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40 June 2018 | AutoData ENGINEERING » R&D By Márcio Stéfani, from Iracemápolis LEGACY OF INOVAR-AUTO Mercedes-Benz inaugurates proving ground for trucks and buses in Iracemápolis, with an investment of R$ 90 million Philipp Schiemer, president of Mercedes- -Benz Brazil and CEO in Latin America, said: “I am sure that without this help, we probably would not be able to build the proving ground here.” GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES The new proving ground is the third of the type installed in the world and pla- ces Brazil definitely as one of the main company’s global vehicle development hubs in the commercial vehicle segment - the other two are in Germany and the United States. “This complex expands our capacity for simulations and tests and, consequen- tly, the technological development of our products”, says the president, “as for the domestic market as for the exports.” By the manufacturer’s calculations 17 thousand kilometers driven on the test tracks are equivalent to almost 1 million kilometers driven on roads and streets: “It’s a huge efficiency gain that will enable the development of customized solutions which will make us more competitive.” There are sixteen test tracks in total: I f anyone still doubts the benefits that an incentive policy, such as Inovar-Auto or Rota 2030, can bring to Brazil just go on a tour around Iracemápolis, in the countryside of São Paulo, near Piracicaba, and soon after passing by some series of sugar plantations to observe the proving ground that Mercedes-Benz inaugurated there in mid-May. The enterprise is simply the largest and most advanced proving ground for commercial vehicles in the Southern He- misphere. It was built in eighteen months next to the automobile factory that the company has maintained there as a result of investment of R$ 90 million. It has, in a 1,3 km² ares, specialized technology in- frastructure for the development of trucks and buses with sixteen asphalt, concrete and land tracks in a total extension of 12 kilometers. Good part of the resources used came from Inovar-Auto. Mercedes-Benz does not reveal this value or the relative percen- tage of the benefit, but guarantees that if it wasn’t for this the investment would hardly be approved for Brazil. That is what