Viktor Neuman: Opportunities and cars

Viktor joined Etteplan in 2019 as an Engineering Consultant. He came directly from Chalmers University where he had been part of the Chalmers solar team. ''My first question to my new manager was ‘can I take 5 weeks off and go to Australia to race with a solar car through the desert?’ This was totally fine and even encouraged by Etteplan!"

After his adventure in Australia, Viktor got an assignment at Volvo Trucks in engine optimization. After that, he started working in Etteplan's test lab in Aröd with climate testing and sample prepping. This turned out to be a good match that suited Viktor's practical side very well. After a month or so, he switched from being a consultant at the customer's site to become an in-house consultant for Team Aröd. ''Being able to see what happens in an AC system, from compressor to evaporator, how the medium switches between gas, liquid, subcooling, overheating and how I as an operator could make changes that affected the entire system was really interesting. The fact that I could speculate on what would happen from previously made changes to parameters and then get the answer was very exciting and fun,'' says Viktor.

In addition to that, Viktor was also the manager of the new solar car team at Chalmers, which was going to compete in Australia again with a new car. The event was unfortunately cancelled due to Covid-19 but a new opportunity opened up in competing in Morocco. ''Etteplan helped us get to Morocco and we got to borrow Etteplan's pool car. The solar team and I got in the Etteplan car, went to Falköping's flying club where we could borrow an airplane trailer and then set our course for France to take the ferry to Morocco,'' Viktor explains. 

In the test lab at Etteplan, Viktor got to work with a variety of tasks that were both varied and challenging. ''It can be anything from running tests on AC systems to planning new upgrades of test rigs and climate chambers''.

After a new acquisition in 2023, Etteplan got new premises in the building next to the lab to be able to expand the business. ''A bunch of friends from the solar car era had started to talk about how it had been a long time since we built a car. We heard about a high-speed race on the ice in Årsunda, and set a goal to build the fastest car under 1000cc on ice. What better use of an empty premises when you are going to build a car of over 6 meters? Etteplan was of course interested in being part of the effort to build the world's fastest car on ice, which we succeeded in doing and set a new record!’’.

Viktor describes his journey with Etteplan as full of opportunities. ''Nothing has been impossible to solve, the interest in technology and the desire for employees to develop has always been there. I work for an organization that wants its employees to thrive and stay. Now I've been at Etteplan for almost 5 years, I never would have guessed that I would stay at a consulting company for so long, but Etteplan is not an "ordinary" consulting company either,'' Viktor says and smiles.