In the icy realm of the Erlkönige - the secret winter tests of the car manufacturers

When men like Holger Enzmann or Carsten Jablonowski are currently packing their suitcases for their business trips, they tend to rummage around for thick socks rather than ties. And instead of leather slippers, moon boots come with the luggage. Both are engineers from the automotive industry and are about to return to the Arctic Circle.

The same scenes year after year, especially in Arjeplog in Sweden, but also in Ivalo in Finland and in other municipalities in the far north of Scandinavia: from December onwards, hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of specialists arrive with their prototypes.

Here they want to put the upcoming new cars through their paces, often years before they are launched on the market. The so-called Erlkönige are usually camouflaged beyond recognition with plastic planks and psychedelic foil. They are driven in a stoic routine over thousands of kilometers on lonely country roads - or over course on the thick ice of frozen lakes, sometimes roughened to provide a good grip, sometimes polished to a mirror-smooth finish.

"This is an integral part of our development program," says Mercedes man Holger Enzmann. He is responsible for the Swabians' electric luxury class family and, in the best-case scenario, even sends his prototypes into the ice for two winters in a row. "In the first to try and adjust everything, and then in the second to double-check everything."

According to Carsten Jablonowski from the Audi team, almost all trades are involved in these tests. However, working in the ice often looks more spectacular than it actually is.

Because while the Erlkönigen on film and photos often trail meters of snow and dance the snow waltz at high speed, many laps without cameras are dull routine: "We feel our way very, very slowly to the limit area, so we often just feel and slide for days walking pace across the ice.”

The pandemic, with its lockdowns and travel restrictions, has taught developers to shift even more work to the climate chambers at home in the factory or to the computer entirely. "But in the end the car has to be on the ice and in the snow so that we can release it into series production with a clear conscience," says Holger Enzmann.

The people of the 2000 soul community will be happy to hear that. The location is somewhat dependent on the car developers. Because apart from forestry, a little mining and a few fishing vacationers in the summer, there is not much that supports the municipal budget.

"We owe the fact that we have a comparatively good infrastructure, a small gastronomic scene and such an international selection in the supermarket to the Erlkönigs and their entourage," reports former Arjeplog mayor Bengt-Urban Fransson.

And it makes reading the automotive press superfluous, says Fransson: "Because before we see new cars anywhere in the newspaper or on the Internet, they are already here in front of the supermarket or at the gas station."

No wonder that the so-called Erlkönig hunters also travel to the Arctic Circle with the testers. Photographers who have specialized in "shooting" the prototypes and often earn a lot of money with the first shot. And no wonder that the developers are happy about the ongoing darkness.

Mercedes developer Enzmann admits that it can sometimes be a bit upsetting if it doesn't get light for weeks. But together with the sophisticated camouflage of the prototype builders, this makes the work of the spies with their cameras correspondingly difficult.

One of the pioneers of winter testing is Lars Sundstrom – and you can take that literally. Because Sundström is an icemaker and prepares the test tracks on the lakes, which are covered with ice at least 30 and up to 120 centimeters thick.

Already in the first days of winter, he and his colleagues, who must number more than 100, started to lay out circuits and handling routes, which are precisely measured with satellite bearings and are therefore reproduced in an absolutely identical way every year.

During the season, they often go out at four o'clock in the morning to roll out the white carpet for the prototypes at minus 20 degrees. "One type of ice cream is not enough," says Sundström, speaking of the very critical requirements of car manufacturers.

"For them we have to brush, polish or roughen the ice with huge robs. We create grooves down to the millimeter or we can reduce the grip of the tires with additional water and increase it with sand,” he says, explaining the possibilities of his huge fleet of vehicles.

But as soon as the snow melts, so does the importance of the community. And with every plane that takes off from the small airport in neighboring Arvidsjaur, it gets quieter and more tranquil on Silvervägen and Storgatan.

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