Nardo Technical Centre Completes 10 Years Under Porsche Ownership

The Nardo Technical Centre in southern Italy is celebrating the completion of 10 years under Porsche ownership. In this time, the facility has gone from just a proving ground to a technical centre for high-performance testing, validation, and development of intelligent and connected vehicles. The Nardo Technical Centre spans an area of over 700 hectares and comprises more than 20 test tracks. The facility is currently run by Porsche Engineering.

“The acquisition of the Nardo Technical Centre by Porsche in 2012 was an important enrichment for the whole Porsche Group,” says Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Research and Development at Porsche AG and Chairman of the Shareholder's Committee of Porsche Engineering.

Since acquisition Porsche has invested 80 million Euros to upgrade the facilities at Nardo.

“From the very beginning, Nardo has been a cornerstone for our vehicle development and testing—due to its special tracks as well as in-depth testing expertise. During the last ten years, it has evolved substantially, enabling ourselves and customers from all over the world to develop and validate future vehicles even more efficiently,” Steiner added

Since 2012 Porsche has invested around 80 million Euros into the facility to modernise the infrastructure including the complete renovation of the famed 12.6km Nardo Ring and the opening of new tracks and infrastructure to test connected and automated driving functions. The company also installed fast-charging stations across the facility to better facilitate EV testing.

Upgrades include setting up of EV fast chargers across the facility for easier testing of EVs.

The Nardo Technical Centre was originally established in 1975 by the Fiat Group with the proving ground comprising of two workshops, a control tower, the Car Dynamic Platform and the circular track. In 200, the workshop space was expanded on under the new management of the centre with the cobblestone road for ride quality testing opened in 2002. 2008 saw the opening of the 6.2 km long handling circuit before Porsche took control of the facility in 2012.

The centre over the years has also hosted a vast range of cars from land speed record attempts, endurance record attempts and prototype testing.