Allison Transmission Vehicle Environment Test Center to Open in July

Allison Transmission has announced that the official opening of the Vehicle Environment Test (VET) Center will take place July 8, 2020. The 60,000 sq.-ft. building will house two environmental chambers capable of simulating a broad range of environmental conditions and duty cycles, including temperature extremes, grades, altitudes and other on-road conditions.

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Specifically, the center will house a hot soak chamber, a cold soak chamber and two chassis dyne-equipped environmental chambers. The capabilities include temperature extremes from -54-125 F and altitude up to 18,000 ft., grades and other on-road conditions. By utilizing this test center, Allison and its OEM partners will be able to accelerate development and validation of conventional powertrains, alternative fuel vehicles, electric hybrid vehicles and fully electric vehicles for all aspects of performance—including emissions and fuel economy. The center is capable of accommodating most commercial on- and off-highway and wheeled defense vehicle applications.

This investment in next generation innovation pays off immediately because the VET breaks the seasonal dependency of the product development cycle. It eliminates Mother Nature and other variations in fuel economy and performance testing by providing vehicle-level controlled laboratory conditions. The Center can simulate any temperature, any road and any location, on any day all in one location. But the real payoff is taking the reliable and repeatable data produced in the VET and driving those correlations back into models and simulations to create more sophisticated virtual product development. The VET is the solution for product development process innovation.

As the only one of its kind in the Midwest, the VET will enable Allison and its OEM partners to bring new technology and products to market faster and more efficiently. When not in use by Allison, the center will be available to external parties to support their testing and certification needs. All testing is conducted in a manner ensuring customer data is secure and confidential.

“Allison’s long history of innovation continues to be written as we move into the future with our enhanced testing and advanced product development capabilities at our new test center,” says Randy Kirk, Senior Vice President, Product Engineering and Program Management at Allison Transmission. “As a company dedicated to innovation, we are doing more than ever to ensure we stay integrated within our customers' needs, as well as monitoring environmental regulations for emissions, noise and air quality.”

As the industry continues to evolve, Allison Transmission’s investments in core product development and innovation underscore our commitment to remain a leader in propulsion solutions across all the end markets we serve.