Improvements include: low entrance due to an extremely low floor, very spacious medical space, low centre of gravity, better stability and comfort, low weight due to extensive use of synthetic material, correct distribution of load per axle, low fuel consumption, low maintenance costs, clever positioning of medical and other equipment in order to satisfy Safety and Health at Work regulations, ergonomically designed back-door, integrated air conditioning system and good interior lighting.

Lightweight technology 

The idea for a new ambulance was born at Fokker Aerostructures. This company had developed a synthetic material technology for lightweight constructions in planes, space stations, space shuttles and satellites.

This lightweight technology enables constructions weighing 40 % less than steel ones. Fokker was looking for new markets and considered the automotive industry.

With ambulances it is all about speed and skills. However due to problems with the gravity centre of certain old ambulances, these would fall over in road curves while rushing to an emergency or back to the hospital at a certain speed. These weight problems meant that in many ambulances driving at 120 km/hour was simply dangerous. Moreover the brakes could block despite the ABS-system. A new ambulance vehicle was necessary. Together with innovative ambulance services a project was set up for standardisation of the ambulance vehicle in order to enable high quality technologies to be built in series.

New Style Ambulance

An expert workgroup was set up under the leadership of Robert Oosterling (owner Joint Innovation Ltd.) as well as a steering committee of directors, both based in the ambulance sector. The renowned car manufacturer Terberg in IJsselstein was engaged for further development of a new ambulance vehicle. The workgroup, Terberg and specialists together developed the ambulance concept was into a full size model. After an extensive selection Volkswagen was chosen as the supplier of the engine, the transmission and the deformable zone for the ‘New Style Ambulance’. On the 4th of December 2007 Terberg delivered the first ambulance of the first production series to RAV (Regionale Ambulance Voorziening) Brabant Midden-West-Noord. In 2008 other ambulance services followed.

Article Terberg (Source: Bouwmateriaal, Author: Marloes Leijzer)    

Article Volkswagen Terberg, (Source: PON, Author: Peter Arends)