Electric drives
Charged and ready to go.
By integrating the latest electro-technology into our coaches and buses, we are making the switch to exclusively all-electric drives in our public transport and coaches.
We take you into the green world of electric drives,
from conceptualisation to prototyping, elaboration and testing. Our engineers are constantly working to keep everything running as it should.
Drive types
In the future, every drive we offer will be all-electric. There is still a choice in the type of drive. You can drive fully battery-electric, trolley electric – where the electricity from a network is fed through a pantograph – or fuel cell electric, where a hydrogen cell supplies the necessary electricity to the internal battery that in turn provides the drive.
Battery
TROLLEY
FUEL CELL
CREATIONS
Here are some examples of creations in use throughout the world.
Batteries
Van Hool enters into many partnerships with suppliers as demand from the market, customers or the economy requires. For buses and coaches, there is a need for robust and reliable solutions. The batteries must be able to deliver enormous power. In addition, they must be easy to maintain and be linked to a whole series of safety systems before they can be used in practice.
Proterra
The batteries in Van Hool vehicles are Proterra batteries: powerful batteries that can be neatly integrated with the various systems.
Type
The range of the battery depends on various factors such as environment, occupancy and layout of the bus. However, we have progressed to the point where buses and coaches can now switch to a 100% environmentally friendly drive without any problems.
Fuel Cell
Fuel Cell or hydrogen is definitely the most environmentally friendly drive. With nothing but pure water vapour as emission, this is an environmental dream. The difficulty lies in the infrastructure, extraction and transport of the hydrogen.
Van Hool has been a forerunner in integrating Fuel Cells into its public transport buses since the technology first emerged.
For cities looking to be pioneers and gain the necessary experience, there are many Van Hool Fuel Cell projects doing the rounds.
Ballard
Ballard is one of the well-known producers of Fuel Cells. Van Hool and Ballard have already gained a lot of experience and have become permanent partners.
Type
For our Fuel Cell buses we use a Heavy Duty Fuel Cell from Ballard. These are known for their robustness, reliability and long range.