Oct 25, 2009, 11:20 GMT
Vienna - An Austrian coachman says he has developed the world's first hybrid horse carriage with an electrical motor - not to save carbon emissions, but to make the animals' lives easier, Austrian broadcaster ORF reported Sunday.
While carmakers are racing to bring hybrid vehicles on the market, Mario Steiner thought about how he could improve the real horsepower on his vehicle that carries tourists through the Tyrolean mountains around his hometown of Matrei.
After two years of tinkering with the help of colleagues, Steiner, 43, has come up with a motor that helps his two horses carry passengers up steep mountain roads. When the motor is switched off and the animals pull all the weight, the battery is being partly recharged.
'Hikers and animal rights activists often complained that the animals work too much,' Steiner told the regional weekly Osttiroler Bote. 'Since I have had the batteries, I haven't heard negative comments.'
The coachman says he researched the internet, but could not find any other electrical hybrid carriage. There are auxiliary petrol engines, but Steiner did not want to pollute the mountain air.
Come winter, Steiner's horses have to make do without modern technology again, when they draw a sledge instead of a carriage with wheels.
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