Porsche partnership looks to improve access to Swiss Alps with upgraded trekking wheelchair
Sports-car maker Porsche is partnering with the Procap self-help organization to upgrade its trekking wheelchair, the Protrek.
As part of an initiative called the “Join the Porsche Ride”, Porsche and Procap are advancing a project to enable universal access to hiking in Switzerland, namely by further developing its trekking wheelchair.
Intended for group hikes, the Protrek all-terrain wheelchair was originally designed at the FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts in northwestern Switzerland.
With the aim of improving it further, a project group visited the Porsche Vocational Training Center in early March 2023. The Alber company from Albstadt-Tailfingen, which specialises in mobility aids for wheelchair users, contributed valuable technical expertise.
Protrek’s single-wheel design enables access to extreme terrain. Trekking companions are needed to operate it. The auxiliary electric drive draws power from a battery mounted under the seat.
The Protrek lets people with limited mobility enjoy outdoor excursions on rough terrain, for example in forests or on mountain trails. On such excursions, four to six co-hikers generally push, pull, and/or carry the wheelchair with the person sitting in it.
Teams of up to eight members can take part on tours lasting several hours. Despite the Protrek’s auxiliary electric drive, excursions require considerable strength and endurance on the part of co-hikers.
Thanks to an attachable snowboard, the Protrek can also be used in winter. The trekking wheelchair weighs 33 kilograms. It is foldable and can fit into a medium-sized station wagon.
The Protrek is used on trekking tours organized by the Procap Reisen & Sport company, with the assistance of regular volunteers such as the experienced alpinist Heinrich Hofer.
Hofer is practiced in using the wheelchair and has detailed knowledge of its strengths and weaknesses. A machinist with further training in electrical engineering, he is also a source of technical expertise.
“The Protrek is a wonderful device,” he says. “I’m a machinist, and I generally rebuild most of the machinery I work with until I’m satisfied with it. That wasn’t the case with the Protrek. It worked superbly right from the start. The electrified version, however, has a few things that could be improved. For example, the electric drive would benefit from a torsional basis. It also overheats on us sometimes.”
The Protrek is not a mass-produced item. It is a small series of around 15 units — with or without an electric drive. This special wheelchair was designed back in 2005 in a joint project with Procap and the FHNW.
Stefan Kobler, a research associate at the university, has been involved with the project from the start. “Over the years we’ve been developing the Protrek further with our students, and we added the e-drive in 2022. The design is very well conceived, and has proved itself over the years.
“However, our funding is limited, which is due in part to the very small market for commercialisation. With Porsche offering to help, the project now has a fresh impetus. Improvements that we couldn’t have made on our own are now possible, for instance in connection with the weight or the electric drive.”
Wheelchairs have played a role in Porsche’s recent past. The Porsche Engineering Group has gathered experience from two key projects. A Porsche subsidiary headquartered at the Porsche Development Center in Weissach, it designed the fully sprung suspension of the Alber Adventure A10 electric wheelchair produced from 2003 to 2014.
Its other main development was a prototype called the P’GASUS. Also an electric mobility aid, this device works similarly to a Segway. Its standing function offers a number of benefits, such as enabling disabled users and their companions to communicate at eye level. From a medical perspective, its advantages include better circulation and a reduction in leg spasms. The prototype has thus far not been serially produced, due to a lack of sales and development partners.
Maic Grabert, a development engineer at Porsche Engineering Services GmbH and himself a wheelchair user, had the following to say: “The P’GASUS is a project close to my heart. I was fully involved in its development.
“It lets wheelchair users suddenly do completely obvious things like look their companions in the eye — or hold hands with them. I view the Protrek in a similar light. It lets you get out to places in nature that are otherwise hard to access — and gives you marvellous experiences.”
