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Start of short-distance deliveries by e-truck from SSAB in Hämeenlinna
January 15, 2025 14:01 CET 6 min read
SSAB Europe and Kuljettava Oy (earlier VR Transpoint road logistics) have a joint project to electrify heavy-duty transports. Heavy-duty vehicle charging points have been installed at SSAB’s Hämeenlinna Works and Kuljettava Oy has invested in two fully electric Scania semi-trailer combinations, the first of which started deliveries of steel products on January 9, 2025 to SSAB’s customers within up to 100-km radius of the Hämeenlinna Works.
The first delivery by e-truck to SSAB’s customer in Finland left Hämeenlinna Works for BE Group in Lahti on January 9, 2025.
”It’s great that the first e-truck transports have now left Hämeenlinna to go to Finnish customers. This supports our own goals to reduce transport emissions and to respond to customer wishes. Customers have long shown an interest in lower-emission transports, and we are now able to respond to that demand,” says Lotta Ruottinen, Sales Director, Finland and Baltics at SSAB Europe.
“We’re proud to have started operating and to have taken the first step in zero-emission electric heavy-duty road transport. In line with our joint strategy, we will continue to work with SSAB to reduce transport emissions. It's great to see what electricity as a means of power already allows us to do. Going forward, it will enable scaling more extensively as part of our solutions for reducing heavy-duty vehicle emissions,” says CEO Tommi Välimäki at Kuljettava Oy.
Lotta Ruottinen, Sales Director, Finland and Baltics, SSAB Europe and Jussi Saukkonen and Antti Häkkinen from Kuljettava Oy.
SSAB aims to largely eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from its own operations in around 2030. The company’s own customers, too, aim to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in their own operations.
The e-trucks are the latest technology and also reduce noise nuisance since an electric motor in itself does not make a noise. These fully electric trucks are among the largest in terms of total mass to operate in regular customer deliveries in Finland.
The joint project between SSAB and Kuljettava Oy launched in May 2023 with preliminary studies and will last until September 2025. The main objective of the project is to investigate the feasibility of the electrification of heavy-duty industrial local transport in a commercially sustainable way to reduce emissions.
The project will collect a wide range of data, including performance data and practical experience of charging times and operating range, when e-trucks are used for short-distance deliveries of steel products.
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom has granted support to the project, which aims to enable emission-free heavy industrial transports. The data collected will be used in Tampere University’s and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland’s Six Hove project, which aims through a feasibility study to electrify heavy transport and reduce emissions.
