Austrian Company AVL Opens Hybrid-Powertrain Center in California
By Scott Doggett June 17, 2009
In what seems like a continuing shift of automotive investment away from Michigan and into California, Austrian powertrain engineering firm AVL has opened an alternative-fuels powertrain engineering center in the Orange County city of Lake Forest.
The center will be used for prototype and proof-of-concept work, said Bruce Falls, the center's director of engineering. Anything closer to production will be sent to AVL's larger engineering centers in Plymouth, Michigan or Graz, Austria.
Falls said AVL is looking at bridging the systems-engineering gap between automakers and suppliers, both sides of an equation chasing next-generation propulsion systems.
"We're technology neutral. We're a facilitator. Systems engineering has always been the bottleneck," he said. "We're seeing how refined a concept car can go with mechanical integration, so that it's more than just a show car."
Among the center's features is an all-in-one test bed (pictured) that integrates a chassis tester and wheels-off dynamometer with drive-by-wire wheelslip simulators. The rig can handle any vehicle from a small car to a bus to a Class 8 tractor trailer, Falls said.
The center has a battery development test cell and an auxiliary power unit development cell. AVL also has electronic equipment for quantifiable, real-world road testing, with accelerometers, ride-and-handling equipment and audio recording gear.
The center, which officially opened June 10, has quietly been in start-up mode for about a year, helping Chrysler with its green-tech program. However, now that it is fully equipped, the center can take full-time clients, said Falls, who worked for General Motors until 1987, when he joined McLaren's racing effort.
The center currently employs 10 engineers, although AVL is looking to beef up the staffing to about 25 people, Falls said. All the employees have automotive control software backgrounds, and average 20 years' experience.
According to the company's Web site, AVL is the world's largest privately owned and independent company for the development of gasoline, diesel and alternative fuel powertrain systems, as well as fuel cell and hybrid technologies.
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