Mitsubishi Electric's "Mother" factory is a testing tower that will propel the elevator development for its global elevator industry. It already manufactures elevators and escalators, surpassing 10,000 units annually. This testing tower will enhance the company's accumulation of cutting-edge technologies and product development capabilities; it can generate concepts for elevators of the future. The company will further its research and development into the safety, reliability, and comfort of its elevator products.

Launched in 2007, this "Mother" factory reaches the sky at 173 meters high. As its height suggests, this building is called SOLAÉ, or as pronounced in Japanese, SORA-É, meaning "to the sky" for Mitsubishi Electric's pursuit of higher quality in all aspects. Located at Inazawa Works, it only took almost two years to finish the construction of this testing tower, with ten floors above the ground, equivalent to forty-floors in a general building on an area of 440 square meters.

Drive performance, safety, critical parts, and riding comfort are some of the development and testing examples at the SOLAÉ elevator testing tower. This tower not only includes testing facilities and showrooms but also boasts features like its unique design where the lower part of SOLAÉ seems to revolve at 45-degrees with illumination at night. It has a stable testing environment realized by oil dampers and an anti-vibration system that prevents the tower from vibrating in the wind. With its features and notable height in the area, it is expected to be recognized by Inazawa residents and become a symbolic landmark of the community, as it can be seen in the surrounding area and by the Shinkansen, Japan's bullet train.

The showroom was refurbished and re-opened last October 2014, coincident with the 50th Anniversary of the Inazawa Works. SOLAÉ has a showroom attached to this sky-high testing tower and receives various visitors like facility owners, design offices, construction companies, and children from the local community. Guests can experience actual Mitsubishi Electric products and technologies that are critical to building operations as the showroom communicates the safety and security of the company's products.

The elevator and escalator zone in the showroom introduce the history of elevators and escalators as well as the ability to experience the sense of speed of the ultra-high-speed elevator installed in the Shanghai Tower using computer graphics projected onto an enormous monitor. It also has a building management system zone where visitors can experience technologies possessed by the latest building management and security systems.