Altra S.p.A.
ALTRA (ALternative TRActions) is a legal entity of CNH INDUSTRIAL, global leader in the capital goods sector that, through its various businesses, designs, produces and sells agricultural and construction equipment, trucks, commercial vehicles, buses and specialty vehicles, in addition to a broad portfolio of powertrain applications.
The Company is the Iveco’s Engineering Center of Excellence for Alternative traction vehicles and Electrified powertrain systems, providing innovative projects to all Iveco Business Units (Medium & Heavy, LCV, BUS, Special Vehicles) and technical servicing to IVECO Customer Centre Assistance, as regards to electric and hybrid vehicles in Italy and abroad.
Altra main areas of focus are:
- technological development of alternative traction systems and products;
- research of new solutions for environmental impact reduction and energy saving;
- design of subsystems and mechanical, electrical and electronic components for power/energy conversion;
- improvement of all-electric and hybrid vehicles driveability;
- commitment on electric and hybrid vehicles reliability, through an advanced electronic control system with in-vehicle communication (using the CAN network).
Moreover, ALTRA has been involved in some CNH INDUSTRIAL advanced projects in the agricultural and construction equipment field, it is a CITELEC effective member and a CIVES (Commissione Italiana Veicoli Elettrici Stradali) member.
ALTRA started out in 1987, as a R&D activity focused on alternative fuel and traction systems applied to the urban public transportation. The first project was the implementation of a small “thermal range extender” onto an urban bus, to solve the range autonomy problem.
In 1992 Altra displayed 3 vehicles at the World Congress on Electric Vehicles VS-13 (Electric Vehicle Symposium) of Florence: An Electric Daily (pure electric), a 6 m Altrobus on a Daily (hybrid) and a 12 m Altrobus on a 490 (hybrid).
In 2001 ALTRA completed the assembly of the second generation of its first electric bus: The Europolis, a 7,4 m technologically advanced vehicle, available in the electric and hybrid variation, it could afford a 18% inclination. The electric traction motor controlled by an inverter allows braking energy recovery.
In 2004 Altra (committed by Irisbus) in a joint venture with Ansaldo Ricerche, Sapio, International Fuel Cells, Exide, T_V and CRF, completed an electric and Hydrogen Fuel Cells CITYCLASS bus, that was the first Fuel Cells vehicle homologated in Italy. This bus was used to cover an urban line in Turin, during the Olympic Winter Games 2006.
In the following years Altra continued to work for extending alternative tractions to many Iveco vehicles, helping develop innovative projects, in a never-ending commitment to innovation, quality and CO2 pollution reduction.
The Company is located in Genoa, Italy, Via Gelasio Adamoli 237 F/G, where it covers an area of over 3.250 sqm, of which 2.050 sqm covered.
