October 27-29, Participation in the '2022 Daegu International Future Mobility Exhibition'
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Ulsan City will participate in the Daegu International Future Mobility Expo〔DIFA2022〕held at Daegu EXCO for three days from the 27th to the 29th, operating a promotional booth.
The promotional booth will exhibit the ‘Autonomous Electric Bus’ and ‘Small Electric Bus Platform’ developed mainly by companies in the Ulsan region.
The exhibited ‘Autonomous Electric Bus’ is at the stage of completing autonomous driving level 3 or higher and was developed in connection with vehicle-to-everything communication (V2X) that shares various information such as traffic information and pedestrian information in real time, based on the pre-established next-generation intelligent transportation system project (C-ITS) traffic infrastructure.
Currently, it is undergoing demonstration test runs on about 30 km in sections including Autobahn Valley Road∼Iye Road∼Innovation City downtown road, and near Ilsan Beach in Dong-gu within Ulsan City.
The city was the first local government to obtain temporary autonomous vehicle operation permission from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on December 27, 2018. The autonomous electric bus is based on Apollo 750 by the local SME Woojin Industrial Systems, with participation from K.A.R, Autonomous K2G, Ulsan Technopark, and the Road Traffic Authority. It has been developed as part of the ‘National Innovation Convergence Complex Support’ project running from October 2020 to December this year.
Apollo 750: Electric bus with a seating capacity of 22 passengers, maximum speed of 79 km/h, battery capacity of 147 kW/h, charging time of 45 minutes
The autonomous driving vehicle control system module developed through this project is scheduled to be delivered to Woojin Industrial Systems as an autonomous driving system product and is expected to serve as a foothold for future expansion to related small electric buses.
The ‘Small Electric Bus Platform’ exhibited together is a platform developed by converting existing small internal combustion engine buses for electric bus use.
Ulsan Technopark is leading the project, with local company K.A.R conducting system engineering, and Dongguk Industrial and Deokyang Industry developing and applying flame-retardant crash pads, display modules (CID), and console boxes to the platform respectively.
The flame-retardant crash pad refers to the interior parts such as the vehicle’s dashboard and air conditioner vents made of materials that do not burn in case of fire.
The display module (CID) is a device that displays digital driving and vehicle information.
Also, Hyundai Inverter Solution is developing the battery system, making this a significant development product that showcases the electric bus manufacturing capabilities of the Ulsan region.
In particular, K.A.R, a participating company, plans to expand the business by constructing a new factory of about 10,000 pyeong in the Gilcheon 2nd General Industrial Complex, Sangbuk-myeon, Ulju-gun, starting construction around November, to establish a facility system and proceed with the platform manufacturing business after June next year, based on the technology acquired through this project.
Labor Director of Innovation Industry, Dongwan Noh, said, “We expect this exhibition to serve as an opportunity to demonstrate that Ulsan’s small and medium-sized enterprises have the capability to manufacture autonomous electric buses,” adding, “As the mecca of the automobile industry, Ulsan will not spare support for fostering intelligent future automobile industries related to the high value-added automobile industry so that it can become a future autonomous vehicle production hub.”
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