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Alero's waiting to serve
Page 59
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Last week Colin Barnett witnessed the birth of a new concept in the field of specialist commercial vehicles...
design with a social conscience...
Regular readers may recall our report on Owen Evans, a research associate at the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre of the Royal College of Art, who was awarded a year's sponsorship from bus builder Optare to investigate alternative uses for the Alero small bus.
One year on we've been back to the RCA to see how the project has shaped up, and the shape in question is the Alero CSV (community service vehicle).
Exclusion remit
In keeping with the Helen Hamlyn Centre's remit to provide solutions for excluded parts of society, the CSV is principally intended to provide a flexible mobile replacement for the public services that have vanished from many local communities, from deepest countryside to innermost cities. Obvious uses are as mobile libraries or play centres, but the modular design means that almost anything is possible within the confines of the walls, or beyond, if awnings are used.
As well as service-based applications such as advice centres, medical facilities, computer training or internet access, more commercial uses could be mobile retailing or specialised parcel delivery.
Key to the Alero CSV's versatility is a network of pre-installed mounting rails, to which a wide variety of modular interior fittings and furnishings can be mounted. it will be possible to combine these mountings with conventional passenger seat mounting points if specified before build.
A small area at the rear of the body is boxed off as a housing for electrical power equipment such as a generator or inverters. This gives a raised floor area which is the only significant intrusion aft of the driving area.
The concept's versatility is further enhanced by the availability of a matching trailer, adding 50% more space and the chance to offer more than one application at a time.
No accurate costings are yet available but the Alero base vehicle's construction makes it significantly more expensive than a conventional van chassis and coachbuilt body alternative, so it's unlikely to be competitive as a straightforward goods vehicle for the mass market. But it is these traditional products that the Alero CSV must compete against for more specialised applications.
Now at the "virtual" proof of concept stage, the next step is to persuade potential buyers to provide sufficient interest for the project to move from computer monitor to reality. •