Mahle to invest in Michigan factory
Mahle Powertrain is investing $4m in a new powertrain dynamometer facility in Plymouth, Michigan, aimed at accelerating vehicle development as manufacturers continue the shift towards electrified vehicles. The facility is planned to be ready for operation in the third quarter 2022.
The upgraded factory is to be capable of supporting full powertrain development, from the testing and calibration of individual drive components to the complete driveline systems of complex four-wheel-drive vehicles. According to Mahle, the facility will be unique in North America in handling the demands of even the highest performance light- and heavy-duty hybrid and electric vehicles.
Plans for the facility are to be integrated with the rest of the company’s technical capacities and work “alongside the existing chassis dynamometer and will support all aspects of hybrid and battery-electric vehicle development”. Furthermore, the new technologies installed at the Plymouth facility “even support the testing and evaluation of ADAS technologies including LiDAR and RADAR sensor packs, and will feature climatic conditioning down to -10°C or up to +40°C.”
“We are delighted to announce this latest addition to our powertrain testing facility,” said Hugh Blaxill, managing director of MAHLE Powertrain USA. “This investment underscores our determination to provide world-class services to our clients through the provision of state-of-the-art facilities and expertise. The new facilities will extend our unique capabilities to cover client requirements both in the US and globally and will prove an invaluable resource for light-duty and heavy-duty manufacturers alike. Crucially, this means we are able to conduct a significant amount of development and validation work without requiring a large number of prototype vehicles to be built by the manufacturer.”
Previously, Mahle Powertrain had mainly set its sights on investment for facilities in England, where a test and development site was opened up in 2021. A vehicle development centre was then opened up in 2022, which was then followed by the signing of a memorandum of understanding with AMTE Power just days later.
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