Fortum and Valmet Automotive partner to develop electric car
technology
(Thomson Reuters ONE) - Metso Corporation's and Fortum Corporation's press release on August6, 2009, 3:30 p.m. local timeFortum and Valmet Automotive have agreed on collaboration to developan electric concept car and the related recharging technology. Thegoal is to introduce a fully-electric concept car at the Geneva MotorShow in March 2010. The solutions developed will be utilized inwidening the offering by Finnish companies on the fast-growingelectric car market.The electrification of road traffic can significantly reduce trafficemissions and thus curb climate change. Electricity is an excellentalternative, in terms of emissions, energy efficiency and energysupply.Mitigating climate change by promoting electric motoring is animportant goal both for the energy company Fortum as well as forValmet Automotive, which is a service provider for the car industryand part of the Metso Group. It is within this framework that thecompanies are now initiating collaboration to develop the technologyrelated to electric vehicles.A preliminary report about an electric concept car has already beencompiled. In the next phase, the aim is to select other partners andto design and build the concept car; a 2+2-seat electric city carwith a range of up to 160 km per one charge."Valmet Automotive is not introducing its own electric car brand;instead, the idea is to create new solutions as a part of our serviceoffering," emphasizes Ilpo Korhonen, President, Valmet Automotive."By bringing together the experts in the sector, we can developservice packages for OEM customers, packages that range from electricvehicle design and manufacturing to recharging systems."Fortum is bringing to the project its know-how related to carrecharging. There is already an abundant recharging infrastructure inFinland, thanks to the electric plug-in network for engine blockheaters, but the wide-scale adoption of electric cars will requirethe recharging network to be developed.Fortum's several projects aim to promote wide-range adaption ofelectric cars"We think the report published today by the Ministry of Employmentand the Economy's electric car committee about electric vehicles inFinland is very positive. Finland now has an opportunity to leap intothe vanguard of development in electric car technology. It isimportant that the initiatives presented in the report to increasethe technical know-how needed and to implement test projects arestarted without delay. Additionally, the adoption of electric carsshould be encouraged by developing the car and vehicle taxation. Inthe initial phase, subsidizing the purchase of electric cars could bejustified," notes Esa Hyvärinen, Vice President, Public Affairs,Fortum.Fortum is advancing the wide-scale adoption of electric cars throughits participation in the development of electric motoring also inother projects. In 2008, Fortum launched a Nordic electric carproject, which is introducing rechargeable cars and recharging poststo trafficscapes in Espoo, Finland, and Stockholm, Sweden. Fortum isalso participating in the five-year TransEco program, which ispursuing solutions for traffic sector challenges related to energyand emissions. Within the program, Fortum is participating in the VTTTechnical Research Centre of Finland and Metropolia projects that arestudying electric car performance in low temperatures and developingquick recharging solutions for electric cars.Valmet Automotive to manufacture electric carsThis year, Valmet Automotive will start the manufacturing of twoelectric vehicles in Uusikaupunki, Finland. The first electric Gariagolf cars have already been delivered to the Danish Garia A/S, andthe first plug-in Fisker Karma hybrid cars recharged from the gridwill be delivered to the American Fisker Automotive towards the endof the year. In addition, Valmet Automotive currently manufacturesPorsche Boxster and Porsche Cayman sports cars for Porsche AG.Valmet Automotive's development work is strongly concentrating on newtechnologies and manufacturing processes for electric and hybridvehicles. The development projects include new ecological solutionsfor power sources as well as light-weight body structures andmaterials. Product engineering teams are combining light-weight andsafe body structures with new electric systems for the cars. At thesame time, new digital PDM (product data management) solutions arebeing developed to manage the engineering and manufacturing processesFortum Corporation Valmet Automotive OyAdditional information:Fortum Corporation, Esa Hyvärinen, tel. +358 40 826 2646,Valmet Automotive, Ilpo Korhonen, tel. +358 40 747 4987 on Thursdayuntil 5:30 p.m. Finnish time.Fortum is a leading energy company focusing on the Nordic countries,Russia and the Baltic Rim area. Our activities cover the generation,distribution and sale of electricity and heat and the operation andmaintenance of power plants. Our vision is to be the benchmark powerand heat company excelling in sustainability.Valmet Automotive is an experienced service provider for theautomotive industry. We offer lean and flexible solutions, fromproduct and process engineering to manufacturing as complete programsor selected services. Strong partnership and customer satisfactionare the cornerstones of our operations.This announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Datum: 06.08.2009 - 14:30 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
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