Losing a loved one is never easy. Neither is planning a funeral afterward.
Now a firm in the U.K. claims it can help provide an appropriate form of transport for electric car owners looking for a green way to make their final journeys.
An engineering firm with several years of experience with plug-in hybrid technology, Brahms Electric Vehicles, is now looking for clients for its new line of electric vehicles: plug-in hybrid hearses.
It all makes sense from an engineering point of view. Hearses are traditionally large luxury cars which have been modified for the purpose of taking the dead to their resting places.
Often fitted out with extra wooden paneling and metalwork to enable them to undertake their duties with dignity, most hearses aren’t particularly good on fuel economy either -- especially when forming the head of a slow-moving funeral cortege.
And since most hearses travel very short distances between funeral ceremonies and graveyards, electric vehicles are perfect for the purpose.
Brahms’ current electric hearse -- built from a Mercedes-Benz Station wagon -- is only a proof-of-concept vehicle to give funeral directors an idea of what is possible with a plug-in vehicle.
It only showcases the plug-in hybrid drivetrain developed by the team at Brahms, and comes with none of the accouterments normally associated with a hearse.
Brahms Plug-in Hybrid Hearse
In other words, the current demonstration vehicle is little more than a plug-in station wagon with the rear seats folded down and an ecologically-sound coffin placed in the load bay for demonstration purposes.
When we viewed the car yesterday, we have to admit to feeling a little disappointed - especially as we feel a plug-in station-wagon conversion may have more interest from consumers than a plug-in hearse.
As a consequence, the proof-of concept vehicle doesn’t take into account the large amount of coachwork modifications normally associated with a hearse. Speaking to a representative of Brahms, we were told that the firm was in the process of liaising with various hearse coach-builders to find a suitable partner to produce the electrified hearses.
We’d love to see electrified hearses become reality, although perhaps not quite in the same way as Screaming Banshee, a 1973 Cadillac Hearse being converted to electric power by an enthusiast in Reno, Nevada.
[Brahms Electric Vehicles]
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