The mobility industry is going through a major transition. Electric drives are getting more attention worldwide – for all types of transportation. While rail transport has already been largely electrified, electric drives are also becoming more common in cars and commercial vehicles such as trucks, agricultural machinery, and construction equipment. To advance this transformation process scientifically, a new center for innovative drive technology is being established at TU Wien: the eMOTION Lab. The name stands for electrical energy and motion – and for a team that is passionately researching the future of mobility.

The eMOTION Lab is located on the premises of the Institute of Powertrain and Automotive Technology (IFA). It is equipped with leading edge test and development technology from the technology company AVL, opens an external URL in a new window, an international innovation leader in the development of sustainable drive systems. The new infrastructure creates a research environment that meets both academic standards and industrial requirements. With the eMOTION Lab, the IFA itself is undergoing a transformation by diversifying its research focus and opening up to forward-looking technologies. 

There is a high demand for such infrastructure projects, as the shift from fossil fuels to electric drives is a key component in achieving international climate targets. Electric motors enable energy-efficient drives. This applies to hybrid propulsion systems where the electric motor is combined with combustion engines and for pure electric drives. Electric drives produce no local emissions and vehicles can be powered by electricity from renewable sources. Pressure is growing on politicians and industry to bring alternative drive systems into series production more quickly. This is exactly where the eMOTION Lab comes in: it creates the technical basis for researching, testing, and further developing new concepts under realistic conditions.

The IFA has been conducting research in the area of combustion engines, sustainable fuels, and electric drives for many years. The eMOTION Lab expands this expertise with additional leading edge test benches for electric drive systems. “In addition to our established hybrid test benches, we are now adding a new inverter test bench and, in the future, an e-axle and a high-voltage integration test bench,” explains Uwe Grebe, head of the IFA. Construction, which began in early December, is proceeding in stages.

Electric motors and inverters must operate reliably within a wide ambient temperature range – from frosty -40 to hot +100 degrees Celsius. In order to simulate these extreme conditions in a reproducible manner, the eMOTION Lab is equipped with a specially designed cold chamber. The components are also actively cooled, which further improves their properties and enables thermal management of the entire system. 

AVL supplies tailor-made test systems for this purpose, which are used worldwide in research and industry and now also enable high-precision test procedures at TU Wien.

The first part of the eMOTION Lab – the inverter test bench – should be operational as early as April. It will not only open up new opportunities for the IFA, but will also be available to partners both within and outside TU Wien. From industrial collaborations and international research projects to teaching, numerous areas will benefit from the expansion of the infrastructure. Students will have the opportunity to carry out their final theses using state-of-the-art measurement technology, thereby gaining practical experience in the forward-looking field of electric drive systems.

The mobility of the future does not end with electric cars. Today, electric drives already dominate rail transport and are also becoming increasingly important in aviation. At the same time, there is a growing demand for high-performance energy storage systems and intelligent charging and energy supply systems. With the eMOTION Lab, TU Wien is creating a central hub to provide scientific support for these developments—and to research solutions that make our mobility more sustainable, efficient, and climate-friendly.

Contact 

Prof. Uwe Grebe
Institute of Powertrain and Automotive Technology
TU Wien
+43 1 58801 31500
uwe.grebe@tuwien.ac.at 

Text:Sarah Link