Millbrook operator's new Morocco test centre cuts R&D costs in half

The site as seen by satellite

Use of the MMAC is flexible and can be tailored to all aspects of a testing and development programme, but UTAC sees the initial demand being focused on endurance and durability testing, with labour-intensive portions of engineering programmes for internal combustion powertrains and electric vehicle components, which involve multiple shifts of repetitive test track driving to put components under real-world strain. 

Also among the 14 test tracks at the MMAC are a sinuous multi-corner road circuit 2.9 miles long and seven metres wide, featuring copies of some of Europe’s best driving corners; and a 2.5-mile coastdown track, constructed over 12 months to a close-tolerance specification, including a precise gradient of 0.7%. 

An important new engineering asset for the European car industry, the coastdown track is used to gather real-world ‘road load’ data for calculating current Euro 6 and forthcoming Euro 7 fuel economy and CO2 emissions figures. 

Other testing facilities at the MMAC include a lowfriction wet/dry pad for brake testing with a split coefficient of friction option; an urban track for simulating frequent stop-start motoring; and a car-breaking zone with Belgian pavé, extreme bumps, water splashes and corrugations to simulate desert driving. 

UTAC won’t be replicating high-investment testing labs such as Millbrook’s battery testing facility, though. “We don’t need a second site for that,” said Benoit. “If we have more demand for battery testing, we will expand Millbrook. It doesn’t make sense to duplicate.” 

Of course, much of a vehicle’s development and testing is carried out in laboratories and workshops, and so the MMAC has facilities dedicated to UTAC contract activities, powertrain developer FEV and clients such as car-making giant Stellantis, which has taken a workshop. Other manufacturers are expected to join them. 

Stellantis, whose CEO Carlos Tavares is renowned for his focus on reducing costs, already has durability testing under way at the MMC. The site is conveniently located for its factory at Kenitra, near Rabat, which makes the Citroën Ami and Peugeot 208. 

UTAC’s own workshops are supporting contract work for manufacturers, which might include high-labour content testing. An example of this is static wear testing of trim and components like door hinges, which are put through repeated open-close operations, with a test operative also entering and exiting the passenger seat to subject trim and upholstery seams to real-world wear.

Costs for a test programme like this might be reduced by 50%, thanks to the lower labour costs in Morocco. FEV has a large test lab at the site with nine functional areas, each kitted out with test rigs, including a chassis dynamometer, an ICE testing lab and a heat-soak room with temperature boxes that can cool or heat a car from –20deg C up to 50deg C. 

“Repeated heating and cooling cycles are used to accelerate wear and degradation testing,” said UTAC durability testing head Philippe Artous.

"Better business case" than building new Nardo

“We talked to potential clients about their needs and had demand from premium car makers for a very high speed circuit, but the cost for building this type of track would have doubled the cost of the whole [MMAC] facility,” said Benoit. 

The demand exists for a second high-speed track near Europe to complement the 7.8-mile circular track in Nardò, Italy, where sustained high speed running at near 200mph is the key offering, because track time there is notoriously difficult to book.