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MBtech’s first appearance at the IAA Commercial Vehicles focuses on the motto "Are you hybrid?" and reflects the current focus on sustainable drive concepts
The engineering and consulting company, MBtech, will be present at the IAA Commercial Vehicles in September 2008 with its own exhibition stand for the first time. The background for the company’s presence in Hanover is the increasing demand for development services in the commercial vehicle branch. Using hybrid issues as a platform MBtech presents its integrated range of services which are especially attractive to city bus and distribution vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers. Because successfully integrating an electrical and combustion engine combination into current vehicle models demands both special knowledge as well as full-vehicle expertise.
In Hanover MBtech presents its range of competences from September 28 until October 2, 2008, at a 126 square meter exhibition stand in Hall 13 (stand D65). "Today MBtech already generates a significant proportion of its 300 million euro turnover with projects from the commercial vehicle industry", explains Werner Kropsbauer, MBtech Group President and Spokesman. "This could grow in the near future as we are reckoning with an increasing number of orders from manufacturers and suppliers in the commercial vehicle segment, primarily as a result of the increasing demand for hybrid technologies."
The exhibition stand of the engineering and consulting service provider bears the slogan "Are you Hybrid?" and thus focuses on hybrid competences for commercial vehicles. MBtech also provides its hybrid customers with comprehensive support throughout the entire product development process: From defining a suitable hybrid concept and developing the associated operating strategy to the vehicle-specific adaptation and integration of the hybrid components onward to prototype construction, driving trials and testing. "The advantages which hybrid commercial vehicles truly provide and the additional costs for the manufacturer depend on the efficiency of all of the development and production processes", explains Hartmut Tresp, MBtech Group President. "This is where MBtech provides targeted support." Firstly, manufacturers lack the corresponding resources to hybridize existing vehicle platforms. Secondly, the component suppliers often exceed the limits of their own full-vehicle expertise as a result of the broad range of tasks involved. MBtech is the engineering and consulting partner for both issues. MBtech has adapted its corporate structure to handle the heavy demand for hybrid projects: A project house, headed by Martin Ott, handles the overall project management and integrates the essential know-how from the MBtech segments specific to the particular customer function. This structure also serves to expand the company's competencies in the alternative drives field.
Numerous reference projects have already proven the importance of MBtech's solutions for the commercial vehicle branch. During the development of a city bus, MBtech handled a comprehensive range of automotive electronics tasks - this included optimizing the operating strategy on the basis of driving and consumption simulations as well as integrating the control units and function simulations onward to high-voltage wiring. In particular the operating strategy and the energy management are regarded as the soul of the hybrid bus. MBtech's engineers performed the application of the combustion engine in view of it. In the bus' serial hybrid concept the diesel engine now functions as a generator - the electrical energy generated is stored in batteries to power the electrical hub motors, delivering low-noise and low-emission propulsion.
MBtech has also completed a further hybrid project for a small truck. A number of series vehicles were converted to hybrid drive vehicles at MBtech's own workshop for alternative drives. MBtech's experts handled the integration of the individual hybrid components. The small truck can now be run using either the 35 kW electric motor, the 92 kW turbo diesel or both engines at the same time. When braking the electric engine switches into generator mode, transforming the energy generated into electricity which is then stored in accumulators.
In addition, MBtech's own "Truck Monitor 2008" study emphasizes the company's know-how for the commercial vehicle branch. The MBtech consulting segment will complete the study in September 2008 and present its results at the IAA. The study examines the decision-making criteria for heavy commercial vehicle customers on the German market. It is based on more than 70 surveys with customers and drivers, performed by MBtech consulting. "It focuses on the five core areas consisting of product features, procurement, sales, maintenance and service", explains Marc Bayer, Principal at MBtech Consulting and responsible for the "Truck Monitor 2008". On the basis of customer opinions "Truck Monitor 2008" provides the first presentation of both brand-spanning purchasing criteria and brand-specific profiles for the German commercial vehicle market.
MBtech at the IAA Commercial Vehicles 2008, Hannover
Hall 13, stand D65
