Frigid North of Sweden, car testing is hot

Johan Fjellstrom/Lilab

By Ola Kinnander

The roar of the BMW breaks the silence of the frozen lake. The M5 powered by V8 to weigh the glittering snow tires are their grip on the ice runway. The driver, sound engineer chassis BMW Bernd Limmer, emerges wearing a thick coat and a big smile. It is a scene common to Arjeplog, a region in the North of the Sweden which inflates each winter with secret engineers speaking German, French, English, Japanese and Korean. BMW, the first constructor of luxury, tests of cars in this remote location 60 kilometres (38 miles) South of the Arctic circle to the sides of Daimler (DAI) Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Audi, Toyota Motor (TM), General Motors (GM), Ford Motor (F), FiatPeugeot, Saab, and Hyundai Motor.

Arjeplog is more important to car manufacturers wishing to optimize their vehicles for driving in extreme weather conditions, the automotive industry is a lifesaver for residents of Arjeplog 3,161. The region was fought after the sawmill industry is reduced in the 1980s and the closure of the local lead in 2001 mine. "The car test industry is absolutely essential for us, says Britta Flinkfeldt Jansson, Mayor of Arjeplog." Without that it would be probably starve of hunger, as our neighbouring municipalities. ?

The region of Arjeplog, slightly larger in Connecticut, was 8,727 lakes - which is 2.8 for resident - filled with water would be quite suitable for consumption. Public display boards carrying advertisements for "safari moose.". What attracted the automotive industry since the beginning of the 1970s is reliable chilliness of the region. This winter, temperatures have fluctuated around-20 C (-4F) almost every day, of ice on the lakes are still quite thick for the conduct. "Weather conditions are perfect, and when you drive around you are not much people - perhaps some reindeer," says Wilhelm ropes, Director of BMW test facility. Approximately 180 engineers convened at the test center at some point this season to work on the manufacture of more fuel-efficient cars fuel in cold weather and optimize their function autoblocker.

Arjeplog is the world largest winter, tests, rivals sites zone include Ivalo, Finland; West Yellowstone, Mont; of. Carson City, Nevada; and Millbrook, England. Francisco Carvalho, the IHS Automotive Analyst, said that these slopes provide manufacturers of motor vehicles with "the ultimate test for the small things that they cannot detect or predict in a laboratory".

About 9 000 representatives from the automotive industry to visit Arjeplog every winter, with approximately 2,800 engineers working on any given day. They will create some 500 jobs, accounted for on an annual basis and pump 700 million kronor (110 million dollars) in economy of the region, more than the municipal budget of the triple full Arjeplog of 190 million kroner. Tjintokk, the largest private employer in Arjeplog, has a single client: Volkswagen. The company provides trails, repair services, housing and some 180 for the constructor test drivers auto 1 of Europe. Volkswagen last year extended the contract for 12 years, said Soderberg of Karl-Erik Tjintokk, Director-General.

Arjeplog traces its history in 1973, when testing car German auto parts maker Robert Bosch tested an anti-lock braking system and obtained permission to use a runway for aircraft on Lake Hornavan. Opel, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Porsche were the first builders to join Bosch, which is always refining systems ABS in the region.

760 Of the Arjeplog hotel rooms are not enough to allow all visitors, so locals rent out their homes. Mayor Jansson, said engineers used Bosch his house three weeks this winter, while the family remained at their summer cottage. "Virtually every local citizen derives from revenues of the automotive industry," explains Stefan Oscarsen, head of the Argentis, a society that promotes the local economy. "I have never heard anyone complain about it."

Arjeplog stands in a battered region. The proportion of persons of less than 30 years in the County of Norrbotten in the quarter-more North of the Sweden is passed to a third last year in half in 1968 as young left employment and life in major cities, according to Statistics Sweden. While the population of Arjeplog has dropped 50% since the 1960s, he won the last three years.

Automakers attract another group to Arjeplog: photographers trying to photos of new models that can be sold to magazines of the car. Achtung Paparazzi warns a sign on the stand of safety in closed factory BMW. "Once they staged a fake accident with blinkers warning and reflective vests for test cars to slow down," Anders Lindberg, a driver for Tjintokk, said. "You just call and warn your colleagues."

The bottom line: Region of Arjeplog in the Sweden, just below the Arctic Circle, became the testing site for more than a dozen cars in cold weather.

Kinnander is a reporter for Bloomberg News.

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