IVECO BUS has won the prestigious Public Transport Innovation Award in the “Move Green!” Energy-Environment category, at a ceremony on the opening day of Transports Publics 2018, the European Mobility Exhibition in Paris, France.
Transports Publics 2018 brings together Europes leading players in the sustainable mobility sector showcasing the latest innovations in public transport equipment, techniques and management. The Public Transport Innovation Awards, organised under the auspices of the French Ministry for Ecological and Inclusive Transition, recognise European companies that are focusing on developing new products and services for public transportation. IVECO BUS, a brand of CNH Industrial N.V., has won the Move Green! category with its pioneering range of Urbanway and Crealis electric buses that combine two-wire overhead supply lines with battery-based power storage.
“This award is tremendous encouragement for our new generation of trolleybuses which complete our range of alternative traction vehicles, says Sylvain Blaise, vice president of IVECO, in charge of IVECO BUS. This award recognises the excellence of our range of natural gas and electric vehicles. Our multiple options enable us to meet the expectations of municipalities and operators, whatever their needs or preferred energy.
IVECO BUS trolleybus technology is more avant-garde and efficient than ever before providing zero-emission mobility for urban environments. Particularly recommended for cities with challenging topography, the technology guarantees excellent performance on hilly routes without compromising battery life or climate comfort. Operating time is maximised as the vehicles batteries recharge automatically when on roads with overhead lines using so called opportunity charging, which eliminates downtime for recharging. The trolleybuses are also capable of running on batteries for 25% to 40% of the route which ensures they can operate even on sections without overhead lines.
More than 800 trolleybuses designed and produced by IVECO BUS are already on the road in Europe. This new generation of vehicles is just one of a long line of improvements made by the company over many decades. In France, the municipalities of Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Limoges and Nancy operate IVECO BUS trolleybuses, as do the cities of Bologna in Italy, Brno, Plzen and Zlin in the Czech Republic and Bucharest, Cluj and Timisoara in Romania.
IVECO BUS, based in Lyon, France, designs the Urbanway and Crealis at its R&D center in Venissieux, and produces them at the Annonay plant in Ardèche. This site, which has been operating for over 100 years, has some 1,400 employees. Non-diesel alternative-fuel vehicles now constitute more than 50% of the plant’s production.