The AVRC facility is a new 16,000 square foot headquarters that includes a research and design center in the Cyber Park. Additionally, the company is developing a closed loop natural terrain track on a 266-acre site near the Danville Regional Airport. The track will be used to test manned and unmanned military vehicles and off-road vehicles.

AVRC has a commercial initiative to convert hybrid Toyota Priuses to Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles. (PHEVs) and other initiatives include natural gas conversion and Hydrogen mobile generation. AVRC has done more PHEV conversions than any other company on the East Coast for clients including Progress Energy, Duke Energy, City of Raleigh, and other clients from New York to Florida.

See the ABC-13 news coverage video below, and go here for the original ABC-13 news article.

The Advanced Vehicle Research Center (AVRC) was established in 2001 in North Carolina by Dick Dell as an independent company to service the rapidly growing automotive testing industry. The automotive industry is going through unprecedented change as more investment in research and development is being done due to the rising cost of fuel and the need for energy independence. Additional factors include increasing federal regulations, safety improvements and new technologies. Demand for testing services has steadily increased, especially in the military sector and from off-road component manufacturers.

Starting with a grant from the US Department of Energy, the AVRC has done research on many types of alternative fuels and systems. Most recently, the AVRC has led the Southeast region in plug-in hybrid conversions. Our future focus will be in the rapidly growing area of plug-in hybrid and full electric vehicles.

While the team sees the legacy fleet as the biggest opportunity for development, the electric, hybrid, hydrogen, fuel cell and natural gas conversions will be the primary area of focus for conversion contracts. The new facility will also have testing equipment for engine bio-fuels and emissions testing. The adjacent track area will be used as an off-road test facility, to accommodate requests from military and off-road manufacturers. It will also be used to test electric, hybrid, flex-fuel and autonomous robotic vehicles for government and military contracts.