June the 8th, 2022 - The Croatian company Rasco's Lynx charge electric cleaners are set to be delivered to Israel. This business move will certainly place this successful Croatian enterprise even more firmly on the map as a manufacturer and exporter abroad.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, after failing to hold the 2020 fair due to the global coronavirus pandemic, Europe’s largest utility equipment fair finally manage to make a welcome return in full glory last week. Munich's IFAT also has the epithet of the world's largest fair for environmental technologies, as sustainability in the use of resources and reduction of harmful effects on the climate were the main topics of this year's fair.

The Croatian company Rasco, which is a well known utility equipment manufacturer, participated among 2,984 exhibitors from as many as 59 countries. As sustainable development is an important part of the Croatian company Rasco's overall aim and strategy, IFAT has served as the ideal framework for the introduction of the new Lynx charge electric cleaners.

“Electrification has become the dominant development strategy in the utility equipment industry. There is a strong interest of both cities and utility/communal companies in the procurement of electric vehicles, especially city cleaners/road sweepers. This trend is in line with the new vision of urban management and turning to technologies which have a reduced environmental impact.

We believe that the Lynx charge has an advantage over competitors in the segment of compact road sweepers/cleaners because from the very beginning it was conceived and developed as a vehicle with two types of drives (diesel and electric), without compromising cleaning efficiency, comfort and autonomy,'' stated Rasco's CEO, Ivan Franicevic.

In addition to numerous contacts with potential distributors and end customers, a contract was signed at the fair for the distribution of the Croatian company Rasco's vehicles for the Israeli market. The contract was concluded with Gad-El Municipal Equipment Ltd, which has over 30 years of experience in the import, distribution and service of utility equipment under its belt.

The fair was otherwise visited by 119,000 visitors from 155 countries.

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March the 10th, 2022 - Communal companies located across the continent and indeed beyond it have been quick to recognise the many advantages of Rasco cleaners, and when it comes to here in Croatia, that recognition is taking a little bit longer to develop. This Kalinovac-based company is, in the global sense, firmly placing itself on the ''green'' map.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, during a time when energy prices are continually raging, and the question of whether there will be oil and gas left at all is becoming more and more common, electric vehicles are gaining more and more importance from the ecological to end user value.

Although Croatia doesn't engage in the mass production of vehicles, Croatian companies offering new technologies based on e-mobility and autonomy are increasingly positioning themselves on the demanding global market. Entrepreneur Mate Rimac is best known to the general public, but for years one of the leaders in the production of electric and autonomous machines for mines and demining has been Zagreb's Dok-Ing.

Rasco, which last year introduced an electric version of its successful Lynx Charge cleaner, is slowly entering the market. Much of the company's development is focused on e-mobility and new technologies.

According to Marko Kolar, director of development, with the emergence of electric vehicles and the strengthening of the trend of "green" vehicles that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in cities, they started thinking more and more about electric vehicles because many cities across Europe and the world have banned the entry of any fossil fuel vehicles into their centres.

“In the city centres themselves, especially in big cities, the issue of noise and pollution brought on by traffic is becoming an increasing focus. Lynx Charge, a Rasco cleaner, has almost all the systems that an electric car has, which makes it an extremely complex product.

We worked on its development for three years and it, together with the diesel version of Lynx, is the crown of the company's 30 years of hard work. It is intended primarily for export,'' said Kolar of this impressive Rasco cleaner. In recent days, Kolar was also named the best manager in the Research and Development (R&D) segment in the selection of the national association of managers - CROMA.

He added that Rasco has a developed distribution network in more than 40 markets and, since the introduction of the Rasco cleaner called Lynx Charge last October, they have delivered the first two vehicles to the Netherlands. The first feedback has been very optimistic because the vehicles met all customer expectations.

"We'd certainly be glad if the advantages of using electric vehicles were recognised by Croatian communal and utility companies, there's interest and we're looking forward to potential cooperation," said Kolar. Rasco, a company from Kalinovac in Podravina, is primarily an export-oriented company that generates more than 80 percent of its revenues on foreign markets.

“We're currently focused on European markets, but you can also find our products on the highways and streets of Canadian, Israeli, Chinese and Australian cities. European markets are currently most active in replacing vehicles with internal combustion engines with alternative propulsion, so most orders for Lynx Charge Rasco cleaners currently come from Europe. That said, we aren't neglecting other global markets from which more and more inquiries for electric vehicles are arriving either. The Lynx Charge is an ideal product for entering the markets of North and South America and Asia because it isn't accompanied by the restrictions related to the homologation of internal combustion engines," explained Kolar.

They noted from Rasco that Lynx and Lynx Charge belong to the class of compact vacuum cleaners, and the estimated size of the European market for this type of machine is at the level of 3000 pieces per year.

The vast majority of the market is still made up of diesel-powered cleaners, but there has been a noticeable increase in interest in electric-powered cleaners. The Lynx Charge Rasco cleaners, they say, have an advantage over competitors because Lynx has been conceived from the very beginning to be a vehicle with two types of drive, without compromising on efficiency, comfort and autonomy.

They emphasised that they wouldn't want to count their chickens before they hatch and try to predict further electrification trends as we move forward, but they think that the question is not whether electric cleaners will take over dominance over other types of drives in this class of utility vehicles, but whether it will happen in three, four or five years.

Rasco will certainly have a dog in that fight because, as they themselves pointed out, their development projects are a reflection of the harmonisation of unfolding market needs, high flexibility, quick adjustments and this gives them the opportunity to respond to very dynamic market conditions.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

October the 17th, 2021 - The Croatian Rasco company is well known for its e-cleaners, primarily the Lynx system about which quite a lot has been written. They now hope to step out and conquer the demanding global market with their products.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, after presenting their innovative self-propelled cleaner (Lynx) two years ago, the Croatian Rasco company from Kalinovac near Djurdjevac recently presented the electric version of this utility cleaner under the brand Lynx Charge.

As explained by Ivan Franicevic, President of the Management Board of the Croatian Rasco company, the Lynx project was designed back in 2016, its realisation started a year later, and in the beginning it was developed through a diesel and electric variant.

"Lynx Charge has almost all the systems that an electric car boasts, which makes it an extremely complex product, and this is reflected in its price, which is twice as high as in the diesel version - standing at about 200 thousand euros. We worked on its development for three years and together with the diesel version, it's the crown of this company's 30 years of work.

This piece of Croatian innovation was made in cooperation with Rasco and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb. We'll offer it through our distribution network to more than forty markets around the world, but we'd be glad if the advantages of such an ecological vehicle are recognised by the Croatian communal services here at home,'' said Franicevic.

The innovation was co-financed with funds from the European Regional Development Fund in the amount of 14 million kuna, and they expect even more from the electric version as the market for eco-friendly vehicles continues to grow far more rapidly than is the case for those powered by fossil fuels.

Franicevic pointed out that currently, the demand for these types of vehicles, powered by all types of fuel, globally stands at about 2,000 units per year, and next year at least 30 percent of this figure is expected to be related to electric vehicles.

"There are already countries like the Netherlands and Denmark that have banned the procurement of fossil fuel-powered utilities, and this trend will only spread. As the Croatian Rasco company is one of the leaders in this type of technology, we expect to occupy about 20 percent of that market in the coming period. Although it's difficult to talk about some exact capacities now, because that's something which is likely to adjust through the investment cycle of demand, we'd be satisfied if we could deliver 100 vehicles a year in the coming years,'' Franicevic said, adding that they expect to deliver about 60 of their Lynxes this year.

The 72.5 kWh electric Lynx battery allows the user to work throughout their shift without the need for recharging. In particular, the vehicle has an autonomy of 6.5 to 7.5 hours of operation, and charging takes a mere 2-3 hours on any charger.

The sweeper is powered by an electric motor with a maximum power of 55 kW, and the two other electric motors with a power of 18.5 and 11.5 kW are used to drive the intake system and various other vehicle functions. All of this is integrated into a compact vehicle which is 4.5 metres long and only 1.3 metres wide, and the vehicle alone weighs just over four tonnes.

According to the manufacturer's own assessment, and based on customer experience and tests, the depreciation period for the diesel version of the Lynx is 3-4 years, and the electric version is 7-10 years. The life expectancy of the Lynx Charge is 10 years, and in this Kalinovac-based company, they already have projects for the repurchase and recycling of used Lynx Charge vehicles and their batteries.

The Croatian Rasco company has stated that they've already started out with the development of an even more sophisticated, and somewhat larger, vehicle for the same purpose, which will also be developed on several platforms - primarily using diesel, but at the same time in an electric version and a hydrogen version.

The company didn't want to speculate about the specific deadlines when these vehicles, especially the hydrogen ones, should see the light of day. Rasco manufactures about 80 different products for the winter and summer maintenance of all types of transport infrastructure - from motorways, through to expressways and urban areas to forest roads and watercourses.

Their plants in Kalinovac and in Senta in Vojvodina employ more than 400 people, and at the local level, they want to be one of the drivers of the development of northwestern Croatia, and on the other hand, their goal is to become the largest manufacturer of municipal equipment in all of Europe.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik/Sergej Novosel Vuckovic/Lucija Spiljak writes on the 9th of October, 2020, the first Croatian road cleaner, Lynx, which is manufactured by Rasco from Kalinovac, has conquered the European market just one year after it was introduced. Rasco's impressive machine maintains public areas across Europe, in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Slovakia and Norway.

One of Rasco's road cleaners was recently bought by the company Tehnix from Donji Kraljevec for the maintenance of 100,000 cubic metres of their factory complex, which replaced three employees who can now devote more time to the maintenance of other parts of the plant.

''It has a strong turbine that can pick up pieces of cutting board and screws that fall off forklifts and containers. Thanks to the great autonomy of this type of work, in a few minutes it cleans the surface that has been cleaned with brooms for hours up until now,'' said the director and owner of Tehnix, Djuro Horvat. Apart from the fact that Rasco plans to increase the number of compact cleaners it produces, the electric version is also in its prototype phase.

Such an electric cleaner has already been produced by the Zagreb-based company Viking, which is entirely a Croatian product and prides itself on being ''anti-covid''.

Part of what was produced, more precisely 30 e-tricycles, was purchased by Cistoca Zagreb, ie Zagreb Holding, and presented very recently on Zagreb's main square in the presence of Mayor Milan Bandic and Viking Director Robert Vlasic. The vehicles have a power of one kW, can withstand six hours of driving after charging, and their payload is up to 500 kilograms. Their speed ​​is 15 km/h. The cargo area is modular, so in addition to transporting waste, it can be adapted to the customer's wishes, eg for use as something novel like an ice cream box.

"We hope that Zagreb Holding will be satisfied and that they will buy more of them. We also sent two down to Dubrovnik so they can see what they're all about, and we hope for more interest. We'll also present this Croatian product at Eurobike in Friedrichshafen, Germany at the end of November. It is the world's largest fair for bicycle equipment,'' announced Vlasic.

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As Novac/Jozo Vrdoljak/Privredni writes on the 3rd of August, 2020, the Rasco factory in Kalinovac has produced the 300th Muvo vehicle, a multifunctional utility carrier for the maintenance of urban areas, fully designed and manufactured in Croatia.

Muvo vehicles are currently cleaning and maintaining more than thirty major Croatian cities, including gorgeous coastal destinations. The vehicle is also present in almost all of Europe, as well as in Asia and even as far away as Australia.

The idea of ​​adopting the production of a small universal utility vehicle was born back in 2008, and is the result of the thoughts of two owners and the then members of the board, Frane Franičević and Darko Paviša, on how to ensure the growth of Rasco's revenue in the future.

Although the Muvo vehicle development project started during the global economic crisis, Rasco's director Darko Paviša says that at that time, both he and Frane Franičević accepted the crisis as a challenge and during its hold on the world, began with the construction and production of new types of machines. They also worked on expanding the company's production programme, so that after the end of the crisis, they could take even better positions in the market.

"We weren't satisfied with the representation of our products from utility companies. We've started to produce machines in smaller dimensions, so that they can be installed on small tractors or small utility vehicles that most often maintain the centres of cities and municipalities. We quickly realised that we needed a complete package to enter this market: both a propulsion vehicle and maintenance connections. Back in 2008, small universal utility vehicles were produced by only a few manufacturers in Europe, and in relatively small batches. We recognised this opportunity and started developing the concept, which is today's Muvo vehicle,'' Paviša pointed out.

The conceptual concept of the vehicle and the project task were created by Frane Franičević, and the project lasted for four years. The first Muvo was presented back in 2012 at the IFAT trade fair in Munich, Germany, and aroused a lot of interest among customers and visitors. Serial production started in 2013, and most of the first copies were sold here in Croatia, in order to obtain quality information on the behaviour of the machine in real working conditions and to provide efficient and fast service support.

"Muvo has combined excellent work performance, multifunctionality and quality. Our customers get a compact cleaner, a winter service vehicle, a mowing vehicle, a plant and park watering machine, a lifting platform and much more in one vehicle by changing the attachments. Muvo is constantly undergoing improvements, in line with user comments and market needs. Today, almost eight years after the start of production, we stand by the side of global manufacturers,'' explained Ivica Ivanic, technical director at Rasco.

With the help of a strategic partnership with German articulated utility vehicle manufacturer Max Holder, the company’s management began exporting Muvo vehicles back in 2015. The Muvo project was spun off into a separate company, Rasco Holder, which is 50 percent owned by Rasco and 50 percent owned by Germany's Max Holder. This step forward ensured Muvo's entry into the world market and played a major role in the impressive number of 300 vehicles sold.

"We achieved the goal we wanted: we entered the segment of communal maintenance in cities and smaller, local self-government units and very quickly established that there is still room for the expansion of this the offer to this group of clients. That's why soon after the successful placement of our Muvo vehicles, we started working on a new platform for the utility market: the compact Lynx cleaner,'' concluded Rasko's Darko Paviša.

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Be it Croatian designers or scientists, medics or companies, this little country has no problem in breeding talent that stretches across all possible walks of life. One Croatian company has designed and made a machine that makes it stand out from the crowd on a competitive and demanding market with no problem at all.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes on the 26th of February, 2020, the Croatian company Rasco from Kalinovac near Đurđevac is involved in the production of municipal equipment, primarily equipment for road maintenance and snow clearing, and in its sector it is among the impressive European Top5.

After introducing their new compact cleaner called Lynx, which is entirely a product of both Croatian innovation and technology, at the end of last year, this Croatian company's management announced recently that their electric version of this self-propelled machine is also nearing completion.

The new electric cleaner, eLynx, will premiere in May 2020 at a specialist trade show in Munich, Germany and is expected to hit the market by the end of the year. Ivan Franicevic, CEO of Rasco, pointed out that the brand new eLynx will have a battery that will give it autonomy for between 10 and 12 hours, which is currently a feature not offered by any of its competitors, making it stand out from the rest with an incredible ease.

Rasco, which employs as many as 409 workers, has seen strong growth in recent years and ended up with a massive 170.8 million kuna in revenue in 2019, up by thirteen percent when compared to just a year ago. They have an assortment of about seventy products that they ship to as many as forty countries around the world.

Last year, this highly successful Croatian company delivered about 1,500 products to customers, and it is interesting to see that their equipment helps to maintain the Munich and Istanbul airports in unfavourable winter conditions.

For more on Croatian innovation, design, products and companies, follow our dedicated Made in Croatia page.