AVL Expands
Canadian Footprint
In February of 2023, AVL announced it is expanding its North American footprint
by dedicating technical support and business development expertise to the
Canadian market. These new resources will be based in Canada and near the two
core R&D clusters of Montreal and the Toronto-Windsor corridor.
hese resources will complement the existing research
team that continues to develop and deliver cutting-edge
fuel cell technologies. AVL has had a home base in
Burnaby, British Columbia, since 2018 – to advance fuel cell
research, testing, and development. This region is home to
AVL Fuel Cell Canada, Inc., and hydrogen fuel cell test system
leader and AVL partner, Greenlight Innovation Corp.
Joseph Strelow, President of AVL Test Systems, Inc., noted,
“Our goal is to stay close to our customers to support their ef-
forts to develop sustainable mobility. AVL sees not only a rap-
idly evolving Canadian mobility market, but also a rich source
of top-notch engineering talent from Canadian universities. It’s
now appropriate to make this investment in the market and in
our growing customer base.”
Historically, Canada’s automotive industry has focused on
vehicle production, with seven final assembly plants producing
1.4 million vehicles annually. Canada is also home to several
Tier 1 global automotive suppliers. In recent years, Canada’s
automotive focus has expanded to include multiple R&D
centers for battery electric vehicle and electrified propulsion
system development in industry and university settings. AVL
predicts this trend will continue and is investing accordingly.
With this in mind, the AVL team set out to expand its network
and showcase the testing technologies to help advance the
next generation of mobility.
Future E-Car Conference
The electrification team welcomed warmer weather in the
spring by heading to Windsor, Ontario, where they presented at
the Future E-Car Conference hosted by the University of Wind-
sor. The event featured a technical presentation, demonstration
areas, and a tour of the newly constructed Centre for Hybrid
Automotive Research and Green Energy (CHARGE) Lab.
Alongside other industry experts, the team showcased the
AVL SPECTRA™ Universal Inverter; this was followed by a tech-
nical presentation by AVL Global Product Manager, Andreas
Ficsor, who illustrated how inverter switching frequency influ-
ences motor efficiency. They also collaborated with NOVONIX,
AVL‘s battery cell testing collaborator, to highlight the power of
ultra-high precision coulometry in a nimble R&D setting. It was
a pleasure to explore the technologies driving the future of
battery and electric vehicle testing, development, and produc-
tion across Canada.
Fuel Cell Tech Day
In June, AVL collaborated with Greenlight Innovation to host
an event to reach the alternative fuel community. The Fuel Cell
Tech Day, which took place in Burnaby, served as the perfect
forum to examine a hydrogen future and discuss how AVL’s
technology is an essential part of the energy transition to gen-
erate efficient and emission-free electricity for a wide range of
applications.
Together, the collaborators led a facility tour and presented a
series of tech talks centered around applied systems engineer-
ing methodology as a measure for risk mitigation on fuel cell
system testbeds, stack development with three dimensional
multiphase CFD modeling, as well as advanced diagnostic
techniques for fuel cells and electrolyzers.
AVL is proud to continue to expand its Canadian presence and
meet with the minds helping drive the future of the mobility
industry.
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