The new Scania S series flagship truck has bagged the International Truck Of the Year (ITOY) award. A jury of 25 commercial vehicle editors and senior journalists, representing 25 major trucking magazines from throughout Europe chose the Scania truck with a score of 149 votes. The Swedish truck series fought off the challenge posed by Iveco’s recently-launched Stralis XP-NP long-haul range and Mercedes-Benz’s Actros heavy-duty truck with the latest generation OM 471 engine. Gianenrico Griffini, Chairman of the ITOY consortium handed over the award to Henrik Henriksson, President and CEO of Scania, during the press day of the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in Hannover, Germany. Expressed Henrik Henriksson, Scania’s President and CEO, “This award is the leading recognition in the industry that all our engineers and in practice the entire Scania organisation have done an excellent job. Our goal is to always meet our customers’ expectations and needs and the jury’s motivation is a clear confirmation that we have also followed the right approach with the new truck generation.” Speaking about the selection of Scania S Series for the award, Gianenrico Griffini, mentioned that Scania, through its range, has delivered a truck that represents a real ‘state-of-the-art’ offering in the heavy-duty segment.

It is capable of satisfying not only today’s but also tomorrow’s transport needs. “The S cab, with its flat floor, offers a truly car-like driving experience,” Griffini added. He drew attention to the fact that during the course of the process, the ITOY jury particularly looked at Scania’s tailored service offering, which is based on the fact that more than 200,000 connected Scanias are out on the roads. Offering exceptional comfort and unrivalled space, the Scania S series could be had with dual side curtain airbags, a safety feature, which Scania claims is the first truck manufacturer the world over to offer. Said Henriksson, that the S series truck was developed by 3,500 Scania engineers in close dialogue with its customers. “The award shows that Sweden is still a leading industrial nation and that we can compete in the world markets,” he added. Based on the International Truck of the Year (ITOY) rules, the annual award is presented to the truck introduced into the market in the previous 12 months which has made the greatest contribution to road transport efficiency, based on several important criteria including technological innovation, comfort, safety, driveability, fuel economy, environmental ‘footprint’ and Total Operation Economy (TOE). Commercial Vehicle is an ITOY associate magazine, and represents India.