In January 2026 Scania opened a new Assembly facility, with a new Parts warehouse and Training Centre. The Assembly plant takes up a space of 10000 square metres, parts that are brought in from Europe and Brazil, providing a synchronised flow from sub-assembly to assembly.
Managing Director of Scania Southern Africa, Erik Bergvall and Sales and Marketing Director Mark Erasmus led us through the facility, describing the ease of managing the assembly with a rhythmic flow, with each modular kit being designed and brought together to suit the customer’s specific requirements.
The key question being, ‘What does efficiency really mean when every kilometre travelled affects whether businesses gain or lose margin?’ In order to address this challenge, a team of engineers in Sweden developed a solution by testing new materials to reduce component weight and friction in moving parts. The result is exactly what today’s competitive transport environment demands: lower friction, an optimised combustion powertrain, and exceptional efficiency and performance. The result a dependable design that delivers efficiently with higher operating uptime.
High Efficiency and unrivalled Performance
The SUPER Engine meets the tough emission targets facing the transport sector, the engine management system ensures the engines superior total operating costs. Improvement to the engine’s combustion and aspiration performance, lubrication, cooling and turbo efficiency gives the SUPER engine unrivalled performance. The SUPER 13 litre engine fuel efficiency and high torque is ideal for long-haul and heavy-duty transport solutions. The SUPER features the Scania Twin SCR system and a new engine management system to ensure the engine’s superior operating economy under all conditions. Peak torque at a lower rpm is delivered by a larger total spread from the gearbox combined with faster and optimized axle gear rations. The powertrains smoother drive with fewer gear changes and less noise is ideal not only for the driver but the total operating costs for the operator.
Modular Design Reduce Assembly Time
The new SUPER engine fits in the assembly line with no changes. The Scania way is to have the components flowing in a modular way for different models to go on the same assembly line with very little variation.
When the new SUPER engine was introduced in the assembly the volumes were adjusted for a few days to ensure the quality assurance on each vehicle.
“We get our parts from Europe or Brazil and with the assembly of some vehicles pre-assembly of some parts needs to be done. This ensures the line can proceed in the 43-minute timeline allocated for each station. The Axles for example are pre-assembled to one package instead of installing one axle at a time. If a double-axle is required it will be pre-assembled on the other side of the line and the complete axle will be brought to the main line,” explained Bergvall.
Highly Skilled Dealerships
Scania has 63 dealerships across southern Africa, wholly owned dealerships give the client the benefit of one account for all requirements from sales of trucks and parts to services only one account is required.
Training is an ongoing process for Scania, the training starts with assembly training, technicians trained inhouse are mostly absorbed into the various dealerships and transporter workshops. Staff showing potential are groomed for further training in sales and possible management positions within the company.
