BILANPASSNING is a vehicle customization company located in the southern region of Sweden. They are focused on providing one of the best customer service experience in Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) modifications and other car adaptations in Europe. With over 30 years of experience BILANPASSNING is able to convert/build over 250 vehicles in a given year.
Being transparent and willing to share know-how are key pillars of success, long term growth, and innovation. We are fortunate to share similar values with BILANPASSNING that has led to innovation being demanded to fulfill a gap that has been missing in the market i.e. having a fully integrated WAV solution in which the user can be fully independent and self reliant in entering, driving, and exiting the vehicle. We set out to achieve and support the ambition initiated by BILANPASSNING towards having such a solution. Up until this point they have been our customers for the FlexiRamp and have done numerous conversions for their market. Then one day Mr. Björn Kayser CEO of BILANPASSNING began experimenting with the concept of what is to become the ACTIVE FlexiRamp utilizing the VW Caddy as the model vehicle.
” I am a technician and have always been dreaming of this kind of conversions, if other companies can do it I can do it better. When API CZ did the short wheelbase VW Caddy FlexiRamp, I saw the possibility to extend it. I bought a chassis from VW and started the journey.” – Björn Kayser CEO, BILANPASSNING
BILANPASSNING built the extended section out of similar composite material and construction style as the FlexiRamp, this is to retain similar look and feel as well as strength with the ability of carrying heavy wheelchairs weighing up to 200kg.
The key takeaways of creating ACTIVE FlexiRamp is to provide a better solution that looks appealing, have numerous safety features, and the driving feel. They were able to retain the same driving position height making the vehicle handling as good as it was before converting it. Developing the solution what quite challenging “I´ve learned a lot, It´s not as easy as it looks when you develop a conversion of this scale, you learn things the hard way and then the right way. I got ideas and support from API CZ given their knowledge of how to make things the right and efficient way.” said Björn Kayser.
Customers across Europe welcomed this solution with the primary appeal being that it provides them “their freedom”. Orders started coming in since they launched the solution in 2015 and they have delivered numerous vehicles over the past 6 years. Feedback from customers have been great, enabling improvements for some details over the years. Now the ACTIVE FlexiRamp is available on the New VW Caddy 5 and is ready for order.