Bombardier's New Innovation Centre In Västerås

On 6 October 2020 Bombardier Transportation announced the addition of an e-mobility testing and technology centre to its current manufacturing plant in Västerås. With growing global market interest in e-mobility solutions and increasing interconnected development in the mobility sector, Bombardier will create an innovation centre focused on electric propulsion systems. This is a key enabling technology to increase energy efficiency and offer cost-efficient modular systems for a low carbon rail and automotive industry.

The new centre will:
- enable cross-industry links between different sectors, including academia and start-ups, and allow for joint research and development projects with construction machines, trucks and rail for example. 
- be open to facilitate testing of industry partner products and systems, bringing Bombardier’s expertise in electrical-propulsion systems to new applications for e-mobility. 
- develop next generation intelligent energy-efficient propulsion systems together with external partners. 

To accelerate the centre’s launch, Bombardier’s propulsion development and validation testing expertise will be concentrated under one roof by merging engineering offices with its manufacturing site in Finnslätten, an industrial zone in Västerås.  This initiative firmly supports the Västerås region’s plans to develop its local industry, source competence and cultivate the transport and mobility market’s future needs. The ground-breaking for the new buildings is envisaged to take place in spring 2021, and the new centre inauguration is planned for 2023.

We asked Bombardier how much it would invest in the construction of the new testing and technology centre and how this activity corresponds to the future takeover of Bombardier by Alstom. 

Bombardier told us:  "The investment figures will be disclosed at a later stage of the project. Today it was important for us to communicate our vision for Västerås and our goal to work together with the Swedish industrial ecosystem.

Bombardier Transportation’s new global innovation centre for railway and e-mobility aligns perfectly to Alstom’s plans post-acquisition, as it will enhance R&D capabilities, drive the next generation of intelligent energy-efficient propulsion technologies and make us better equipped to respond to the growing demand for safer, greener mobility solutions."