AFAC 2023: In fire trucks, Scania rules the roost

When it comes to fire and emergency trucks, Scania is the market leader by far, and after talking to some of the experts at the Australasian Fire and Authorities (AFAC) Conference this week, it doesn’t look like that’s going to change.

“We’re at about 80 per cent market share in heavy fire appliances,” said Benjamin Nye, Director of Sales at Scania Trucks Australia. “Scania has been in this market sector for over 100 years, so the company really knows what it’s doing when it comes to fire trucks,” he added.

Nye said that Scania has been providing fire and emergency trucks in the Australian market since the 1980s and to back that up, the company brought along an historic truck on loan from the Fire Services Victoria museum. “This truck was the first truck bought by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade [now Fire Rescue Victoria] back in 1991,” he said.

It was the first Scania to be operated by the MFB, and was fitted with a Mills Gitsham body. It has a 3800L/minute Darley three-stage pump, an on-board 1300L water tank and 300L foam tank, with a 3000L/minute monitor on the roof, along with a 9m ladder.

The truck covered nearly 300,000 kilometres of active duty before being decommissioned in 2009 and presented to the Fire Services of Victoria Museum.

Scania assisted in the full restoration of the truck bringing it back to full roadworthy condition.

On the flip-side of the historic truck, Scania also displayed what could be the future of fire appliances at the AFAC conference – a battery-electric truck. The display vehicle was a 25 P electric truck in 4x2 guise with a single cab. However, Scott Slater, National Specialised Vehicle Manager for Scania, said the electric trucks will also be available in 6x4 and Crew Cab variants.

“We’ve had a lot of interest in the electric truck so far at the Conference,” said Slater. “We’re currently talking to a few brigades and discussing where the electric vehicle will fit in with their operations,” he added.

“The electric trucks are well suited to roles such as a support vehicle for the brigades or as a hook-lift truck binging in equipment and dropping it off – there are a lot of different options it can do.”

Power comes from a mid-mounted electric motor which is fed by five battery packs – two outboard on each side, where you’d have fuel tanks on a diesel truck, and one under the cab.

Power is rated at 295kW (395hp) and 2200Nm of torque (peak) and 230kW (310hp) and 1300Nm (continuous), and the truck has a range of around 250 kilometres depending on usage.

Slater said that this year Scania would sell around 100 trucks into the fire and emergency services sector. “The trucks we’ll deliver will be in a wide variety,” he said. “Mainly P Series around 320hp to 450hp.

“In terms of configuration, there’s everything from 4x2 ladder units to 6x6 heavy pumpers and even 8x8s into the airport and energy markets.”

So it seems that support for the fire and emergency services from Scania is not going to wane in the foreseeable future and that the company will keep its extremely healthy share of that market.