Scania Trucks is one of the leading producers of heavy trucks. They have operations in almost 100 countries including Asia, Africa, Australia, Latin America and Europe.
Scania Trucks is a division of Scania AB, which is a European heavy truck manufacturer. Scania AB also produces diesel engines and buses. The company has its headquarters in Sweden. Currently, after Volkswagen raised its company stake to 68.6%, it acquired the Scania group as its ninth brand member.
Scania Trucks was founded as Maskinfabriks AB Scania in the year of 1900 in the city of Malmo, Sweden. The company merged with Vagnsfabriks Aktiebolaget i Södertälje, another truck and automobile manufacturer in the year of 1911, forming a new company AB Scania-Vabis in mid-east Sweden. Scania-vabis later imported cars from Volkswagen after the Second World War, which was sold under the new banner of “Svenska Volkswagen AB”.
Scania-Vabis again merged with SAAB in 1969, forming a new company Saab-Scania AB. During this period of time, the subsidiary of Volkswagen was given a new name “V.A.G Sverige AB”. In the year of 1995, Saab-Scania split and the name of the bus and truck division was again renamed as Scania AB. Volvo made an attempt in 1999 to buy Scania, but the acquisition plan was withdrawn in the later stages.
Volkswagen Group is currently the largest shareholder of Scania AB, having a stake of 37.73% of the capital. It also has 68.60% stake of the voting shares. This makes Volkswagen one of the controlling shareholders of Scania making it a subsidiary of the parent company.
Currently, Scania Trucks produces heavy trucks, which weigh over 16 metric tonnes and heavy buses that weigh over 12 tones. Scania is now the third largest manufacturer of buses and trucks in the whole world. Scania Trucks are exported to more than 70 countries. The company is placing greater emphasis on fuel efficiency, low emissions and technology.
Scania manufactures three types of trucks namely the P-Series, G-Series and R-series. The P-series trucks incorporates the new P cabs and are available in three different variations namely spacious day cab, short cab and single-berth sleeper. These trucks are used for regional and local distribution of goods, construction purposes and different specialised operations that are associated with local services and transportations.
The G-series trucks are used for a large number of operations involved in national long haul and different types of construction applications. This particular truck model generally comes with three variants of cab namely day cab, short cab and three sleepers. The G-series truck also has different chassis height, suspension and axle configurations. The last model is the R-series truck, which is used for long haulage. All the models of these series offer a choice of suspension and height.
Scania Trucks are also manufactured outside Sweden in other countries like USA, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Russia, Brazil, Korea, Botswana, The Netherlands and Argentina. Scania also owes 17.01% voting rights to MAN AG, which increased to a 29.9% in 2007.
Scania Trucks continues to be counted amongst leaders in heavy duty trucks with great suspension and safety features in their product.