BWI Group and Continental have both announced new winter test facilities in Heilongjiang Province, China. The two facilities, in the country’s far North Eastern region, have both been created for the testing of ESC, ABS and TCS systems under extreme conditions.
“With China’s Ministry of Transport encouraging the adoption of ESC as part of its National Road Safety Action Plan, take-up of the technology is enjoying strong growth,” said Alan Lee, global sales and engineering director, brake systems, BWI Group. “This new test facility will support China’s emergence as a market for advanced safety systems and will complement BWI Group’s existing cold-weather test center in North America.”
BWI’s 100-hectare facility in Daqing, incorporates a 50-hectare frozen lake, various track configurations and hill gradients, test pads and circles specifically designed to help develop ESC, ABS and TCS systems for the Chinese domestic market. 500km away in Heihe, Continental’s R&D center houses similar facilities for the testing of similar electronic control systems and is the company’s fourth R&D facility globally.
“We see a great potential for Continental in the Chinese auto safety market. With the foundation of our winter test center, we are moving a big step closer to our ambitious goal of ’safety for everyone’ and will further complete our capabilities for safety solutions in China,” said Dirk Remde, head of the business unit electronic brake systems China.
