Swedish commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania has unveiled its new all-electric self-driving modular concept, NXT, designed with the flexibility to act as a bus during peak commuting hours before transforming into a delivery vehicle during the day and refuse truck at night.
Driven by the need for lower emissions and less congestion in urban environments, Scania developed NXT with detachable front and rear drive modules, enabling them to be fitted to a bus body, a distribution truck body or a refuse collector.
“NXT is a vision of the future for transport in cities,” said Scania’s president and CEO Henrik Henriksson. “Several of these technologies have yet to fully mature but for us it’s been important to actually build a concept vehicle to visibly and technically demonstrate ideas of what is within reach. NXT is designed for 2030 and beyond while incorporating several cutting-edge features that are already available.”
The 8m (26ft) bus module is built as one composite unit, substantially reducing weight. The cylindrical cell batteries are placed under the floor, utilizing otherwise dead space and contributing to better weight distribution. With the low vehicle weight of less than eight tons, the range with present-day batteries is estimated at 245km (152 miles).
“This is something new, something very different, yet flexible design and modularized units lie very much at the core of Scania,” said Robert Sjödin, NXT project manager, Scania.
“This vehicle will provide invaluable tangible data in our continued development of electrified autonomous vehicles.”
