The Hungarian city of Zalaegerszeg, located on the banks of the river Zala, southwest of Budapest, in recent years, has been the “green” center of an ambitious technological infrastructure with references to Mobility and Electric and Autonomous vehicles.
ZalaZONE is one of the largest electric and autonomous driving projects in Europe, which includes control tracks and laboratory testing facilities, with a combined use of high technology and telecommunications, allowing the testing of electric, conventional or autonomous vehicles at multiple levels, from original tests to development of final products, while providing specially designed roads and highway of many kilometers, for the use of a driving testing-zone. ZalaZONE was created with the participation and support of large automotive companies (Almotive, Bosch, AVL, Continental), Telecommunications and Informatics (Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, Oracle, Siemens, Vodafone) along with the Technical University of Buda of the Universities of Pannonia and SzéchenyiIstvány.
ZalaZONE infrastructure provides unique full-range installations for autonomous and electric vehicles, with a range of dynamic platforms with special quality asphalt suitable for speed, braking, steep and incline tests, while there are also autonomous test units. The first phase of the ZalaZONE test route was completed in 2019 and is suitable for testing conventional cars and autonomous cars. The section will be connected to the new “smart” highway M76, while the final form of ZalaZONE infrastructure will be completed in 2022.
Within ZalaZONE, an independent Smart City area has been created with a 5G network that resembles a normal city and provides realistic traffic conditions, ensuring dynamic elements of the environment, traffic, engine and vehicle. ZalaZONE’s Smart City attracts companies from all over the world as it offers the ideal IoT environment for both incubation and the development of new solutions.
The operation of ZalaZONE is based on three main axes: The Automotive applications (tests on Electric & Autonomous vehicles), the Smart City structure (tests & final IoT solutions), and the Research project. ZalaZONE is a University Research Center and collaborates with a wide network of European Universities for studies on Electricity and Autonomous Vehicles. In this way the ideas developed in the Research Center are then tested in the realistic environment (Smart City zone) and result in final commercial solutions of the Automotive or Smart City applications.
The partnership of cutting-edge Technologies, University Research and ZalaZONE’s business community is at the forefront of Europe. It paves the way for new collaborations and new ventures. Now that green growth, e-mobility and Smart City applications are also mobilizing the Greek economy, the ZalaZONE initiative in neighboring Hungary offers excellent opportunities for synergies with Greek companies and institutions.
For more information, contact ALX Hellas, representative of the Hungarian Export Promotion Agency in Greece, at 30 210-7220150 or email: info@alx.com.gr.
Source: Capital
