CLAES Equipement

CLAES Équipement makes fully electric industrial snow-clearing equipment: multi-purpose trucks, snow blowers and towed brooms. Its detachable snow blower, the Dragon Électrique, is built for urban snow clearing. The company sells to public and private airport operators, to companies that clear airports and to road maintenance services. Its machines replace the diesel equipment that does the same work.

Clearing a runway or an arterial road is done with diesel today. Fuel and maintenance for these machines weigh on the operating budget, they emit greenhouse gases, and they are noisy for the operator as well as for the neighbourhood they go through.

The product

The team is designing 100% electric vehicles and tools, with power designed to match that of diesel equipment. A paid pilot project is under way, and the company has received letters of intent from several customers. The founders are Mickael Claes and Viviane Chabot.

What it changes in practice

• The operation no longer produces exhaust, because the machines are fully electric. For the Dragon Électrique, the company announces up to 105 tonnes of GHG avoided per year.
• Fuel and maintenance costs go down, because an electric powertrain replaces the diesel engine.
• Noise on the job site drops, because the machine has no combustion engine.

Together towards carbon neutrality