Page 1: Overview
Page 2: Safety, Agility, Traction, and Driving Pleasure All in One
Page 3: BMW xDrive
Page 4: The Arjeplog Testing Base
BMW’s Test Centre in Europe’s “Refrigeratorâ€Â' - The Arjeplog Testing Base.
To ensure that new cars and components are able to meet global requirements in all climate zones, they also have to be tested under the extreme conditions of Arctic winter, with all the specific requirements and demands involved in such a situation. And to give BMW’s engineers and mechanics optimum working conditions at all times during the winter months, the BMW Group opened its own Test Centre in Arjeplog, northern Sweden, in March 2006.
Located only about 56 kilometres or 35 miles from the Polar Circle and involving an investment by the BMW Group of approximately Euro 16 million, the Arjeplog Test Centre now concentrates all the winter testing activities of the BMW, MINI, and Rolls-Royce brands at one central location. Specialists from various divisions as well as employees working for BMW system suppliers enjoy optimum conditions here in harmonising, say, the drivetrain, chassis and ancillary units and putting them through their paces in the car.
Driving on iced-over lakes and snowbound roads is not only an extremely tough test under extreme conditions in the coldest weather, but also a particular challenge to new chassis and drivetrain systems such as Dynamic Performance Control.
Optimum working conditions in the coldest weather.
BMW’s ultra-modern test centre boasts spacious offices equipped with the most advanced technical features, as well as two workshops with 50 vehicle workbays. A heated garage is available for 25, an unheated hall for 60 test vehicles, in addition to 164 outdoor parking spaces, 80 of which feature an engine warmer connection. And should the winter weather not be cold enough even in Arjeplog, 18 climate chambers are available to cool down the cars being tested to – 30 °C.
A filling station and a washing hall as well as various measuring and testing circuits are also provided on-site. In laying out and building the test centre, particular consideration was also given to the special demands made in testing and servicing vehicles with hydrogen drive. And last but certainly not least, a secure network line integrates the Arjeplog Test Centre into the BMW Group’s data and information network at the Research and Innovation Centre in Munich.
740 metres (2,427 feet) circuit, 3.2 kilometres (1.98 miles) of heating pipes.< /b>
Covering an area of 28 hectares or 69 acres, Arjeplog also offers a 740-metre-long test circuit, a driving dynamics track measuring 660 metres (2,165 feet) in length, asphalt surfaces which may be either heated or cooled, a hill-climb section with gradients between 10 and 25 per cent, a mountain pass section as well as a modal split and chessboard track for driving and brake tests on varying surfaces.
To control the temperature of the test tracks, no less than 3.2 kilometres (1.98 miles) of heating and 1.8 kilometres (1.1 miles) of cooling lines have been fitted into place.
From November to April, specially prepared ice test tacks are available in the immediate vicinity on Lake Kakel sufficiently frozen over during this time of the year and therefore offering the opportunity to conduct driving tests on the lake under the most demanding conditions.
An important economic factor for the region.
The BMW Group has been conducting tests in Arjeplog for many years, making a significant contribution to the development of this small town, which in the meantime has become the most significant winter test centre for the entire automotive industry. Apart from climate conditions and the local geography, the low population density in the Arjeplog region is also an advantage for testing cars in this area. In this part of Sweden with the sparsest population density throughout the entire country, temperatures between November and April generally remain relatively consistent at an average of – 10 °C, although from time to time the thermometer may drop to – 40 °C and even lower.
The almost innumerable lakes in the region are frozen over from October until May, with ice up to one metre thick able to take the weight of a passenger car and even a truck. All kinds of test tracks with varying frictional coefficients can be prepared on the ice and subsequently used for a relatively long period. And on account of the sparse population density, the noise emissions caused by testing cars hardly give rise to any criticism.
All buildings at the Arjeplog Test Centre, where 11 employees from the region are employed by the BMW Group for the whole year, were built on behalf of the BMW Group by Swedish companies in typical local style. The test teams are accommodated and receive all their supplies from local service providers, who also take care of and prepare the test tracks. So again for this reason alone, the new Test Centre is an important economic factor for Arjeplog and the entire Province of Norrbotten.
Between November and March an average of 100, in peak times up to 200, BMW Group engineers and mechanics work at the Test Centre, most of them spending two weeks at the location. The ongoing presence and integration of nearly all system suppliers on the spot also helps to facilitate testing operations by the BMW Group and streamlines the process of development.
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