FIRST IN EUROPE/ Assembles industrial vehicles using bio-LPG; and already has orders from Urbaser and Cepsa.
Marián Fuentes. Bilbao
The motor company Begas and the trailer group Leciñena have joined the CDTI, the Basque civil servants’ mutual fund Itzarri, the Easo funds, Full Global Investments (FGI) and Seed (dependent on the Provincial Council of Vizcaya) to launch the new truck manufacturer Herko, which will be the first in Europe to manufacture industrial vehicles powered by bioautogas or bio-LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), from the recycling of organic matter. This alternative fuel is “sustainable, profitable and available”; it has practically no carbon footprint, and the EU recognises it as a key energy vector for decarbonisation objectives,
according to the company.
The new company will be located in Zierbena (Vizcaya) and will begin serial production within 9 months. The BIOS 35, a net-zero emissions truck, will come from this town, which will reduce noise pollution by half; and which is designed for transport between cities, last mile logistics, and urban services such as garbage collection, street cleaning and maintenance.
Herko already has “strategic suppliers”, its managers assure. The engine will be from Begas; the chassis, from Leciñena; the automatic gearbox, from ZF; and the stability system, ABS and EPS, from Bosch.
Orders
The current shareholders plan to launch a new round of financing to bring in other partners and expand their resources. In total, they are planning an initial investment of 15 million euros.
Currently, Herko has 30 orders from companies such as Urbaser and Cepsa, which will be delivered from June; and with letters of interest for another 650 vehicles from logistics and urban services companies. The company plans to manufacture more than 1,000 units in three years: 130 this year; 300 in 2024 and 640 in 2025.
In this time, the turnover will be around 28 million euros. In its first years of activity, the company will create 70 direct jobs and around 150 indirect jobs.
BIOAUTOGÁS
Herko has joined the strategic agreement led by Cepsa to promote the use of bioautogas in professional urban transport vehicles. Car manufacturers and fleet management companies have joined the agreement.
Autonomy
The new BIOS 35 truck will be able to circulate without restrictions in low-emission zones in city centres; and travel 800 kilometres without refuelling, 50%
more than electric vehicles. In addition to bioautogas, it will be able to use LPG without having to adapt the engine.
Herko executives highlight the advantages of their bioautogas truck in relation to similar electric vehicles. According to the company, the price will be 30% cheaper, and its payload capacity – 1.5 tons – will be double. It will have an average lifespan of 14 years and will only require a type B license to drive it, since its maximum authorized mass (MAM) will be less than 3.5 tons.
According to the company, the industrial vehicle model that it is going to produce represents a market opportunity, since of the 8,000 trucks in this segment registered in Spain, only 103 – barely 1% – use alternative energies, while in the urban bus sector this percentage rises to 80%. “There is a lack of models for this type of vehicle, and we aspire to become a benchmark in sustainable mobility within the energy transition process,” conclude those responsible for Herko.
Mass production will begin in September, and in three years it will manufacture more than 1,000 vehicles
The Basque Country will host the first bio-autogas truck factory in Spain
The facilities, which will be ready in the autumn, will be located in Bizkaia with a construction capacity of up to 3,000 units
The Basque company Herko Truck will open the first bio-autogas truck factory in Spain next autumn. These facilities will be located in the Biscayan town of Zierbena and will deal with the complete assembly of the engine, chassis and finishes of a vehicle intended for the transport of goods between nearby cities, the ‘last mile’, as well as being adaptable for service uses such as sweepers or waste collection.
The work, which will be presented today by the company’s managers, is already underway with the aim of having the automated assembly line in operation next autumn, giving employment to 70 people and with a manufacturing capacity of 3,000 units per year.
Herko Truck was born as a new business division driven by two companies: Begas, a manufacturer of alternative energy engines with a plant in Amorebieta and Leciñena, a company specializing in the construction of truck trailers and chassis structures based in Zaragoza. The engine developed by Begas was approved on October 12 by the European Union and according to the director of the company, the company is certified by the European Union.
The company’s general manager, Agustín Canales, presents an alternative that is “efficient, cheap and sustainable” and that makes it of key importance at this time. Thus, he points out, “the problem is not going to be finding orders, but rather seeing how we can meet all the demand.” Leal explains that the autobiogas obtained from recycling organic materials is a fuel that already has approval for vehicles by both the DGT, with the ‘ECO’ certificate, and by the European Union, with the ‘Euro VI Step E, the strictest in the limitation of gas emissions. It is therefore a more accessible reality “because it has 860 refueling points in Spain.”
The engine of the ‘Herko Bios 35’, the first truck to be produced at the Basque plant, will have a range of 800 kilometres that allows it to provide a service beyond the so-called ‘last mile’. The company’s general manager explains that the natural market for its production will be delivery companies and cleaning and citizen services companies that receive contracts from city councils.
This month, Cepsa signed an agreement on the 12th with Herko and other companies in the sector to promote the use of autobiogas in professional urban transport vehicles.
The factory, in addition to Begas and Leciñena, is owned by the investment funds Easo Ventures, owned by the Basque businessman José Poza, and Full Global Investments. In addition, the Basque Government has participated through the capital of the ESPV Itzarri and the Provincial Council of Bizkaia with its venture capital tool ‘Seed Capital Bizkaia’.
The plant has been awarded 900,000 euros by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, through the CDTI, within the ‘Innvierte’ program.
