Climate zones

It’s their job to be out on the road, no matter how demanding conditions are: in the icy cold in Sweden, through heavy rain in Brazil, over mountainous terrain in Turkey. Haulage companies across the world put their trust in the reliability and efficiency of the Volkswagen Group’s commercial vehicles. We meet three people out on the road.

- 16 °C

Icy northeast wind
Central Sweden

Heavy loads and difficult terrain are no problem at all for Andre Själander, a fourth-generation timber transporter in Näsåker, central Sweden. His Scania R 730 8x4 has 537 kW (730 PS) behind it, enabling the four-axle truck from Södertälje to pull a total vehicle weight of up to 74 tonnes. “It can cope with any terrain”, says company owner Själander with some pride. And it’s really environmentally friendly – the powerful 16-liter V8 engine runs on biodiesel.

+ 21 °C

Rainy season
Central Brazil

Rogerio Oliveira de Santana is passionate about truck driving. The 30-year-old clocks up around 200,000 kilometers a year. His MAN TGX 29.440 6x4 can pull up to 80 tonnes. The summers in Central Brazil are hot and in winter there are heavy rains. Oliveira de Santana knows he can rely on his 324 kW (440 PS) tractor unit with two driven axles, “especially when the asphalt surface runs out and the rain has turned the dirt roads to mud”.

+ 15 °C

Spring
Turkey’s Mediterranean coast

Şaban Ürkmez calls his business in Antalya “The Little Bus Service”. When he is behind the wheel, he prefers to drive the Volkswagen Crafter Minibus1. The 13-seater copes just as easily with the stop-start city traffic as the steep, winding country roads in the mountainous hinterland. What’s more, the Crafter is “very comfortable for both the driver and his passengers”, says Mr. Ürkmez. As a business owner, he particularly appreciates the two-liter TDI engine with 120 kW (163 PS), low fuel consumption and low maintenance costs.

1 Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Crafter Kombi fuel consumption in l/100 km combined from 8.3 to 6.3; CO2 emissions in g/km combined from 218 to 166.

TEXT
Tina Rumpelt

PHOTOGRAPHY
Göran Wink, Marcos Camargo, Matthias Haslauer