Royal message: Scania ethanol buses to be tested in Brazil

Royal message: Scania ethanol buses to be tested in Brazil

São Paulo, Brazil is one of several major cities where Scania's ethanol-powered
buses will now be tested in public transport. The first bus will go into service
in October. This was announced earlier today as President Lula da Silva during
his state visit to Sweden had a test ride in one of Scania's ethanol buses
together with HM King Carl XVI Gustaf and Scania's CEO Leif Östling.

The bus will be operated by the transport company Empresa Metropolitana de
Transportes Urbanos de São Paulo (EMTU/SP), and the trial will be co-ordinated
by biofuel experts at the Brazilian Reference Centre on Biomass (Cenbio), which
is linked to the University of São Paulo.

The field trials of Scania's ethanol buses in São Paulo will occur as part of
the BioEthanol for Sustainable Transport (BEST) project. The aim of the BEST
project is to support the large-scale use of ethanol as a vehicle fuel. Trials
take are taking place in ten urban areas around the world. Scania is supplying
the city buses included in the project.

The BEST project is building ethanol refuelling stations in ten locations around
the world and carrying out trials involving both cars and city buses. In
addition to São Paulo, participating locations include Stockholm, Rotterdam,
Dublin, La Spezia (Italy), Madrid, the Basque provinces of Spain and Nanyang
(China).

The BEST project was started by representatives of the Stockholm regional public
transport company Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL) and is now partly financed by
the European Union (EU). The aim is to pave the way for broad-based acceptance
of ethanol as a viable alternative fuel for both cars and commercial vehicles.

Scania started to develop ethanol buses in the mid-1980s in close co-operation
with SL. After more than 15 years of regular full-scale operation in tough city
conditions, SL considers it a fully proven bus technology. There are no
operational drawbacks as long as the scheduled maintenance requirements are
followed. The buses themselves are completely standard, using regular Scania
components.

Since the late 1980s, Scania has delivered more than 600 ethanol buses to
Swedish public transport companies, and the technology has yielded major
environmental gains. Ethanol is a renewable fuel that does not make a net
contribution of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

As early as 1989, Scania's ethanol engine met Euro 3 emission standards, which
became compulsory in 2001. The second ethanol engine generation was introduced
in 1996 and meets Euro 4 emission standards, which have been in effect since
2006. 

Scania recently unveiled its third-generation ethanol engines, which have the
same thermal efficiency as a regular diesel engine and meanwhile are certified
for both Euro 5 and EEV standards. Euro 5 becomes compulsory in the EU in
October 2009.

Interest in renewable alternative fuels is spreading rapidly around the world.
One reason is the rising oil price, which makes the alternatives more
competitive. Local fuel production based on renewable materials will reduce
dependency on imported oil.

Another increasingly strong reason for the interest in ethanol and other
renewable fuels is the growing concern about global warming, which is considered
to be caused largely by carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. Since they
make no net contribution of CO2 to the atmosphere, alternative fuels reduce the
impact of transport on the greenhouse effect.

Scania's position is that by sticking to established technologies, the
transition to alternative fuels will be smooth and cost-effective. In Scania's
case, this means using pure ethanol with 5 per cent ignition improver in an
engine that works efficiently according to the diesel principle.

Ethanol can be produced from sugar cane and sugar beets, as well as from cereals
and biowaste. The technology is developing continuously. Recent findings include
technologies for producing ethanol from cellulose and burning the residual
products in district heating or electricity generating plants.

For further information, please contact Urban Wästljung, Public and
Environmental Affairs, mobile phone +46 70 53716 19, e-mail
urban.wastljung@scania.com




Scania is one of the world's leading manufacturers of trucks and buses for heavy
transport applications, and of industrial and marine engines. A growing
proportion of the company's operations consists of products and services in the
financial and service sectors, assuring Scania customers of cost-effective
transport solutions and maximum uptime. Employing 32,800 people, Scania operates
in about 100 countries. Research and development activities are concentrated in
Sweden, while production takes place in Europe and South America, with
facilities for global interchange of both components and complete vehicles. In
2006, invoiced sales totalled SEK 70.7 billion and the net income amounted to
SEK 5.9 billion. 


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