Scania sets 45% vehicle emission reduction target despite delay on 2025 goal

Scania has announced a new target to reduce vehicle emissions intensity by 45% by 2032, despite admitting that it is not on track to achieve a 20% reduction this year.

The Swedish truck manufacturer is aiming to reduce emissions from the use of its vehicles – which represent 90% of its carbon footprint – by making them electric or able to run on lower-carbon fuels. 

Between 2015 and 2023, Scania has reduced its trucks’ emissions intensity by 11.5% – meaning it is not on track to meet its 20% goal by 2025. It’s worth noting, however, that this decarbonisation accelerated in the past year, since this reduction stood at just 3% in 2022. 

“Our target was set based on certain expectations around the speed of the transition to electric transport. In recent years, that shift has not happened at the pace needed. The delayed ramp-up of electric vehicles deliveries is one explanation. Other challenges include insufficient investment in critical infrastructure, and governments retreating from climate commitments. This is slowing the adoption of the solutions needed to reduce our sector’s carbon footprint,” the truckmaker warns in its latest annual report.

Despite this delay, the company remains “determined to close the gap as much as possible” – partly by announcing new 1.5ºC-aligned targets to cut vehicle emissions intensity by 45% between 2022 and 2032. But to achieve this, Scania warns that “the whole system must work in unison”, and that public policy must deliver incentives to accelerate the shift to sustainable transportation, as well as phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and putting a higher price on emissions.

Scania: business growth and Scope 3 emissions

As is the case with many other companies, the progress Scania has made in reducing the emissions intensity of its vehicles hasn’t been enough to offset its business growth so far: absolute Scope 3 emissions have increased by nearly 20% since its 2015 baseline, reaching more than 140 million tonnes in 2024.

In the past year, however, emissions intensity gains have been reflected in Scania’s absolute carbon footprint: emissions from products in use dropped by 3.3% between 2023 and 2024 – all the while revenue grew by 5.88%.

Scania on track to meet operational emissions reduction target

While the truckmaker is facing challenges in reducing Scope 3 emissions, it has made significant progress on cutting Scope 1 and 2 emissions, with a 46.9% reduction compared to its 2015 baseline. This puts it on track to meet its 2025 goal of a 50% reduction in operational emissions.

To meet this target, Scania is switching to renewable electricity sources and converting its fleet to electric vehicles.

The company is now targeting a further 50% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2032, from a 2022 baseline. 

Scania’s investment in green steel

To further decarbonise its operations, Scania has committed to purchasing 100% of its steel, batteries, aluminium and cast iron for European operations from ‘green’ suppliers – meaning those producing these materials with low-carbon processes.

At the end of 2023, the Swedish truckmaker signed an agreement with global steel company SSAB to buy steel made through a process that uses green hydrogen instead of coal to smelt down iron ore from 2026 – with a view to switch 100% of deliveries to this type of green steel by 2030.