Mercedes-Benz Trucks has partnered with Bosch to build a new vehicle test centre in Brazil, with construction commencing in the fist half of 2020.
The new facility is to be built on the existing Mercedes-Benz testing grounds in Iracemápolis (State of São Paulo) and in addition to trucks and buses, it will also be possible to test passenger cars, light commercial vehicles and motorcycles in the future.
It will also be made available to other manufacturers of vehicles, systems and vehicle components. Operations are scheduled to start in 2021.
Mercedes-Benz and Bosch will jointly invest 70 million Brazilian Real (around 15 million Euro) in the new vehicle test centre which will focus on testing for the development of systems for vehicle safety and suspension control as well as systems for improved energy efficiency and for (semi-)automated driving.
The new facility includes five different areas with a total ground surface of more than 400,000 square metres. As part of the construction project, the number of test tracks in Iracemápolis will be increased from the present 16 to 21 and additional workshop boxes and office space will also be created.
Mercedes-Benz of Brazil opened its premises in Iracemápolis in 2018 and tests vehicles in an area measuring more than 1.3 million square metres – about 150 football pitches.
Currently tests can be carried out on 16 different road surface profiles, simulating the multitude of roads on which vehicles operate throughout the world. To recreate these road profiles, a Mercedes-Benz Actros, equipped with 260 sensors measured an extensive range of routes and roads and in doing so covered around 16,000 kilometres in less than four months. Mercedes-Benz of Brazil invested around 20 million Euro in the facility which was modelled on the design of Development and Testing Centre in the Mercedes-Benz truck plant in Wörth, Germany.
