“In the high-tech center on the banks of the Spree, there are 21 torture chambers for engines” – This is how the “Bild” newspaper described it in its Berlin local section in January 1993.

The “Bild” journalists were on the trail of Berlin’s automobile and motorcycle manufacturing industry and also visited IAV with its engine test benches.

Looking at the state-of-the-art test bench infrastructure for engine development, the journalists were impressed by the endurance runs and cold shocks. Engines ran on the test bench for up to 1,200 hours to later ensure mileages of several 100,000 kilometers in series production. And cold shocks in special climatic chambers were also performed on engine test specimens up to 2,000 times. The comparison with a torture chamber was obvious.

Today’s IAV test rig infrastructure may not seem as brute as it did in 1993, but as in those days it is technologically state-of-the-art and, in addition to the classic testing of combustion engines – today also with e-fuels as well as hydrogen – offers a high-voltage infrastructure as well as a high-altitude climatic roller. This allows us to simulate conditions like those in the high mountains at 5,300 meters and set temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius. And mobile test benches such as the IAV Auros enable test scenarios that can be carried out regardless of location or space. Technological excellence with maximum flexibility on the road to emission-free mobility.