Benteler from Paderborn – the nucleus of Holon
Paderborn, a large city in the south-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, has been home to the metal processing company Benteler since 1876. ‘We love metal,’ says Benteler, ’we love working with it.’
With the ‘birth’ of the automobile, Benteler also became an important supplier to the automotive industry. With which the company achieved success for more than 100 years. However, nobody at Benteler initially thought of becoming active with their own vehicles.
This changed when it became clear that in future there would also be vehicles that travelled autonomously (alone without a driver) and took passengers from A to B. Benteler wanted to be part of this. Benteler wants to be part of this, and has been since 2022, i.e. for three years. The subsidiary Holon was founded to (initially) develop autonomous shuttles (minibuses) and bring them to market. Holon? That’s Greek and means something like ‘part of a whole’ … This term was coined by the Austro-Hungarian writer Arthur Koestler, born in Budapest in 1905.
The first Holon
The first Holon was called ‘Mover’ and was (and still is) characterised by its unorthodox styling, for which the well-known design company Pininfarina is responsible. Symetries are not his thing; he took the liberty of carrying a body on a naturally classic rectangular floor assembly, in which the right and left sides of the car are clearly different. And not only because the car (naturally) only has a – double-width – door on one side. The windows at the front and rear are also surprisingly asymmetrical. The bar that separates the left-hand part of the windscreen from the right-hand part is not neatly positioned in the centre, but is clearly shifted to one side.
The Holon will be built in a factory in Jacksonville, Florida, and at least in the USA. It remains to be seen with some excitement whether US President Donald Trump’s tariff schemes will change this. It might make more sense to build cars for the American market in Florida and for all other markets in Europe.
Holon sees its autonomous bus not only being used on scheduled routes (with few passengers), but also in on-demand transport, and there also in conjunction with ride pooling. This means that if two passengers book two journeys with similar routes at roughly the same time, they will be combined.
It should also be mentioned that the ‘Holon Mover’ is now called ‘Holon Urban’. Visually, it has remained true to itself, but significant technical developments have been made in recent times.
Passenger capacity
The small Holon is designed for 15 passengers, for whom seats are available that also go round the corner in the form of a continuous, upholstered bench. Of course, there is also standing room. On the right-hand side of the carriage there is a wide, double-leaf exterior swing door, and of course there is also an automated ramp for wheelchairs and pushchairs to reach the interior. It has to be automated: the autonomous bus does not have a driver who could be told to fold out the ramp.
The technology of autonomous driving
The technology for autonomous driving comes from the Israeli company Mobileye and is of its ‘Drive’ type. It combines six short-range lidars, three long-range lidars, six radar sensors and 11 camera systems. This allows the Holon to monitor its entire surroundings from a 360-degree angle. And can react to it.
The Holon can be steered on all four wheels and is therefore very manoeuvrable in traffic. The batteries are located half above each of the two axles. Holon claims that the car has a range of 290 kilometres.
It is designed to travel at a top speed of 60 kilometres per hour, which is remarkably fast compared to what the cautious legislators allow today.
Test operation in Hamburg from August
In August, the first Holon will be handed over to Hamburger Hochbahn. It will then go into test operation, initially without passengers but with a safety ‘operator’. If it proves its worth, a phase with the first passengers will follow. Initially, however, this will not be everyone who would like to take a ride, but rather people who have applied to be test passengers. In the third phase, anyone will be able to take a ride. And the fourth phase? Then the little Holon will be travelling without an ‘operator’ – and therefore truly autonomous.
And when will that be? Holon says honestly that it is not yet possible to give a date. That depends above all on how quickly German and European legislators authorise autonomous driving without an operator.
We already reported on the Holon project here:
