French startup Symone is developing an unusual car transporter bus that will allow long distance travel on motorways. Car drivers on such trips will save energy by relaxing in the first class cabin, and at the same time the level of harmful emissions into the atmosphere will be reduced.
France is one of the pioneers of hydrogen energy, our readers are already familiar with NamX hydrogen launches and Hopium, but we have not yet talked about Symone, although it presented its concept of a hydrogen bus-car carrier last year. Since then, Symone has managed to successfully complete the first round of financing — it received 240,000 euros from investors, another 110,000 euros were given as a grant by the government of the French region of Burgundy — Franche-Comté, but this, of course, is very little, based on the stated goals and objectives, requiring millions of euros.
Symone is named after the famous French racer Simone Louise de Forest, who competed quite successfully in the 1930s and, besides In addition, I remember the fact that I never got into an accident. The Symone Car Transporter was designed to offer the world a new, safe and environmentally friendly way to travel.
Symone developers proceeded from the fact that in traditional car travel, drivers spend a lot of effort, time and energy (fuel or electricity) on monotonous driving on highways, and when they get to their destination, they simply don’t have the strength to go sightseeing — they need to rest, sleep and recover. In France, with its developed railway network, you can immerse yourself with a car on a train, but the train depends on the schedule and is tied to loading and unloading terminals, while the car transporter bus can arrive anywhere, in any outback, if a decent road is laid to it.
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Symone is designed for 18 passengers and five cars (or four cars and five motorcycles), cars ride on the second floor, people on the first floor, this arrangement was chosen for reasons of ease of entry and exit, including for people with disabilities. Loading equipment takes 10-15 minutes, and passengers can immediately go into the cabin and enjoy their vacation. The salon is decorated according to first class standards: comfortable seats, multimedia entertainment, food and drinks, a comfortable bathroom.Reservations will need to be made through the Symone mobile app. The cost of the trip has not yet been specified, but it is reported that it will be comparable to the cost of a trip in a conventional car, taking into account fuel and wear and tear, only in Symone the driver will be as fresh as a cucumber after a long haul. In theory, fully self-driving cars can also solve the problem of fatigue, but the founders of Symone rightly believe that in the coming decades we will not see self-driving cars in which the driver can sleep on the road.
The start-up Symone does not reveal details about the hydrogen power plant of its car transporter bus, but promises to present a prototype by the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Even the developers themselves hardly know when the commercial operation of Symone buses will begin — the project is too complicated and expensive. So far, the company offers motorcycle tours for starters: a spacious minivan pulls a trailer with five motorcycles, takes the group to the desired point, then the motorcyclists ride on their own through picturesque places. However, there are quite a lot of similar offers for motorcyclists in Europe today, but the bus-car transporter has no competitors yet.