IVECO BUS officially inaugurated its new testing and validation facility, called E-BENCH, located in the R&D center in Vénissieux, the global headquarters of Iveco Group's bus and coach activities.

Extremely versatile, E-BENCH allows testing of both individual components and complete vehicles in real driving conditions, simulating all types of missions and climates.

Fully operational since July 2023, E-BENCH has extensive testing capabilities with a roller dynamometer, climate bench, bench for individual components, complete HIL (Hardware-in-the-loop) bench for testing all components together, and compatibility with electric and hydrogen propulsion vehicles.

The E-BENCH consists of interconnected cells that allow testing of vehicles and, most importantly, functional models called SKATE. The main test cell can simulate the dynamics of the vehicle via two loading machines while simulating extreme climatic conditions and combining climatic functions (between -15 °C and +55°C in all seasons). These constraints generate an airflow of up to 210,000 m³/h.

The new E-BENCH project (facility and development) represents a total investment of €6.2 million for IVECO BUS.

The development phase of the project was co-funded by the French Government through the France 2030’ Future Investment Program, operated by ADEME, the French Agency for Ecological Transition.