ZF Receives the Biggest Order in its History from BMW

Recently, it became known that ZF has officially taken on the obligation to provide its sophisticated 8-speed automatic transmissions to the German carmaker BMW within the terms of the record-braking agreement.

Both companies have not unveiled the deal value, but ZF representatives implied that this transaction has “a two digit billion Euro value”, which turns out to be the biggest order in the history of the German supplier of powertrain components

About a month ago, it has transpired that BMW has been looking for a new supplier of gearboxes on the US territory because of unclear situation with possible tariffs on auto components imported to the USA. Already at that time, ZF has been considered as the leading candidate for this role; both companies have a record of previous cooperation and ZF has a major manufacturing facility on the US territory specialized on manufacturing of powertrain components.

The updated version of the ZF transmission, which has been manufactured for a decade, is designed for embedding of electric drives. This also includes hybrid options. Initially, the new “gear shifting” product will be launched into a large-scale manufacturing in 2022 at ZF’s facility in in Germany (Saarbrucken), but later ZF wants to expand the production to the facilities in the USA (possibly the Gray Court plant) and China.

It is claimed that the new gearbox can be mounted on cars with a front-longitudinal drive arrangement. The main distinctive feature of the new gear shifting solution is the implementation of the e-drive. According to ZF officials, the company has been gradually adjusting its product to the high e-mobility requirements. Thanks to a modular design equipped with different starting components, the next-gen hybrid gearbox will be great solution for different types of passenger cars (gasoline-driven or electric).

Thanks to its adjustability, the new product from ZF will allow BMW not only to manufacture more environment-oriented car models with reduced CO2 emissions, but also to adopt to the new market requirements. ZF expects that the new product will capture the attention of other major carmakers.