Autoliv, a Swedish multinational in automotive safety systems, is investing in six new crash-test sleds in Malaysia, Thailand, China, Korea and Australia.
The sleds can perform a variety of crash tests. From individual seat belt tests to full car body tests that simulate crashes with complete cars at speeds up to 65 km/h.
The investment is driven by Autoliv’s commitment to increase the levels of product development capability for vehicle safety systems throughout the region. Vehicle production in these five countries has grown by 65 percent during the last three years and is expected to grow another 35 percent to 12 million vehicles by 2006.
Two of the new sleds have already been commissioned in Thailand and Malaysia while the remaining units are expected to come online this fall.
The sled installations represent the first dynamic test capacity for these Autoliv companies.
It provides vehicle manufacturers here with an independent facility for conformance verification and a significant resource for local applications development.
Through these and other investments, Autoliv will double its consolidated sales in Asia over three years to be in excess of one billion USD in 2005.
