The price-point competition that Scania is seeing from Chinese rivals in the market is mitigated by its premium brand status, guaranteeing road-freight reliability over risk-prone affordability, the Swedish original equipment manufacturer (OEM) believes.
According to Rikus Gouws, key accounts manager for Scania South Africa, its trucks are better suited for Africas robust road requirements, despite the price appeal of brands like FAW and Sinotruck.
They have aggressively targeted the African market through buy-back offers to gain market share.
He said although it had worked for them, he could not see how it was sustainable.
Theyve grown so fast the network required to service trucks across the region is not keeping pace. Buy-backs also place a contingent liability on your balance sheet and you have to make provision for that in two to three years. Its simply not Scanias business model. We rely on a premium that may cost more but also resells for a lot more, and thats what clients want second-hand quality.
Gouws said that in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, such as the Kasumbalesa border between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the breakdowns of certain brands led to serious fleet concerns. Thinking they were saving money by investing in cheaper brands, some fleet operators would buy ten out of every 50 trucks just for spare parts.
They have to sweat their assets, whereas we believe in longevity.
He said the durability of Scania trucks had been proved through having clients that bought into the OEMs focus on quality Spar and Reinhardt Transport, for example.
Most clients want to see more than just a return on investments (ROI). They want trustworthy trucks and when they re-fleet they want to see some kind of ROI based on a trucks ability to handle our conditions.
Gouws said Scania had specifically noted interest in the market in its decarbonisation innovations such as AdBlue, a consumption treatment that drove CO2 emissions down by as much as 10%.
From Shoprites point of view, there is a major drive towards sustainability. Thats why they are buying our Euro 5-standard trucks because it helps with their sustainability targets.
Spar alone, he said, ran a Scania-driven fleet of about 400 trucks.
In August 2025, the OEM intends to launch the Euro 6 range that, according to Gouws, will add 8% on top of the Euro 5s emission reduction.
So, yes, a premium brand may cost more, but in the long term, you save. We look at the total cost of ownership of our clients and, based on running expenses and diesel consumption, their financing shows a premium catch-up in the first year of owning one of our trucks.
Peace of mind doesnt come cheap.
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