Germany will soon be home to some of the hottest and coldest temperatures, most arid and humid conditions, hurricane force wind speeds, and highest altitudes to be found on the planet, courtesy of a new climatic test centre being built by Ford at its engineering centre in Merkenich, Cologne.
The US automaker believes the multimillion-dollar facility will be the most advanced test centre in the global auto industry when it opens “in the next few years”.
Construction on the project has already started.
The facility will feature two climatic wind tunnels capable of operating at wind speeds of up to 250 km/h, which is almost at the category 5 rating for hurricane wind speeds.
The test centre will also house an altitude laboratory capable of emulating heights above sea level up to 5 200 m – higher than the average height of the Tibetan Plateau, often described as the roof of the world.
“Around 50% of the vehicles we sell around the world are sold in areas that are more than 1 000 m above sea level, including regions like the Alps and Pyrenees here in Europe," says Ford Europe COO Barb Samardzich.
The climatic wind tunnel test centre will also feature four separate cells where cars can be cooled to temperatures of –40 ˚C, which pretty much represents Arctic conditions, to 55 ˚C, just 2.8 Celsius below the highest-ever air temperature globally recorded in the Sahara Desert.
In addition, it will be possible to adjust humidity in the centre from the driest desert conditions of 10% humidity, to the most humid of rainforests at 95%.
The new test centre will measure 5 500 m2 in size.