AVL RACING and the Austrian EV motorsport specialist STARD (part of Stohl Group GmbH) has announced a technical partnership. The focus of this cooperation will be on the areas of simulation, development and testing of motorsport EV high-performance powertrain solutions and vehicles.
The companies have established a multi-year action plan to develop and build several tailor-made EV powertrain-specific software tools, testing solutions, and dyno facility features together. All these areas will also incorporate Rallycross and rally-oriented solutions, such as a specific driving simulator cockpit for the state-of-the-art AVL Driving Simulator in Graz, to name one example. “We cannot think of any entity to be a more capable or better-suited partner than AVL RACING to cooperate with on further improving our pioneering EV motorsport solutions and engineering. With the ERX™ (Electric Racing “X”) battery and electric powertrain system, which was developed and produced entirely in-house by STARD, the world´s first and most powerful turnkey package available on the market, we have set worldwide standards in user friendliness, safety, performance and affordability,” emphasizes Manfred Stohl, Stohl Group GmbH President.
Michael Peinsitt, Skill Team Leader Racing at AVL, adds: “Since STARD is without doubt one of the true pioneers in the EV racing sector, they possess vast and unique know-how and experience in this area. Marrying these assets with our sophisticated simulation tools and engineering services will enable us to create winning solutions and products for our customers. This powerful cooperation is a perfect setting, in which to further push the boundaries, which is exactly what the DNA of both companies is all about.”
AVL says that both companies will expand their partnership in several areas, from entire EV vehicle and powertrain simulation and development of new simulation tools for EV powertrain components to entire HiL (Hardware in the Loop) Dyno testing. For example, with the so-called DiL (Driver in the Loop) testing of EV racing vehicles, a driver in the simulator is connected directly to the car on a testbed. This allows the driver to receive feedback without taking the car to the track or even building the hardware. This will also be part of the testing procedures at AVL. “The next step in our EV systems roadmap is to extend our advantage on the market, and AVL has the perfect tools together with the highest level of expertise readily available. We are very excited to take this close cooperation to the next level,” says Michael Sakowicz, STARD founder and CEO.
AVL says the technical results will improve both companies’ service and product portfolio for motorsport EV high-performance powertrain solutions and vehicles. “Electric race cars are already an important addition to motorsport. This trend will only strengthen in the future. We are seeing a big demand for electric powertrains and powerful battery technologies. With our new Battery Innovation Center in Graz, we can produce racing batteries on an extremely high level. Our goal is to play a key role here too, just as we already do in many other areas of motorsport,” says Ellen Lohr, Director Motorsport at AVL Racing.
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