Think Railways

Alstom will supply two H3 hybrid shunting locomotives for Audi’s freight transport. The automotive manufacturer will use the shunting locomotives to reorganise its factory traffic in Ingolstadt. The locomotives will be delivered at the end of 2015 and the end of 2016.

The three-axle H3 hybrid locomotive consumes up to 50% less fuel than conventional shunting locomotives and cuts pollutant emissions by up to 70%. Noise emissions are also significantly reduced. The 350 kW diesel generator meets the requirements of exhaust gas standard stage IIIB1. Depending on the application, the H3 hybrid locomotive will spend between 50% and 75% of its service time in battery mode. This makes emission-free rail transport possible. The locomotive achieves a maximum speed of 100 kilometres per hour which is very suitable for mainline traffic.

“Alstom is pleased to count Audi amongst our H3 customers, after Deutsche Bahn and Volkswagen. The benefits of our newly developed shunting locomotive platform are multiple: the H3 is environmentally friendly, compact and powerful in terms of tractive force on starting. On top, the innovative hybrid traction allows to reduce energy cost significantly”,said Ralf Materzok, Managing Director in charge of locomotive services at Alstom in Germany.

“The size and performance of the locomotives are perfectly tailored to our requirements. Whereas the old traction vehicles consume over 20 litres of fuel per hour, the generator of the hybrid locomotive, which is needed only to charge the battery block, requires a maximum of nine litres per hour,” said Johann Schmid, Operations Manager for Audi’s industrial railroad at the location of Ingolstadt.