VERENA Prize 2011 Awarded to BRP-Powertrain

Winner of this year’s VERBUND E-Novation Award (VERENA) is BRP-Powertrain GmbH & Co KG. In collaboration with Graz University of Technology, the Upper Austrian company was able to convince the jury with an outstanding solution for the further development of electric vehicles, most notably the increase of range, and thus collect the VERBUND award that is already much-coveted by scientists and companies. For the first time, this year saw Reinhold Mitterlehner, Federal Minister of Economy, Family and Youth, presenting the award as a special prize within the State Prize for Innovation.

"This year, for the first time as part of the awarding of the State Prize for Innovation, we are delighted to present an award for ideas that bring new energy technologies closer to the market and therewith to the customer," said VERBUND CEO Wolfgang Anzengruber.

Following a yearlong intense period of development and an investment of more than 500,000 Euro, the winner, BRP-Powertrain GmbH & Co KG, has succeeded in providing electric vehicles with increased energy and range. By means of a generator and power electronics, the "Rotax Auxiliary Power Unit" - or ROTAX APU for short – transforms energy resulting from fuel combustion into electrical energy and feeds it into the vehicle’s battery. The experts are also enthusiastic about the low consumption and emission values.

With its trendsetting ideas, BRP-Powertrain GmbH & Co KG was successfully able to assert itself among ten competitors, including the fellow nominees of Bachmann electronic GmbH and KIOTO Clear Energy AG.

For what is already the tenth time, the VERBUND E-Novation Award (VERENA) is being awarded by the leading electricity company, VERBUND, for innovative ideas in the areas of energy efficiency, energy management and smart grids, electric mobility, as well as electricity from renewable energies, and is designed to motivate research and industry to implement forward-looking measures through cooperation. This year see the VERBUND E-Novation Award (VERENA) being awarded for the first time as a special prize within the State Prize for Innovation.