An international success story celebrates its birthday: In 20 years, VIRTUAL VEHICLE has developed into a central player in Europe for Green Digital Mobility. In the meantime, VIRTUAL VEHICLE is Europe’s largest research centre for virtual vehicle development in the automotive and rail sectors; its proven success forms an ideal foundation for research into sustainable mobility: digital rail systems, automated and climate-neutral mobility.

When “The Virtual Vehicle” was founded in 2002, there was little to indicate the unbelievable run of success: a small competence centre, distributed among several TU Graz institutes, started out with the focus on “virtual vehicle development” as something of an exotic feature in the research landscape. “The beginnings were quite turbulent, and only a few experts knew what we were actually working on here in Graz,” recalls Managing Director Dr. Jost Bernasch. Today, virtual vehicle development is state-of-the-art internationally, and VIRTUAL VEHICLE has played a decisive role in this.

Thanks to strategic research and modern key technologies such as Credible System Simulation, the centre has become a sought-after technology trendsetter among global players such as premium vehicle manufacturers (e.g. BMW, Siemens, VW) and suppliers (e.g. AVL, Bosch, Infineon, Magna, voestalpine). VIRTUAL VEHICLE enjoys an excellent reputation as a reliable high-performance partner in the European research landscape. Innovative technologies for Green Road and Digital Rail Systems form the optimal basis for achieving the long-term goal of Green Digital Mobility: climate-neutral mobility. At a ceremony, the joyful event was celebrated by, among others, Im Rahmen eines Festakts feierten das freudige Ereignis unter anderem Bild (v.l.n.r.): Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hermann Steffan (Institut für Fahrzeugsicherheit (VSI), TU Graz; Wissenschaftlicher Leiter VIRTUAL VEHICLE), Dr. Franz Wressnigg (Vorsitzender des Board VIRTUAL VEHICLE, ehem. Vorstandsvorsitzender von SIEMENS VDO), Prof. DI Dr.h.c. Helmut List (Vorsitzender der Geschäftsführung, AVL List GmbH), DI Christoph Gümbel (Future Matters, vorm. Porsche), Univ.-Prof. Dr. Horst Bischof (Vizerektor TU Graz), LR MMag. Barbara Eibinger-Miedl (Wirtschafts- und Wissenschaftslandesrätin), Dr. Jost Bernasch (Geschäftsführer VIRTUAL VEHICLE).

Picture material and press release here.