Audi has finished this week the construction of its new development and testing center for electric drive systems. Located at Audi’s Ingolstadt plant, this facility will provide the company with an ideal environment for development of hybrid and electric automobiles.

In this center Audi will have 840 employees focusing in the development of more advanced drive systems, batteries and power electronics, by using highly networked methods.

“With the new development and testing center for electric drive systems, we’ve reached an important milestone on the way to e-mobility,” said Michael Dick, Audi Board Member for Technical Development. “Consolidating the employees involved in the development process in one area allows solutions to be found quickly and efficiently.” The Audi Q5 Hybrid will be introduced to the market as early as next year. By the end of 2012, Audi will have a small volume of R8 e-tron electric sports cars ready to hit the road.

Over the past two years Audi has invested approximately € 65 million in the new building which has a total area of 14,000-square-meter. It houses numerous state-of-the-art test rigs, which can be used to test electric drive concepts.

On a total of seven stories, engineers start by testing components individually, then simulate the interaction of drive system, battery and power electronics, and finally assemble the entire drivetrain for testing.

The next test phase is run with the complete vehicle in the altitude simulation chamber and the deep-freeze testing rig, subjecting the cars to various climatic conditions at 4,200 meters (13,779.53 feet) in altitude and temperatures of -40°C to +60°C (-40°F to +140°F).

“The networking isn’t just obvious at the testing rigs; it is reflected in the entire architecture of the building,” said Richard Schmidmeier, who as project manager has overseen the expansion of the mechanical units center since the start of construction in September 2008. The workstations in the new offices, for instance, are ergonomic, brightly lit and spacious. The planners have also provided “think tanks” in which the employees can get together spontaneously in order to discuss problems. The open character and numerous meeting rooms convey a campus-like atmosphere.

Audi is continuosly making sustained investments in the future with an objective in sight: to reach the selling mark of 1.5 million cars per year by 2015. These plans will mean a total investment of € 2.2 billion until 2012 in fixed assets at the Audi Ingolstadt site alone. Special emphasis is being placed on the promising areas of electromobility and lightweight construction.