PageTitleHtml

​HISTORY: 1987 - 1991

ALTRA started out in the 1987, as a R&D activity focused on:

- alternative fuel and traction systems applied to thealternative fuel and traction systems applied to the urban public transportation;
- innovative and sustainable transport solutions.

It was a case of re-working the concept of electric vehicles and elaborating the traditional problems of operating range. So, at the Machine Institute of the Engineering Faculty it was decided to insert a small “thermal range extender” onto a vehicle to increase its range. After a year of theoretical energy calculations, the work group reached the conclusion that separating traction from generation, interposing a battery pack between an electric motor and a Diesel generator, was a solution that, applied to urban buses, would have given advantages regarding both consumption and exhaust fumes. It was necessary to prove the project’s validity by building a prototype and IVECO gave a disused minibus for free, guessing at the potential of this project. Field tests were performed on the prototype in August 1989 and the results were very satisfactory, so the team was challenged by IVECO with installing the alternative drive system onto a “real” bus to be presented at the Bus Show in Turin. A pact was signed between IVECO, Ansaldo Ricerche, Genova Ricerche e AMT Genova (the Local Council Transport Company).

This new prototype demonstrated the rightness of the solution, because “the scale effect” had not weakened the original project. As planned, the ALTROBUS was displayed at the Bus Show at Turin. For five days, the bus, labelled with the phrase “We have designed a vehicle to make an idea travel” ran through the area around the Lingotto zone full of operators in the sector and curious spectators.

In january 1991 IVECO Bus Division and Ansaldo Ricerche established to set up a joint Company, aimed to produce (over three years) the first «fleets» and subsequently start up a small serial production for a niche market. The year 1991 passed among wait, simple reflection on the prototypes and paperwork tooking over. Finally, on December 23, 1991, at the Genoa Research Consortium, the notary registered the ALTRA S.p.A. deed of partnership.
At the end of 1994, with the construction of 19 vehicles, the first goal could be said to have been reached.