-show posters are made, but exactly the sort of small feature a driver might use every single day.
Evolution rather than revolution
And perhaps that is the real story behind Scania Dynamic.
There is no enormous mechanical revolution here.
Instead, Scania has gone looking for lots of smaller improvements: a little less drag here, better visibility there, a more useful bunk, improved seating, smarter lighting and several everyday details somebody appears to have designed after actually spending time in a truck.
Add them together and Scania claims total energy consumption can fall by around two per cent.
For a single truck, that percentage may not sound enormous.
Across a fleet covering millions of kilometres, it becomes rather more interesting.
Scania President and CEO Christian Levin describes the philosophy simply as making something that already works better.
That is probably a more accurate description of Dynamic than much of the language surrounding modern vehicle launches.
It isn’t Scania throwing away the R- and S-series and beginning again.
It is Scania taking a truck that already has a strong following, smoothing some air around it, improving the driver’s living quarters and attending to dozens of details that individually look small.
Which, when you think about it, is how good trucks usually evolve.
Related Reading:
The updated Scania Dynamic S-series combines aerodynamic changes with improvements aimed at reducing total energy consumption by around two per cent.
