The French start-up Symone wants to present a working prototype of a bus with very unusual features next year.
The drive is already interesting, as the company is developing the bus as a vehicle with an electric drive on hydrogen fuel cells.
But the overall concept is even more interesting. It is supposed to be a double-decker bus that, in addition to people, will also transport their cars or motorcycles. In simple terms, we can imagine this vehicle as a kind of road or rather highway alternative to a car train.
Symone offers its solution as a way to reduce traffic especially on highways and at the same time reduce the impact of travel on the environment. Of course, the company works with the assumption that a loaded bus – especially a hydrogen bus – will burden the environment significantly less than if passengers traveled the same route on their own with their cars and motorcycles. They will still have cars and motorbikes with them and will be able to use them normally at the destination. The company further claims that its design could also have a positive effect on road safety.
The bus should offer space for 20 passengers and for a maximum of 5 cars and up to 5 motorcycles. The vehicles will find a place “on the floor”, and the loading time will reportedly take a maximum of 15 minutes.
In the cabin, the company promises passengers high comfort, comfortable seats, entertainment system, Wi-Fi connection or snacks. Booking tickets, or rather seats, will take place via the company’s website or via a phone application.
Symone wants to present a working prototype next year. The date is not chosen by chance – at the end of July, the summer Olympic Games will start in Paris and the attention of the whole world will be focused on France. And the start-up would like to take advantage of it. By 2030, the company would like to build at least a hundred of these special buses.
