Climate Change is Reshaping Ecosystems : When the Swedish automaker Volvo opened its proving ground in Kiruna, Sweden, 30 years ago, the goal was simple: “Making sure that our products are truly fit for the harshest of winter conditions.It was remote enough it was perfect. Kiruna, located about 90 miles north of the Arctic Circle, typically has long, cold winters and snow cover until mid-May. This year, Volvo engineers have had to delay their annual testing or work out of subarctic cold boxes to simulate the region’s bitter conditions.
“Typically we have a long season of winter testing,” John Lundegren, an engineering manager at Volvo, told ABC News. “This season is becoming more unpredictable. You can find spring weather in the heart of winter. What occurs is the snow then melts and you get icy conditions. “We’ve already seen the weather start to change in the last five years.”
The erratic weather can throw a vehicle’s rollout and production rollout schedule into disarray and complicate critical testing of new vehicles: braking, battery heating, thermal management, performance and drivability and even cabin heating and defrosting.“We’ve got people coming to do brake testing, but we don’t have any snow on the tracks,” Lundegren explained. “We have to wait for snowy conditions, and I don’t think that is on the horizon for 10 days.” It affects our effectiveness.”
He added, “We’re trying to develop cars quicker and quicker, so having this shorter period of time of where we can do this very important winter testing is something that impacts our whole development process.”Sven Albiecht, a chassis and driveline development engineer working for Volkswagen operations in Sweden, said that the above-normal temperatures in Sweden and northern Scandinavia has been “difficult” for the German automaker.
“We need freezing conditions,” he said in a statement to ABC News. “We’re doing testing later and closing earlier. … The work is slightly denser.” Similar to Volvo, Volkswagen leaves vehicles overnight in fridgetype chambers so researchers can observe how cold affects a car’s responses. The chambers are also often more dependable than Mother Nature.
“We have to ensure the doors open at minus 40 degrees,” Albiecht said.Unless you’re trying to tune a vehicle’s anti-lock braking system and electronic stability program, ice and slippery surfaces are also essential, he added.Volkswagen has not yet been persuaded to look elsewhere for testing sites. But Albiecht said that he knows very well that “something is happening. That is a
fact.” Erik Kjellström, a climatology professor at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), said that snow cover in much of the country is thinner than in previous years.“There tends to be a lot more snow this time of year typically. Northern parts of the country and the coast, they’ve been rainy, it’s slushy,” he said on ABC News. “The winter season continues to shorten and push back.” People are disturbed.”