Stop Horse Drawn Carriages Article Series from All-Creatures.org



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How Brussels transitioned from horse-drawn to electric carriages

FROM Fund for Horses
July 2024

As the U.S. struggles to build a functioning e-carriage business, the Belgian capital may provide a template.

Excerpted from Henry Chandonnet, FastCompany.com

carriage horse

After years of animal rights activists pushing for an end to horse-drawn carriages, Brussels has finally given them their first big win.

The Belgian capital recently replaced its horse-drawn carriage business with electric alternatives—providing a potential model that other cities around the world could follow.

"I'm very proud to be one of the first capital cities in the world that moved totally from horses to electricity," says Thibault Danthine, a carriage operator who helped lead the city's transition to electric carriages. "I wanted to change and I did it."

e-carriage
Danthine and friend riding around Brussels in his e-Carriage.

Previously, Danthine had five horses in operation. Now he has two e-carriages out on the streets of Brussels, with a third coming in 2025. The new vehicles charge "like an electric car," per Danthine, and are plugged in overnight. He declined to comment on their price.

The new electric venture in Brussels started with a pitch from Danthine in 2023.

He had been the city’s primary horse carriage operator but wanted to make the shift to electricity. Collaborating with local officials, he helped design a new type of carriage inspired by Robert Anderson, who made one of the first electric carriages in 1832.

Danthine insists that the change wasn’t due to his own animal welfare concerns. Rather, the cost and patrons’ questions over animal labor were making the horse carriages unsustainable.

"I was very proud to have healthy and happy horses," Danthine says. "It's more the fact that today, you see that with the zoo, it’s less and less accepted by the people to see animals working."

The electric swap has its own set of benefits, including the fact that the vehicles can travel up to 75 miles per charge, allowing for tourists to take in a breadth of sites. The e-carriage design also jibes with Brussel’s old architecture; electric carriages, Danthine reminds, were the earliest predecessor to modern cars.

Posted on All-Creatures.org: August 1, 2024
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