Months of preparation culminated in early March 2023: The Lord Mayor of the City of Hanover, Belit Onay, handed over Europe‘s first fully electric ambulance in the 5.5 t class, the WAS 500 E-ambulance, into regular operation at Fire and Rescue Station 1. Hanover has committed itself to the traffic turnaround in its own vehicle fleet and has set a focus on the use of commercial vehicles in urban civil protection operations. So what could be more natural than to take a look at the new series-production vehicle from WAS?
Hanover as pioneer for active climate protection.
Mayor Onay described the significance of the event in front of the assembled press: “It is a special concern of mine to pursue active climate protection within the entire city administration. I am proud that we in Hanover are pioneers in actually putting
environmentally friendly emergency vehicles on the road.” The First City Councillor and Head of the Fire Brigade, Dr. Axel von der Ohe, emphasised the economic aspects: “The commissioning of the all-electric ambulance shows that rapid assistance and climate protection are also possible under the imperative of economic efficiency and economical use of tax resources.” Christoph Bahlmann, chief of the fire brigade, referred to the
infrastructural requirements that had to be created so that, given the high frequency of use of the E-ambulance, as much of the downtime as possible could be used to charge the batteries. According to Bahlmann, the patient handover times at the hospitals are ideal for this. For this reason, the topic of charging infrastructure had already been discussed in advance with the municipal hospitals. The charging infrastructure will be in place at all Hanover region hospital sites in time for the handover of the E-ambulance.
Advantages of the WAS 500 E-Ambulance beyond climate protection.
For those who use the vehicle on a daily basis, there are of course many other features that go beyond climate protection. These advantages over conventionally powered models were particularly appreciated by the rescue teams:
- The powerful acceleration
- The very good deceleration due to electric energy recovery (recuperation)
- Significant reduction of brake wear due to recuperation
- Safe road handling - among other things due to batteries installed in the chassis frame
- Extremely low driving noise in the interior (driver and patient compartment)
- No engine noise and emissions when the vehicle is stationary during patient care at the scene of the emergency or in the vehicle
The team of Fire and Rescue Station 1 attached great importance to the interior design of the vehicle being as identical as possible to the existing ambulances with diesel engines. The
uniform equipment is of great importance for the targeted and rapid treatment of patients under emergency conditions. In this context, those responsible were very positive about the joint project work with the WAS team. Many thanks for this and have a good trip with the new vehicle!
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