Schaeffler Colloquium 2022: The automotive world as a guest in Bühl

Schaeffler is expecting 250 international guests in Bühl

An approximately 10,000 square meter event area with over 100 exhibits and twelve demonstration vehicles is being created

Highly automated vehicles drive through Bühl

The Schaeffler Group is a leading global bearing supplier to the automotive and industrial sectors.

What began almost 50 years ago as a small-group technology event is now the most important customer event for the Automotive Technologies division. "The Schaeffler Colloquium is a festival of innovations, with which we want to inspire our customers with new products and solutions," says Matthias Zink, Member of the Executive Board for Automotive Technologies at Schaeffler. For the first time in the history of the colloquium, the company will welcome its guests from June 29 to July 1, 2022 directly in the Bußmatten industrial area. In the past, the Kurhaus in Baden-Baden was always the venue. “I am particularly proud that we are bringing a large part of the event directly to us in Bühl for the first time this year,” says Matthias Zink. An impressive 10,000 square meter event site is being built in Bußmatten, right next to the Schaeffler factory premises. These include temporary buildings, demonstration areas and test tracks. Another premiere this year: in the days before and during the event, vehicles from Mobileye, a subsidiary of Intel, will drive through Bühl in a highly automated manner.

Schaeffler Symposium 2022

Schaeffler uses the colloquium every four years to invite its most important customers and to make contact with new customers. Many of the participants come from Europe, but even visitors from Japan, Korea, India and the USA travel to Bühl. "The technical exchange with our customers from all over the world is the focus of the event, which is taking place for the twelfth time in 2022," says Wendelin Backes, Head of Global Sales at Schaeffler Automotive Technologies. The focus of the event this year is on electrified drives, intelligent chassis solutions and other topics related to future mobility. Highlights include the new electric 4in1 axle drive, a demonstration vehicle with a fuel cell drive, the chainless pedelec drive "Free Drive" and the Schaeffler Rolling Chassis, a flexible platform for new, driverless mobility solutions. In total, the company will present over 100 exhibits and demonstrators to its guests in a 5,000 square meter exhibition tent. “There has never been such a wealth of innovations at any Schaeffler Symposium. This shows once again the motivation and development skills of our team,” says Wendelin Backes. The new venue in Bühl also enables Schaeffler to show its customers the production areas in its Bußmatten plant for the first time. There are regular tours that give an insight into the manufacture of components and systems, for example for electromobility. "We want to convince customers of our manufacturing excellence," says Backes. Furthermore, 20 specialist lectures will take place in a hall that has been specially converted into an auditorium.

Test drives with demonstration vehicles are available for national and international guests both on the event site and in the Driving Center at the Baden Airpark. In addition, test vehicles from the Intel subsidiary Mobileye drive through the city of Bühl. Schaeffler cooperates with the company in a long-term partnership. It combines Schaeffler's development and industrialization expertise in the drive and chassis area with Mobileye's many years of know-how in the areas of driver assistance and autonomous driving.