The transformation of the global automotive industry – in particular the rise of electric drives and digitalisation – is calling for new technological directions and competences. Accordingly, Audi Hungaria is making a strategic shift in its development portfolio, with electric drives, software-based developments and motor control power electronics playing an increasingly important role.

 

Power electronics development in Győr started five years ago with a team of a few people, but has now grown into a separate field with nearly forty highly skilled development engineers. The number of developers will continue to grow in the coming years as the development workload increases. This will be achieved partly through retraining of developers from other areas, knowledge transfer and training programmes.

 

The Volkswagen Group is independently developing exclusive performance electronics for MEBeco, drawing on the various competences and resources of the Group. The Győr team will primarily provide support in hardware development tasks, but will also play an important role in the development of production line testing and hardware and software validation. The team has also set up a lab equipped with the necessary measurement tools and infrastructure for hardware development, which demonstrates engineering autonomy and innovation. Digital tools and methods such as artificial intelligence-based simulations and data-driven optimisation are increasingly being used in development.

 

Developments in the field of power electronics will contribute to Audi Hungaria's continued positioning as a major development centre within the Volkswagen Group. The goal is to enable the Győr-based development team to participate in even more complex power electronics developments in the future, further strengthening the company's competitiveness and technological role in the world of electromobility.

 

The importance of power electronics is also demonstrated by the academic cooperation between Audi Hungaria and the Széchenyi István University of Győr, where the existing activities of the Department of Vehicle Drives have been complemented with the development of power electronics and renamed accordingly. The newly renamed Department of Vehicle Drives Technology and Power Electronics is headed by a specialist coming from Audi Hungaria’s Technical Development.