France / Belgium - Albi, France-based Safra, long established renovator of buses, trams, metro and funicular vehicles – and more recently as a specialist electric bus builder, has been developing rear underslung modular drive units for both hybrid and fuel cell powered Businova buses. Its hybrid is claimed to deliver fuel economy of under 15 litres/100 km. However, exploiting a fuel cell drive in conjunction with a complete Dana electric drive system it has been having success in gaining multiple orders for new hydrogen-fuelled Businova models.

Citing orders for six units from Artois Gohelle, five from Versailles, one from Le Mans and five for Hyport (Toulouse Airport), managing director Vincent Lemaire said: “Currently, 80% of our incoming enquiries are for hydrogen buses. Our Businova H2 gained official approval in early October and we will be busy building them in 2020. Our H2 buses have a minimum range of 350km and can be fast charged in just 15 minutes. They have a very small battery requirement therefore deliver an extremely low carbon footprint.”