An email circulated among the car companies and suppliers working in Arjeplog, Sweden, warning them that a photojournalist had been spotted on the frozen lakes. In mid-February, emails like that are common as so-called “spy photographers” try to capture images of the cars that will star at the annual Geneva auto show in March or debut at other events during the year.
During the peak season between January and March this remote area just 100km south of the Arctic Circle is a hot spot for automakers and suppliers looking to test their latest models and technology against the area’s brutal winter conditions.
Companies with permanent bases here include Land Rover, BMW, Continental, BorgWarner, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Opel, GKN and Robert Bosch. The appeal of Arjeplog is twofold: reliably cold temperatures that can drop to -40 degrees Celsius and lots of frozen lakes.
Key developments
Many of the world’s most important active safety systems have been refined here including ABS in the early 1970s by automakers such as Volvo and Saab, as well as traction control in the early 1980s by Bosch and Mercedes. The increased fitment of all-wheel drive in SUVs, crossovers and other vehicles has given a further boost to Arjeplog, where awd specialists such as GKN and its BorgWarner-owned Swedish rival, Haldex, push their systems to their limits. “If you’re going to be in the awd business you have to understand the behavior of cars in these conditions. It’s just a given,” GKNK technology boss Rob Rickell told Automotive News Europe.
There are other popular sites in the world for winter testing, but Arjeplog (pronounced Are-ye-plog) as well as nearby Arvidsjaur and Alvsbyn are generally considered among the finest by automakers and suppliers. “This is one of the best. You’re guaranteed good winter-test conditions,” Rickell said.
In winter, the population of Arjeplog doubles as 3,000 engineers from 30 auto companies arrive to take advantage of about 2,000km of test tracks. This generates an average of 150 million euros for the local economy each year, according to an exhibition at the local airport in Arvidsjaur. There are direct flights to Arvidsjaur from Paris as well as Munich, Stuttgart and Hanover, Germany.
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‘Intense testing’
Generally engineers love coming here. “They like it because it’s intense testing – you can achieve so much more than in the office, there’s nothing disturbing you,” said Magnus Pettersson, head of chassis development at Volkswagen Group-owned truck maker, Scania. Pettersson said engineers stay for a week to a month. Any longer than a month gets to be monotonous, engineers said, because there is not much to do besides work. Going out to eat can be tricky because there are not many restaurants, which means conversations need to steer away from work topics. “Nobody wants to talk in case a rival’s listening, everyone looks to see what prototype you’ve driven to the car park. It’s a really weird atmosphere,” said an engineer who asked to remain nameless.
Despite that, Arjeplog’s unique environment with its reindeer forests, endlessly configurable lake tracks and occasional nighttime glimpses of the famed Northern Lights is a useful draw.
“It’s not just about testing cars. We bring customers here, the press, the investors, this is about selling the technology of the group,” GKN’s Rickell said. “It’s a nice informal friendly atmosphere, you don’t wear a suit and tie. It’s very different to a meeting in Germany.”
Increasingly, auto companies are using simulators or indoor facilities that recreate some of Arjeplog’s worst conditions. Scania, for example, has a climate-controlled wind tunnel that can replicate snow and bring the temperature down to -40, as well as simulate heat and high humidity. But as Scania’s Pettersson said: “Not everything can be replicated in the tunnel.”
The potential of these lakes was first discovered in 1969 by two adventurous engineers from Opel who had driven to the area from Germany. A team of Opel engineers returned four years later and swept a rudimentary track on Lake Hornavan with brooms. The Arjeplog Times, a local newspaper produced only during the winter testing season, reported that those engineers had a unique way to make sure the ice was safe for a car. They put an Opel Admiral into drive, pointed it toward the lake and got out as it rolled away just in case it broke through. The ice held. It wasn’t long before others – including the spy photographers – joined Opel.
