Ehra-Lessien test site

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Main entrance to the test site

The test site Ehra-Lessien, also test track in Ehra, is a testing ground for motor vehicles of the Volkswagen AG . It lies in the areas of the municipality of Ehra-Lessien and the city of Wittingen in the district of Gifhorn .

geography

The approximately eleven square kilometer site is about 25 kilometers north of Wolfsburg , where the headquarters of the Volkswagen Group is located. The terrain is flat and wooded, mainly with pine forest, which belongs to the Malloh and Bickelsteiner Heide forest areas. It is approximately ten kilometers long and one kilometer wide and extends in a north-northwest-south-southeast direction. The area is largely fenced; There is a forensic strip on the inside of the fence. To the west is the former Ehra-Lessien military training area . The closest localities are Ehra around four kilometers south and Knesebeck northeast and Mahnburg north of the area. Access is via the state road 288, which connects Ehra with Ohrdorf and runs past the site to the east.

Infrastructure and operations

According to Volkswagen, the site is the largest test site for motor vehicles in the world. It is used for cars of all group brands. The roads are 100 kilometers long. Underneath is a 21-kilometer high-speed carriageway with an eight-kilometer straight stretch and elevated curves at the north and south ends , so that you can drive there at up to 200 km / h with no lateral force .

Uphill and downhill stretches have gradients of 5 to 32 percent. Motor vehicles can be tested on a wide variety of surfaces, such as cobblestones. The 25 hectare, trapezoidal “dynamic area” in the southern half is paved without joints. Their gradient is four meters from west to east so that rainwater can drain away.

There are several buildings on the site, including the depot.

Around 1,000 employees drive around 34 million kilometers per year. You are usually employed as a test driver - for fast and risky journeys - as a test driver - to simulate everyday operation - or as a technician. External companies with work contracts act as employers, but the drivers drive according to instructions and with vehicles from Volkswagen AG. An attempt by test drivers to file a lawsuit with Volkswagen AG and thus get paid under the VW collective agreement failed in court in 2014.

history

In 1962, the first plans for a new, larger test site began, as the drive-in and test tracks on the Wolfsburg factory premises no longer met the increased requirements due to the increasing production numbers and model diversity, and the test vehicles could not be driven to the limit on public roads for safety reasons. In 1965 the decision was made in favor of the current location near Ehra-Lessien; other alternative locations were discarded due to lack of seclusion or too great a distance from the Wolfsburg plant. The purchase negotiations for the acquisition of the land required for the test site dragged on until 1968, as the land belonged to around 70 different owners.

In February 1967, however, the construction work for the first construction phase began, and in September 1967 the first driving tests were carried out. In the autumn of 1968 the rapid transit railway was completed after a year of construction. The test site opened on September 19, 1968.

The proportion of tested electric cars increased in the 2010s.

In February 2019, plans were presented to expand the test site by 45 hectares in order to be able to test assistance systems in the future . To this end, around twelve hectares are to be additionally sealed; around eight hectares of pine forest are to be felled.

Record drives on the test site

In 1973 the racing driver Huschke von Hanstein set speed records in the respective cubic capacity classes with a Porsche 914/4 and a Porsche Carrera RS . Another record was achieved in 1985 with a VW Polo G40 , over 204 km / h. With the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 , speed records were set for series vehicles on the high-speed lane in 2005 and 2010, in 2010 with 431 km / h. In 2013 another record drive was achieved with a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse as the fastest roadster with road approval.

On August 6, 2017, the former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya undertook the shortest drive to date in a Bugatti Chiron in 41.96 seconds, during which a vehicle accelerated from 0 to 400 km / h and brought it to a standstill again.

On August 2, 2019, racing driver Andy Wallace managed to drive the near-series prototype of a Bugatti Chiron faster than 300 miles per hour. He reached a top speed of 304.773 miles per hour, that is 490.484 km / h.

Deaths

In 2004, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2018 test drivers died on the premises.

Others

  • The further construction of the A 39 north towards Lüneburg is planned directly on the west side of the site .
  • Access to the test site is only possible to a limited extent. Due to confidentiality, visitors are subject to restrictions.
  • Another, smaller test site with “Schnellbahn” is located in the nearby Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg north of the “Research and Development” division.

literature

  • Dietrich Morghen: The Ehra-Lessien test site of Volkswagen AG. In: Kreiskalender 1996. Gifhorner Heimatbuch. Gifhorn 1995, ISBN 3-929632-25-X , pp. 117-133.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g 45 years of the VW test facility in Ehra-Lessien. welt.de, accessed on March 10, 2015
  2. a b Kai von Appen: VW pilots stay outside. taz.de from March 19, 2014, accessed on March 11, 2015
  3. VW built its test site 50 years ago. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten. Edition of September 15, 2018.
  4. Florian Heintz: VW expands test site in Ehra-Lessien. waz-online.de from February 17, 2019, accessed on October 5, 2019
  5. a b List of speed records (PDF), accessed on March 10, 2015
  6. DIE WELT: Nobody else is that fast: Bugatti Chiron with world record . In: THE WORLD . September 11, 2017 ( welt.de [accessed September 12, 2017]).
  7. 0-400-0 km / h in 42 seconds: Bugatti Chiron sets world record at bugatti.com
  8. Super sports car drives over 490 km / h. de.motot1.com on September 2, 2019, accessed on September 3, 2019
  9. Fatal accident during a secret test drive. In: [[Neue Presse (Hannover) |]] from February 9, 2010, accessed on June 2, 2018
  10. Man dies in an accident on a VW test track. In: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of February 22, 2016
  11. Driver dies in accident on VW test track at ndr.de on July 13, 2018
  12. ^ Photo of the test site in Wolfsburg , accessed on March 23, 2015

Coordinates: 52 ° 37 ′ 52 ″  N , 10 ° 45 ′ 58 ″  E