Cauvas takes France’s first all-electric Spierings crane

A 2.50 m wide crane for closed city streets

The City Boy is the smallest machine in the Spierings range and the delivery to Cauvas is aimed squarely at sites conventional cranes can no longer reach. At 2.50 m wide it fits streets and access routes in dense city centres where larger mobile cranes are effectively excluded.

The hybrid concept covers both halves of the job: the crane drives to site on the road and then works in fully electric mode, either on battery or from a 16 A or 32 A mains connection. That combination allows night work and operation inside low emission zones without noise or exhaust emissions — the two constraints that most often close urban sites to lifting work.

Four reasons for the order

Cauvas set out its selection criteria as compactness, zero emissions and zero noise, the engineering behind the machine, and service back-up. On the last point, Spierings is providing 24/7 assistance to cover the customer’s frequent night operations, with the Smart Connect 4G modem allowing remote diagnostics and fault-finding at any hour — a practical requirement when a crane is working at 02:00 in a city centre.

“What we value most is the City Boy’s unique electric versatility on the French market, combined with Spierings’ recognised expertise. With the City Boy, we want to create a new market by offering our clients a lifting solution for sites with restricted access, especially in city centres. It also allows us to meet the growing demand for environmentally responsible lifting solutions.”

— Benjamin Cauvas, Director, Cauvas Group

A first for the French market

The Cauvas Group is a family business with more than 50 years behind it, working across lifting, transport, handling and access platforms. Its fleet runs to over 25 cranes from 30 to 450 tonnes plus five mobile tower cranes, and through the Occilev entity it operates across the Île-de-France region from depots at Bonneuil-en-France and Lisses.

For Spierings, developed and built in the Netherlands, the delivery marks the entry of fully electric mobile tower crane capability into a French market where urban site restrictions are steadily tightening. In France the manufacturer is represented by sales representative David Colombat.

Source: Spierings — Photos: Spierings