Zalaegerszeg, 24.05.2020. With the title „Building our future- ZalaZONE Automotive Proving Ground”, an online conference took place on Friday 22nd May at ZalaZONE.

By welcoming remarks and moderation of Mr Zoltán Szujó, previous F1 racing reporter, five keynote speakers shared their presentations on different topics related to the ZalaZONE Proving Ground’s current status.

The chief guest of the event, Minister for Research and Innovation, Dr.László Palkovics, being responsible also for the restart of the Hungarian economy after the virus, spoke about the Hungarian Government’s five-points economy protection action plan. Speaking about the Proving Ground project covering almost 250 hectares, the Minister mentioned that the foundation stone of the facility was laid in May 2017 and the completion of the total investment is expected in 2021.

Mr László Vigh, local MP and ministerial commissioner for construction of the test track, shared several important details about the already completed proving ground’s modules and presented the braking platform element handed over 3 days ago.

Mr Dirk Janetzko, Managing Director of AVL-ZalaZONE Ltd., in his presentation provided an insight into the development of his company’s strategy and business development plans. AVL-ZalaZONE Ltd. has been in operation sinceNovember 1, 2019. The new company’s mission is to drive the BtoB sales tasks of the test track, including industrial promotion, marketing, business development.

Dr. Zsolt Szalay, Head of Research and Innovation, ZalaZONE APZ Ltd.,leading the Automotive Department of the BudapestUniversity of Technology, highlighted that from the very first moment of planning, the university cooperation has been an inherent part of the ZalaZONE ProvingGround, as the specification and requirements of the test track have been developed together with university scientists. Cooperation has been steadily expanding and broadening over the years and has now become a true international collaboration. In his presentation Dr. Szalay showed the research results achieved by researchers and scientists in the framework of Hungarian and international collaborations at ZalaZONE.

‍Mr Zoltán Hamar, Company Manager of the Automotive Proving Ground Zala Ltd. pointed out that the ZalaZONE project is an outstanding example of cooperation between the industry and the Hungarian Government. The project was originally initiated and specified by the automotive industry and started as agovernment financed R&D infrastructure project. In his speech, he presented the actual status of construction, operation end engineering services.

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The conference invitation and live streaming link was sent to potential interested partners (researchers and scientists, business partners and colleagues) all over the world. The online event proved relevant and popular, as about 250 participants attended it virtually.