T H E Z F M A G A Z I N E 1.2014

THE ZF MAGAZINE

1.2014

BRAZIL

ALWAYS ON T HE GO

PLUG-IN HYBRID Powertrain of the future DIVERSITY Victory through variety TECHNOLOGY The art of lightweight design

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Now on iPad and iPhone To accompany the print edition of drive, ZF also publishes a digital edition in the form of an app for iPad and iPhone. The app features bonus multimedia content such as videos to accompany our cover story on Brazil, plus interactive graphics to illustrate our feature on hybrid drive systems. The free app is available right now from the App Store.

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EDITORIAL

“Never before in automotive history has our mobility been subject to such profound change. For ZF, this is both a challenge and a huge opportunity.” ZF CEO DR. STEFAN SOMMER

There is no longer any doubt that human mobility is undergoing a radical transformation. This upheaval is largely driven by changes in customer expectations: we are observing a shift in what people want and expect from their cars across all parts of society. Where interest once focused on high performance and sporty handling, now drivers are prioritizing networking, communication and safety features such as assistance with lane changes and emergency braking. At the same time, environmental legislators around the world are setting ever more stringent emissions targets. These can only be achieved by using new technologies that will make vehicles more energy-efficient and environmentally acceptable. Hybrid systems, electric powertrains and connected cars are already having a major impact on market trends. As a trusted partner to the world’s automakers, we are called upon to develop ever more sophisticated technology for cars and commercial vehicles alike. This we can only do by raising our skills and expertise

in the technologies of the future – such as electrical and electronic engineering, sensors and lightweight construction – to the same high standards we have already achieved in traditional driveline and chassis engineering. As a technology company, this is both a challenge and a huge opportunity for us. Our new and even more sophisticated plug-in hybrid unit represents one response to this challenge. The all-in-one system intelligently combines performance with eco-friendliness, and you can read about it in this issue’s main technical feature, in which we also explore the beginnings of hybrid technology at ZF not so very long ago. By contrast, our decision to enter the South American market by setting up an operation in Brazil dates back more than half a century. ZF now has four production facilities in the country, which has grown to become the world’s fourth largest automotive nation. We paid a visit to Brazil a few weeks before the Soccer World Cup, and our article paints a portrait of this dynamic international market.

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28 BRAZIL The ultimate urban mobility challenge? We visit the megacity of São Paulo.

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BUS BOOM In Germany, intercity buses are a new, inexpensive way to travel.

GOING HYBRID In Formula One, hybrid power units are raring to go. Elsewhere, they’ve already arrived.

44 LOSING WEIGHT Experts at the ZF Composites Tech Center are developing all-new production methods.

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CONTENTS

TECHNOLOGY

GLOBALIZATION

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HYBRID IS HOT! Plug-in hybrids combine the advantages of internal combustion engines and electric motors in a single, superior power unit.

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TWO HEARTS BEATING AS ONE With an all-in-one system consisting of transmission and electric motor, ZF has the ideal technology for modern plug-in hybrid powertrains.

BRAZIL – ALWAYS ON THE GO The country hosting the Soccer World Cup is also the world’s fourth-largest automotive market and the location of ZF’s oldest international operation. drive paid a visit.

WORKING ENVIRONMENT

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THE ART OF LIGHTWEIGHT DESIGN Less weight means lower fuel consumption and fewer emissions. ZF is developing ultra-lightweight components for series production.

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SMART DAMPING Soft for comfort, hard for safety: ZF’s adaptive damper system CDC 1XL can do both.

MAGAZINE

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NEWS Wuppertal’s monorail – New vehicles – ZF Forum – ZF Music Award – Consolidated accounts – Partner to U.S. motorsport – New plants in India and Russia

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YESTERDAY AND TODAY ZF has been building tractor transmissions for 75 years. Modern models have 32 forward and 32 reverse speeds.

ROOMS ON WHEELS Are cars turning into smartphones on wheels? That’s not going far enough, argues Till Grusche in his essay.

MOBILITY 26

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ON THE ROAD AGAIN Eight hours a day at the wheel, and then what? A ZF study investigates the working lives of truck drivers.

DIVERSITY IS KEY Mixed teams work together more harmoniously and more successfully: the true significance of diversity.

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SERVICE Masthead and subscriptions

You’ll find more info on selected stories in this issue in our free app for iPad and iPhone, available at www.zf.com/drive-app

ON TOUR Intercity buses are trendy! Who’s traveling on them, and what can they expect to find on board? This icon shows you where to find the app.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY 22

THE HI-TECH WAY TO FARM To feed the world’s hungry, there’s an urgent need for state-of-the-art agricultural machinery. We discuss the latest technologies.

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NEWS

More power to an industrial landmark! Legendary choreographer Pina Bausch danced in it; an elephant once rode in it – and then leapt out into the River Wupper. Since its maiden voyage in 1901, the Wuppertal Suspension Railway in Germany has seen plenty of action! The unique transport system has been protected by a preservation order since 1997, but the suspended monorail has been a local landmark for much longer than that. In mid-2015, the 40-year-old cars are scheduled to be replaced by brand new trains. The transmission for the new cars (inset) was developed by ZF especially for the railway. They are ultralight, extremely stable, quiet and energy-efficient. And thanks to a high overall gearing ratio, they also convert the electric motor’s rotational velocity into speed with exceptional efficiency.

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NEW VEHICLES

AUTOMOTIVATED BY ZF TECHNOLOGY From Chinese tractor to Indian subcompact, from Los Angeles metro train to German electromobile – all these recently launched vehicles are equipped with ZF technology.

1 The RA 1804 tractor built by Chinese

6 The new BMW i3 is fitted with a ZF

agricultural machinery manufacturer Chery is

“shift-by-wire” gearshift system, with speeds

equipped with ZF’s T-7232 tractor transmission.

selected using a rotary switch mounted directly on

The unit’s 40 forward and 40 reverse gears ensure

the steering column. The switch can be toggled

power is transmitted perfectly. Controlled by

forward or backward to set the direction of travel.

proportional valves, ZF’s powershift technology

The electric vehicle also has ZF chassis and electronic

means gearshifts remain precise even under load.

components on board.

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In the new C-Class from Mercedes-Benz,

ZF’s 6-speed manual transmission is easy to use and extremely efficient. The new series features other ZF technology, too, including chassis and electronic components, plus the energy-efficient Servolectric electric power steering system. 3

The Tata Nano Twist comes with ZF chassis

components and an electric power steering system from ZF Lenksysteme. The steering-column version of Servolectric ensures the Indian subcompact is easy to drive at any speed and on all road surfaces, with a turning circle of just four meters (13 feet). 4

ZF supplies Dutch manufacturer Terberg with

the short version of the 5WG191 transmission for the YT 222 yard tractor, which has five forward and three reverse speeds plus a converter lockup clutch for high fuel efficiency. Yard tractors are special heavy-duty tractors used to move trailers in distribution centers and ports. 5 The new cars for the Los Angeles Metro

subway, built by Kinkisharyo, feature lightweight transmissions that reduce the overall weight by 15 percent. Developed in Friedrichshafen, the transmissions are built at ZF’s Gainesville plant. ZF is using aluminum transmission housings for the first time in the U.S.

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NEWS

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“As everyone knows, ZF is something special in Germany’s corporate landscape.”

ZF MUSIC AWARD

Soulful performance WINFRIED KRETSCHMANN, MINISTER PRESIDENT OF BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG, AT THE ZF FORUM CORNERSTONE CEREMONY.

The 5,000-euro ZF Music Award for 2014 was presented to pianist Aaron Pilsan (photo) from Dornbirn (Vorarlberg/Austria). With a soulful performance at the piano competition’s final concert in Graf-Zeppelin-Haus in Friedrichshafen, the 19-year-old prevailed against strong competition and made a profound impression on the audience with his masterly interpretations of Chopin’s Etudes and Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. Second and third prizes went to Alina Bercu from Romania and Wei Cao from China. This was the seventh time the ZF Art Foundation has presented the ZF Music Award. The public piano competition takes place every two years, and previous winners include renowned pianists such as Herbert Schuch and Alexej Gorlatch.

On the occasion of the cornerstone laying ceremony, ZF CEO Stefan Sommer (left) presented ZF’s latest products to Baden-Württemberg’s Minister President Winfried Kretschmann.

ZF FORUM

Understanding technology The stainless-steel cartridge contains an employee ID card, a Graf Zeppelin medal and a number of other things: 12 months after breaking ground, the ZF Forum building’s cornerstone was laid in the presence of Baden-Württemberg’s Minister President Winfried Kretschmann. The company’s new headquarters – which has a total area of 30,000 square meters (323,000 square feet) – will not only house 600 head-office administrative staff, but also an exhibition space, an in-house training center, plus the Knowledge Workshop and Student Research Center. “Our new ZF Forum should help make technology easier to understand,” explained CEO Stefan Sommer. The opening of the modern, energy-efficient building is scheduled to coincide with ZF’s Centenary Celebration in 2015. 10

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NEWS

CONSOLIDATED ACCOUNTS

Another good year The ZF Group finished fiscal year 2013 with total sales of 16.8 billion euros – eight percent up on 2012. As at year-end 2013, the company’s global workforce numbered around 72,600 employees. Capital expenditure (on tangible assets) over the last fiscal year came to 954 million euros, while expenditure on research and development (R&D) totaled 836 million euros – nine percent higher than in the previous fiscal year.

SERIES PARTNERSHIP

Fast start in U.S. motorsport Since the start of the 2014 season, ZF has been official series partner to the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship (TUSC), the most important sports car racing series in North America, with a total of 12 seasonal races in the U.S. and Canada. Audi, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Porsche and many of the other cars appearing on the starting grid in the Daytona Prototype category already rely on ZF clutches and shock absorbers, as well as trackside technical support from ZF Race Engineering. “For ZF, the series represents the perfect platform for demonstrating the technical excellence of our products,” explained ZF CEO Stefan Sommer.

INDIA AND RUSSIA

New plants ZF is constructing a new building in Chakan industrial park in Pune, India, which will house the Indian units of the Car Powertrain and Commercial Vehicle Technology divisions, as well as ZF Services, under one roof. The building is scheduled to open in early 2015. ZF’s production facility in Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia, is already in operation: the joint venture between ZF and Russia’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, Kamaz, celebrated the official opening of a modern plant for building Ecomid (photo) and Ecosplit commercial vehicle transmissions. The plant has an area of roughly 215,300 square feet.

550 people will be employed at ZF’s new sites in Pune and Naberezhnye Chelny.

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Once hybrid power units take the lead in Formula One, they’ll boost the development of electrically driven powertrains in ordinary vehicles. Plug-in hybrids are becoming increasingly popular because they combine the advantages of both types of power unit: the range of an internal combustion engine with the reduced emissions of an electric motor. Oh, and they’re really good fun to drive.

HYBRID IS HOT! By Joachim Becker

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TECHNOLOGY

T   The turbocharged, electrically assisted power units used in Formula One cars can generate up to 850 bhp.

he Formula One racing cars accelerate rapidly down the straight and sizzle past the spectators on the stands. What’s missing? The traditional scream of overstressed engines. The 2014 season is a true turning point for this highest class of motorsport – because the cars on the circuit are running on turbocharged gasoline engines assisted by new electric motors and electronics. Unlike the old Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), the new ERS can process heat as well as kinetic energy. This is used to give big short-term boosts to the performance of the cars’ gasoline engines, which have a maximum capacity of 1.6 liters, as well as other limits. Thanks to hybrid technology, this year’s racing machines will achieve similar standards of performance as in previous seasons while consuming less than half the fuel. Hybrid systems will also help them adhere to the rigorous fuel consumption limits imposed by the new rules – and lower their noise levels, too. But hybrid vehicles aren’t just reducing the background noise at racetracks. Above all, they’re reducing our dependency on fossil fuels, as well as air pollution in cities around the world. What’s more, customers enjoy driving them – and also enjoy the feel-good factor that comes from adopting drive technology with potential to change the future. The all-electric Tesla Model S, for example, is already offering serious competition to other premium carmakers on the U.S. West Coast. Around 22,500 of these electric sedans were sold in 2013 – an astoundingly successful first year. Since 2010, the top seller on the list of all-electric vehicles has been the Nissan Leaf, with total global sales of around 100,000 units.

Hybrid engines in Formula One Starting this season, all Formula One cars will be driving on fully integrated hybrid power units – a radical transformation of the top class in motorsport. The era of howling eight-cylinder engines is over...

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The Formula One racing teams are not alone: German carmakers have just launched a large-scale electric offensive, with plans to bring at least 14 new electric vehicles to market by 2015. Earlier electric cars, with their conventional steel bodies and the considerable extra weight added by ponderous battery systems, were simply too heavy to offer a practical driving range. Smart, lightweight design is the answer: as the equation “less weight = more range” suggests, any weight savings in chassis or bodywork have an immediate positive impact on driving distance, as well as payload. The new BMW i3, for example, offsets the weight of its 230-kilogram (500-pound plus) battery with a brand-new vehicle architecture based on aluminum and carbon fiber. ZF’s all-electric innovation prototype is another excellent demonstration of how lightweight chassis construction methods are enhancing both the range and handling of modern electric vehicles. Technology of the future: plug-in hybrid But at present, it’s plug-in hybrids that appear to have the best market prospects. Plug-in hybrids are vehicles that not only combine an internal combustion engine with an automatic electric powertrain, but also have batteries that can be recharged from a standard household power supply. Thanks to these batteries – which are significantly larger than the ones found in existing mild and full hybrid vehicles – they are perfectly capable of making reasonably long journeys at speeds of up to 70 mph (120 km/h) on electric power alone. The benefits of plug-in hybrids are most obvious in city traffic, however, because they allow you to drive for up to 50 kilometers (30 miles) without noise or exhaust emissions. These features may well turn plug-in hybrids into the success story of tomorrow – because air pollution is now a major health hazard in cities around the world. According to Germany’s Federal Environment Agency, more than half of

the air-quality measuring stations close to traffic in Germany’s conurbations showed that nitrogen dioxide levels exceeded the permissible annual average limits in 2013. Now countries around the world are introducing more stringent emissions legislation, in the hope of improving the air quality in cities and built-up areas.

In city traffic, plug-in hybrids can drive up to 30 miles without noise or exhaust emissions. But even the most efficient engine technologies and very best exhaust-gas treatment systems can scarcely prevent conventionally powered vehicles from emitting pollutants. Neither gasoline nor diesel engines are able to run at their most efficient in city traffic, characterized as it is by fluctuating speeds and frequent stops at traffic lights. The most obvious and sensible way to reduce this pollution for city dwellers would be to introduce quiet, locally emission-free, electrically powered vehicles. The new hybrids aren’t just attracting drivers because of the virtuous feelings associated with lower emissions – they also deliver impressive starting torque from standstill. In the upcoming plug-in hybrid version of the Audi A3, for example, the hybrid system’s 204 horsepower easily disguises the additional weight of the electric drive (200 kilograms or 450 pounds). The new car’s batteries sit above the rear axle: once they’re charged, the plug-in hybrid is good for 50 kilometers (30 miles) of allelectric driving before the turbocharged 1.4-liter gasoline engine takes over and extends the driving range to more conventional distances. What’s more, the electric motor provides some extra “tailwind” when starting from traffic lights or overtaking

other vehicles – thanks to this electric boost, the car actually feels as if it has two extra cylinders under the hood. Why couldn’t carmakers have delivered this much fun and frugality earlier? Surely it would have been feasible? After all, Audi developed the world’s first production hybrid, the Audi duo, back in 1996. But it didn’t exactly leap off the shelves: back then, the batteries alone weighed 400 kilograms (nearly 900 pounds) and the price, at around 60,000 deutschmarks (roughly 42,000 dollars) was far higher than conventional models in the same class. In the end, it was Toyota’s impressive persistence that persuaded the market of the dual drive’s benefits: the Japanese company has sold more than six million hybrid vehicles since 1998. The latest version of the bestselling Prius – due in 2015 – will use lithium-ion batteries, which weigh less but boast significantly higher energy density. By 2020, the world’s top battery makers are expecting to see some major advances in battery technology – the next generation of lithium-ion cells should be twice as powerful as current systems. Developments in battery technology It’s a fact that heavy, expensive batteries have always been the Achilles’ heel of locally emission-free mobility. The first batteries only had one thousandth of the energy density of liquid fuels. Even now, the practical range of most all-electric vehicles is less than 150 kilometers (95 miles), and they can only travel such distances if they’re fully charged – which takes time – and the weather is mild. Poor weather conditions and low temperatures mean batteries have to be “conditioned” – in subzero temperatures, electric cars with cold batteries lose much of their available capacity. By the end of the decade, practical ranges of more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) should start to enhance the credibility of all-electric vehicles. Even so, this only really applies to relatively lightweight city runabouts. Larger

Hybrid facts and figures In the info bars on the right and on the following pages, you’ll find milestones in the history of hybrids, information on sales of plug-in hybrids, and details of vehicles equipped with ZF’s hybrid technology:

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1996 Audi duo The world’s first production hybrid.

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TECHNOLOGY

High torque from a standing start: one of the more seductive features of electric power units.

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(Photos from top) ZF technology features in: VW Jetta Hybrid (hybrid module), Audi Q5 hybrid quattro and BMW Active Hybrid 5 (both with 8-speed full-hybrid transmissions).

2009

Renault Elect’road

Mercedes-Benz

First production plug-in

Mercedes-Benz was the first automaker to install one

hybrid in the world.

of ZF’s hybrid modules, in the premium S-Class hybrid.

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cars consume more energy, which means they need much greater battery capacity. So for medium-sized cars upward, the most efficient and convenient solution lies in an ingenious combination of electric motor with internal combustion engine (ICE): in plug-in hybrids, carbon-based fuel is the ideal energy store for longer distances, supplemented by a zero-emission power unit for urban travel. A series of test drives around Stuttgart in Germany recently demonstrated the potential energy savings that result when the respective strengths of each type of drive are combined and optimized. Engineers compared the performance of various (plug-in) hybrids over a 65-kilometer (40-mile) route mixing city traffic with country roads and stretches of freeway. The results were surprising, even for outand-out piston heads. Turn off the gas! Whereas a traditional full-hybrid system can save up to a quarter of the fuel required by a conventional ICE, plug-in hybrids can cut fuel consumption by as much as half. The reason is simple: the ICE is switched off as often as possible – not just at traffic lights, but also when freewheeling. Using energy from the heavy-duty traction battery, a powerful electric motor is capable of acting as the primary propulsion unit over roughly one quarter of the 40-mile route. When the ICE runs at all, it’s generally working at its most fuel-efficient output level. What’s more, some of the kinetic energy produced during “boosting” phases

Clean green conscience, good long range: plug-in hybrids are proving just how practical they are.

can be recovered – the more powerful the battery, the more energy is recovered. This flexibility – from frugal to feisty – can be extended even further by using plug-in hybrids over short distances between recharging points. For example, by recharging the battery after making a typical commuter’s journey of 20 kilometers (12 miles), you can cut total fuel consumption by 83 percent, because the ICE only fires up for 16 percent of the 40-mile distance. Plug-in hybrids are highly efficient allrounders that combine the space and longdistance convenience of a tourer with a clean environmental conscience. In inner cities with low-emission zones or areas where ICEs are prohibited, a dual-drive car can drive on pure electric power, then switch over to the onboard fuel tank once it’s back on the freeway. If your smart satnav knows where you’re going, the system can either make sure the battery has enough capacity for the final, urban stage of the journey, or it can recharge it from the kinetic energy produced by braking, using the electric motor as a generator, so you can drive through the city emissionfree. This superior form of locomotion becomes even more attractive in places – such as London – where drivers of electric

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vehicles are exempt from congestion charges, or where they are entitled – as in California – to use lanes reserved exclusively for electric vehicles. Complying with CO2 limits for fleets This is no science-fiction fantasy: the plugin hybrid trend is steadily gaining momentum. First, because relatively few drivers want to sacrifice comfort, range and convenience by switching over to all-electric cars. Second, because plug-in hybrids combine the advantages of both types of drive in a very convincing way by using their respective strengths where it makes sense to do so. Third, because there’s growing political pressure to improve air quality in inner cities in particular – in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, strict limits are being placed on the number of car registrations: only (part-)electric vehicles are exempt. And finally, it’s clear that for premium carmakers in particular, there’s no way to avoid the combination of ICE and electric motor if they are to meet future CO2 emission limits for vehicle fleets. The fact that the electric boost not only enhances efficiency but makes driving more fun is a wholly serendipitous but very welcome side-effect of this fuel-efficient powertrain concept. ■

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Toyota Prius PHV

BMW Active Hybrid 7

First presented at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor

The first production vehicle to use ZF’s 8-speed

Show, the plug-in PHV is based on the third

hybrid transmission, this mild-hybrid model achieves

generation of Toyota’s successful Prius hybrids.

fuel savings of up to 15 percent.

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TECHNOLOGY

TWO HEARTS BEATING AS ONE Using ZF’s new all-in-one plug-in system comprised of automatic transmission, powerful electric motor and smart power electronics, cars can drive on battery power faster and further than they could with earlier full-hybrid systems. This is also helping carmakers meet stringent carbon-emission targets.

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wo hearts beating as one is a fanciful but popular description of hybrid vehicles in which a traditional internal combustion engine works alongside a locally emission-free electric motor. But in many full-hybrid vehicles, these two “hearts” still beat very unevenly. Existing full hybrids, for example, can only drive around three kilometers (two miles) on battery power, at speeds never exceeding 30 mph (50 km/h). Most of the time, these hybrid vehicles are powered by their internal combustion engines. The correspondingly small battery is only recharged while the car is driving – usually by recovering kinetic energy during braking maneuvers, a process known as “recuperation” or “regeneration”. A plug improves performance That’s all due to change in the near future: future hybrid models will rely on more powerful batteries that can also be recharged from external power sockets – while parked in the garage at home, for example, or at a public recharging station. ZF is supplementing this plug-in hybrid tech-

nology with a hybrid powertrain that enables the cars to operate just like all-electric vehicles: with a range of up to 50 kilometers (30 miles) per battery charge, they can meet most commuters’ daily travel needs using electric power alone. The electric drive is also more than capable of coping with brief sprints at speeds of up to 120 km/h (70 mph) on major roads or highways – the gasoline engine only fires up at higher speeds. The presence of an internal combustion engine also solves the range problem that still afflicts all-electric vehicles. If you suddenly want or need to travel several hundred miles, you can do so in your plugin hybrid without having to stop at recharging stations along the way. With the new plug-in hybrid system, ZF has made the next big step in developing the hybrid technology the company has been offering since 2008. “In principle, the architecture is similar to our previous fullhybrid systems,” explains Dr. Ralf Kubalczyk, head of Hybrid Transmission Development at ZF, and also in charge of integrating the all-in-one system. “But we’ve introduced so many innovations and new developments that we’re now offering automakers

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2012

Audi Q5 hybrid quattro

Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV

The first production car to use the full-hybrid version of ZF’s

Presented at the 2012 Paris Motor

8-speed automatic transmission, which enables pure electric

Show, this was the first 4WD SUV to

driving without changing the basic transmission concept.

be offered as a plug-in hybrid.

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Range, handling and dynamics Electrically powered travel – quick, comfortable, and with no “range anxiety”: ZF’s all-in-one plug-in hybrid system makes it all possible.

Integrated starter element A switching element inside the transmission acts as a starting clutch. This saves space, and also means that starts and gearshifts are as smooth as they would be with a torque converter.

Decoupling torsional vibration Important when the system is combined with modern, downsized, turbocharged engines. Ensures the driving experience remains comfortable, with no unpleasant buzzing, and protects the drivetrain from harmful vibrations. 18

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TECHNOLOGY

Integral electric pump Using the power-on-demand principle, the pump reduces fuel consumption while the vehicle is coasting or freewheeling, i.e. while the driver is not braking or accelerating.

Illustration: Sascha Bierl

Powerful electric motor The motor – plus increased battery capacity – enables vehicles with plug-in hybrid systems to drive at up to 120 km/h (70 mph) in pure electric mode for distances of up to 50 kilometers (30 miles).

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a de facto new all-in-one system that will enable them to electrically power a large part of their model range.” Building blocks of a new system The more powerful electric motor plays an important role in this new setup. ZF will soon start to produce 90 kW electric motors for the plug-in hybrid system at the company’s Schweinfurt plant. Alexander Gehring, head of Electric Drives at ZF, has been preparing for this moment with his engineering teams. Increasing the motor’s output to a peak level of 90 kW is not just due to the higher system voltage. “As we’ve continued to develop the electric motor, we’ve also gradually turned up the power,” explains Gehring. In fact, his team is working on two different concepts: first, on a hybrid module that can be incorporated into ZF’s own transmission systems. In this case, the electric motor, separating clutch and torsion damper have all been redesigned for the system – and installed in the transmission’s clutch bell housing, where they can be kept cool by the oil mist. The separating clutch, which disengages the electric motor from the internal combustion engine, is actuated by the transmission; when it is open, it produces less drag torque than before . This is very important during longer all-electric driving cycles. Modules for other transmissions But the team is also developing modules for other transmissions, so that automakers’ development engineers don’t have to make any further changes to the transmissions they are already using. While these other modules take up more space than the modules integrated into ZF’s own products, they can be used in any transmission system. The modules’ separating clutch and electric motor are designed to be installed in the dry space in the transmission’s bell housing. Thanks to a new actuating mechanism developed by the team from scratch, the clutch is capable of engaging the gasoline or diesel engine in a record time of just 150 milliseconds – so fast, in fact, that the vehicle’s occupants don’t notice it.

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Both variants use powerful torsion dampers to decouple any torsional vibration in the powertrain. Such vibrations are particularly intense in powertrains driven by modern, downsized, turbocharged engines with fewer cylinders. The resultant humming and buzzing can severely affect the comfort of vehicle occupants, as well as impacting on the drivetrain’s service life. The torsion dampers in ZF’s hybrid modules effectively attenuate these vibrations until they disappear. Integrated starter element A few things have changed in the transmission itself, which is based on ZF’s successful 8-speed automatic transmission, the 8HP. Kubalczyk’s team of engineers have customized it to form an integrated plug-in system. For example, an integrated starter element, a multi-disc brake inside the transmission, does the same job as the torque converter, which has been left out due to lack of space. This integrated starter element can transfer up to 550 Newton meters of starting torque – so has more than enough in reserve to cope with the very high torque generated by the electric motor and gasoline engine when they’re working together. The control electronics only allow the starter element to engage for a few tenths of a second, so that as far as the driver is concerned, starts and gearshifts are just as comfortable as they would be with a torque converter present. An external cooling system makes sure the integrated starter element stays cool. The trend toward electrification is also evident in the hybrid system’s innards, in the form of an electric oil pump which keeps the oil circuit under pressure following the “power-on-demand” principle, while the vehicle is coasting, for example, i.e. freewheeling on its own without the driver braking or accelerating. The new pump enhances fuel efficiency, and is also suitable for use in the next generation of conventional automatic transmissions. Power electronics The third key component is the power electronics, which play a vital role in the plug-in hybrid system’s energy manage-

2014

Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid

Porsche 918 Spyder

Featuring ZF’s hybrid module.

Combines a V-8 internal combustion engine with two electric motors on front and rear axles.

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TECHNOLOGIE TECHNOLOGY

ZF’s Schweinfurt plant started producing DynaStart modules capable of producing 12 kW back in 2008.

Our app for iPad and iPhone has more on this topic: www.zf.com/drive-app

ment by converting the battery power from DC voltage into the high AC voltage that the electric motor needs to drive the car. The power electronics also level out any voltage fluctuations that drivers would otherwise experience as unexpected and uncomfortable power fluctuations when accelerating. A built-in DC/DC inverter provides electric power for the car’s onboard network, including the infotainment system, aircon and lighting. As Kubalczyk explains, “Much of our expertise lies in integrating system functions and energy management.” Here, software is the key. In a hybrid system, the two power sources and many hybrid functions associated, for example, with restarting the engine, energy recuperation and

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Z -123Z Z -123 X Y Z X Y XY ZZ -123

Modular hybrid toolkit Not only does ZF offer customers an all-inone, single-sourced system. All the different components in ZF’s modular hybrid toolkit are also available separately, meaning that carmakers can choose to order just the electric motor, or the hybrid module consisting of electric motor, separating clutch and torsion damper. Other customers are also showing interest in ZF’s hybrid module and transmission. “With our modular hybrid toolkit, which now includes our plug-in system, we can respond to market needs very flexibly,” continues Kubalczyk. The demand is correspondingly high – not least because of how the system performed in the ECE test cycle. Required by law, this driving cycle is designed to measure the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of hybrid vehicles. For manufacturers, the really important thing is: do the vehicle emissions fall below the CO2 emission limit of 130 g/ km that will come into force in the EU in 2015 – and will be further reduced to an even more stringent 95 g/km in 2021? Plug-in hybrid vehicles perform the first part of the ECE test cycle in all-electric mode. “The test shows that fuel savings compared to conventional automatic transmission systems can be as much as 70 percent,” smiles Kubalczyk. In short, plug-in hybrids are making an important contribution toward enabling vehicle manufacturers to comply with the rigorous new CO2 emission standards. ■

11 20 12 20 13

Photo: Dominik Gigler

engine boosts, all combine to create a huge number of driving modes which the control unit must be able to invoke and manage precisely and fluidly in mere fractions of a second. Compared to building a conventional transmission system such as the 8HP or 9HP, integrating all these functions is vastly more complex. And that’s the tricky part of hybrid technology, as ZF is well aware. A large number of the 450 engineers involved in developing the system in Friedrichshafen, Schweinfurt and Auerbach are working directly on the integration of the all-in-one system.

26,348 hybrid vehicles were registered in Germany in 2013, of which 1,385 were plug-in hybrids.

48 ,951 plug-in hybrids were sold in the U.S. in 2013. 2012: 38,585 2011: 7,671

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02.06.14 11:24

Modern agricultural machinery takes the strain out of working in the fields.

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THE HI-TECH WAY TO FARM A growing world population, the impact of climate change and dwindling resources are among the major challenges now facing the agricultural industry. Along with the development of new crop types, state-of-the-art agricultural machinery offers the best hope for the future. By Birk Grüling

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Technology meets rural idyll: a farmer controls his smart farm using iPads and onboard computers.

T  

he big tractor stops on the edge of the plowed field while the farmer types final instructions into the onboard computer. It’s a perfect day for planting the spring wheat – as the farm’s operating system had already calculated, based on meteorological data, soil samples and grain characteristics. At last, with a couple of clicks, the farmer enters the speed setting and launches the sowing program. For the next few hours, he’ll leave most of the work to the tractor’s onboard systems. Using laser scanners and GPS, the tractor will find its way around the field almost unassisted. The farmer can concentrate entirely on the sowing process, without having to worry about clutch or gearshifts. What once sounded futuristic is rapidly becoming routine. “Modern farmers sit in the cockpits of their farm machines and monitor the progress of farming operations from their onboard computers; they hardly even have to steer,” explains Professor Stefan Böttinger from the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Hohenheim. Liberated from monotonous work in shifts lasting 12-14 hours, farmers can now concentrate on optimizing the workflow. Just like modern cars, the onboard computers in farmers’ tractors display important information on speed, fuel consumption and the status of the sowing operation. Onboard computers can also control agricultural implements attached to the tractor,

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ZF technology in agriculture ZF engineers built the company’s first tractor transmission back in 1937; today, almost all of the major manufacturers of agricultural machinery rely on ZF’s continuously variable transmissions (CVTs). Over the decades, these systems have made huge strides in terms of sophistication and performance. Nowadays, farm machines producing up to 650 horsepower run smoothly on ZF’s heavy-duty CVTs. Just like driver-assist systems, modern powertrain technologies take the strain out of farmers’ daily work – and because they maintain a perfect balance between engine speed and gearing, they also reduce fuel consumption. In times of scarce resources and high oil prices, that’s an important cost consideration for farmers.

Robots will take care of farming in the future. The Prospero Robot Farmer (above), designed by Dorhout R&D LLC, is capable of high-precision sowing, while its “colleague” BoniRob (below), designed by Amazone, helps farmers with pest control.

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such as plows or planters. Previously, each piece of machinery had its own set of controls. After a long day in the fields, tractors often resembled nothing so much as the inside of a very messy workshop. Linking together applications Nowadays, many modern agricultural implements are partially autonomous. Take baling, for example. Not so long ago, farmers would have to drive over the meadow, stop each time the baler finished pressing or rolling a bale, and unload it by hand before driving on again. Modern balers, on the other hand, can calculate the speed of both tractor and baler, bring them both to a halt at the right moment and dump the bales on their own – the whole process is automated. “The growing use of hi-tech farm machinery is enabling farmers to work more efficiently and more economically,” says Hermann Beck, head of ZF’s Off-Highway Systems business unit. One important prerequisite for agricultural innovation is the seamless interconnection of the individual applications to form a single smart, streamlined, all-in-one system. Modern agricultural machines have two different interfaces for enabling the individual subsystems to talk to each other. The first interface, known as the CAN bus system, is primarily used to control internal systems such as engine and transmission: the system automatically applies optimum engine-speed settings and appropriate gearing. In normal, day-to-day operation, the driver very rarely interacts with this system. Controlling planters directly By contrast, the second system (ISOBUS) works closely with farmers, enabling them to control, for example, plowing or sowing implements directly from their onboard computers. But smart communication between systems extends far beyond the farm vehicle itself. Currently, farmers have high hopes for development work in progress on so-called “slave systems”, whereby the main farm machine acts as the lead vehicle, interacting with a flock of smaller, (semi-)autonomous, unmanned vehicles. “Imagine a combine harvester, for example, using laser sensors to control a self-propelled trailer driving along

By

2050 the world’s population will have grown to nine billion, food production will need to increase by 70 percent and demand for rice, corn, wheat and soybeans will rise by up to 100 percent.

15

million square kilometers (5.8 million sq mi) of the Earth’s surface are currently used for agricultural purposes – almost equivalent to the area of South America.

0.75

square kilometers (0.3 sq mi) of soil are sealed in Germany every day.

By

2030

around 40 percent of the corn acreage in sub-Saharan Africa will have disappeared due to drought.

behind it. The harvester steadily loads up the trailer and then, once it’s full, automatically calls for a replacement. Meanwhile the first trailer makes its way back to base,” enthuses Beck. Another major theme preoccupying agricultural visionaries is “precision farming”. Typically, this vision of the future involves agricultural machines that not only know precisely where they are in the field, but also how much seed and fertilizer they need to distribute in each part of the field. Gauging exactly how much fertilizer to apply has always been one of farming’s most problematic challenges. Fertilizer in the soil is mobile: it’s difficult to tell whether crops are receiving enough nitrates, or whether the nitrogen is making its way straight into the groundwater. Now researchers at the University of Bremen have come up with a possible solution. The soil in the field is analyzed using a small chemical laboratory. This involves dissolving a teaspoon of soil in water and filtering it. In just a few minutes, electrical analysis of the chemical constituents tells the farmer the ideal amount of fertilizer to apply. In the medium term, the test will be automated. “Turning ideas like this into reality makes sense, in terms of both cost efficiency and environmental protection,” says agricultural engineer Böttinger. Fertilizer represents a major expense for farmers, while high concentrations can seriously damage the environment – especially groundwater. But cutting costs, reducing workloads and protecting the environment are by no means the only reasons why the use of hi-tech systems in farms is exploding. “Already, farmers in Germany and France are harvesting four or five times as much wheat from their fields as farmers in the U.S. or Russia,” says Böttinger. “Using modern systems, we’re further increasing productivity and crop yields,” he adds. This high efficiency is immensely important in international competition – not least because farmers in Russia and the U.S. have on average three to four times as much acreage available to them. ■ Author Birk Grüling specializes in science and

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sustainability issues. He writes for Die Zeit, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Tagesspiegel, as well as other publications.

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ON THE ROAD AGAIN A ZF study into the future of long-distance truck driving is investigating drivers’ living and working conditions. A new edition is currently being prepared. By Andreas Techel

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hat’s happening to the working conditions of long-distance truck drivers? Are new working models emerging that will make the profession more attractive to a wider audience? What about remuneration trends in the industry? This study, the successor to a previous ZF study on the future of truck driving, explores these and other questions, and will appear in time for the IAA Commercial Vehicles trade fair in the fall. In 2012, a publication entitled “ZF Future Study on Truck Drivers” appeared. It was a first attempt to provide researchbased insights into the lives of truck drivers and their importance to the logistics industry. Professor Dr. Dirk Lohre at Heilbronn University was in charge of the study, which was commissioned by ZF and German trade magazine FERNFAHRER. Dramatic shortage of drivers The study drew attention to a dramatic shortage of drivers that is likely to become even more acute over the next few years. Out of some 660,000 professional truck drivers in Germany, at least 40 percent are expected to retire by 2020. At the same time, only a fraction of the skilled replacements required are being trained or retrained to enter the industry. These are alarming figures in view of the steadily growing demand for road freight transportation. The 2012 study was widely covered by the media, because problems in the logistics sector have a significant economic impact on Germany as a net exporter.

The study’s successor reviews drivers’ working conditions, but also investigates market conditions in the industry. On the basis of current transport market trends, the research team is designing if-then scenarios in an attempt to predict how conditions in the industry could develop by 2030. By providing such projections, the study aims to become a kind of simulator for decision-makers such as policymakers and business owners, enabling them to analyze the possible outcomes of their actions – when dealing with cabotage regulations within the EU, for example. Cabotage refers to the transportation of freight by foreign companies. German road freight companies use such arrangements in neighboring countries, and vice versa. Tips for decision-makers Wage gaps within the EU mean that certain limits have been placed on cabotage arrangements. Reactions to this policy differ widely: many German carriers fear that prices will deteriorate further and want even more protection, whereas many logistics companies would like to see all such regulatory constraints removed completely. Given such conflicts of interest, the new study should be a valuable source of indicators for stakeholders and policymakers. ■

ZF Study on Truck Drivers 2.0 In order to prepare this sequel, ZF and trade journal FERNFAHRER invited a third partner on board: DEKRA. The professional organization is the largest training provider in the transport industry. For the study, the team conducted expert interviews with freight carriers and logistics firms, as well as representatives of associations, trade and specialist media and political organizations. They also carried out a survey of truck drivers. By the summer, regular meetings will be taking place with leading figures in the industry, as part of the ZF-Speditionslounge series. The study will be presented to policymakers in Berlin and Brussels, and also at the IAA Commercial Vehicles trade fair (9/25–10/2). The 2/2014 issue of drive will contain an in-depth report on the study. 9 To find out more about how the study is being produced, visit www.zf-zukunftsstudie.de

Author Andreas Techel is Chief Editor of the German trade journal FERNFAHRER published by ETM Verlag in Stuttgart. The magazine has been reporting on truck technology and social and political issues in the transportation and logistics industry for 30 years.

Like its predecessor, the ZF Study on Truck Drivers 2.0 is also focusing on the professional and social status of long-distance truck drivers.

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BRAZIL

ALWAYS ON THE GO Report by Jörg Heuer Photos by Dominik Gigler

As the Soccer World Cup approaches, all eyes are turned to Brazil. ZF is especially well-positioned in the country. Now drive delivers a report from an ambitious nation that has rapidly evolved from Third World status into a major economic power – and the world’s fourth largest automotive market.

With 11 million residents, the city of São Paulo is the country’s financial and commercial hub.

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Betim Araraquara

SÃO PAULO RIO DE JANEIRO

Sorocaba São Bernardo do Campo

Host nation Brazil

1

2014

Brazil hosts the World Cup for the second time (the first was in 1950).

Brazil has won the most

world titles

5

(1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002).

The country is investing the equivalent of

2

27

billion dollars in the Soccer World Cup and

18

billion dollars in the 2016 Olympic Games. 3

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Photo: ZF

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1 Sophisticated São Paulo, with skyscrapers and glass facades 2 New landmark: the 138-meter-tall Ponte Estaiada Octávio Frias de Oliveira suspension bridge 3 Street artists pay homage to national idol Ronaldo. 4 Still under construction: the Soccer World Cup opening game will kick off in São Paulo’s Arena Corinthians.

he view from the helicopter down onto São Paulo is quite simply breathtaking. The city, with its countless skyscrapers divided by deep canyons, green parks and sports facilities, residential areas and commercial districts – but also just a few too many favelas, or slums – extends to every horizon in an unending sprawl: city, city everywhere. Although the traffic only flows sluggishly through the busy streets, the whole cityscape seems to be in perpetual motion. Despite our lofty height, we can even make out one of the largest city buses in the world. 27 meters (90 feet) long, the Volvo bus has four axles, two articulations and an official capacity of 200 passengers. In reality, it carries a lot more. 170 of these low-floor monsters wind their way through the streets of São Paulo; ZF supplies the giant vehicle’s transmission and certain chassis components. However, the longplanned BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system, which would allow city buses to travel unimpeded through all of São Paulo, has not yet been extended across all parts of the city. While some bus lanes have been built, they still haven’t been properly networked. A few minutes later we see Guarulhos International Airport, where a third terminal is under construction. There’s no way it will be fully operational by the time the World Cup starts. The Arena Corinthians in the city’s Itaquera district is also in the final stages of construction; the 65,000seat stadium will host the World Cup opening game between Brazil and Croatia on June 12, as well as three other group matches, one second-round game and a semi-final. 2,250 workers are toiling around the clock to make sure it’s ready in

time for the World Cup kick-off. The cost of building the second largest, third most expensive World Cup stadium will be equivalent to around 300 million euros (roughly 410 million U.S. dollars). And yet the maglev suspension railway across the city, along with another subway line – both originally designed for the great soccer spectacle – will remain no more than building sites during the World Cup and beyond. No other Brazilian city planned to invest so much in its World Cup transport infrastructure as São Paulo: 2.86 billion Brazilian reals, equivalent to 900 million euros or 1.25 billion dollars. By comparison, Rio de Janeiro is “only” investing 1.6 billion reals in its transport network. Brazil is spending a total of around 60 billion reals on the Soccer World Cup, plus another 40 billion on preparations for the 2016 Olympic Games. City in the throes of rebuilding As the helicopter flies over the metropolis, our drive photographer’s camera never stops clicking. The sun flashes from modern glass facades. More skyscrapers than anywhere else in the world – with the exception of New York – feature rooftop helipads. And everywhere builders’ cranes tower high above the endless sea of houses. No doubt about it: Brazil’s capital city, not far from the country’s Atlantic coastline, is still in the throes of a major overhaul just weeks before the Soccer World Cup. Over the last ten years, Brazil has succeeded in reducing poverty across large segments of the country’s 200-million population: 50 million people have been lifted out of poverty and extreme poverty to join the middle classes. The Brazilian population is classified alphabetically, from A 31

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3

(wealthy, with a monthly family income of more than 7,475 reals) down to E (poor, with a family income of less than 1,085 reals). While 27.4 percent of the population was still classified as E in 2003, the figure has now shrunk to around ten percent.

Photo: German Consulate General in São Paulo

Brazil’s business hub With 11 million residents – or 22 million in the city’s greater metropolitan area – São Paulo is the capital of the state of São Paulo, Brazil’s financial and industrial center. The state accounts for 30 percent of Brazil’s manufacturing output and acts as the economic hub for the whole of Latin and South America. The city itself is the birthplace of such Formula One legends as Emerson Fittipaldi, Ayrton Senna and Felipe Massa. It’s the sixth largest metropolitan area in the world. No international company interested in building a presence in South America can afford to overlook São Paulo – city or state. “This is Germany’s largest industrial city,” is how Germany’s Consul General in São Paulo, Friedrich Däuble, describes the booming metropolis – despite the 10,000 air miles that separate it from Germany. “Over one thousand German companies now have a presence in the São Paulo metropolitan area, including all the best known and most respected. A quarter of a million people now work for subsidiaries of German businesses,” says the diplomat, speaking to us in his official residence. “It’s difficult to overstate the significance of São Paulo for the German economy.”

Economy With

3.76 million

vehicles sold in 2013, Brazil is the fourth largest automotive market after China, the U.S. and Japan.

Economic growth 2010: record level

7.5 %

2012: nearly 1% 2013: 2.5%

GDP At around

2260 bn dollars

Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product (2012) makes it the seventh largest economy in the world.

More cars are now produced and sold in Brazil than almost anywhere else in the world. ZF recognized the importance of this industrial nation – and especially the state of São Paulo – some 56 years ago, and this is where the company set up its first production facility outside Germany. Nowadays, all four of the company’s main divisions operate here: Car Powertrain Technology, Car Chassis Technology, Commercial Vehicle Technology and Industrial Technology. Not to mention the ZF Services business unit and ZF Steering Systems, the company’s joint venture with Bosch. In view of the economic significance of the São Paulo region not just for Brazil, but for South America as a whole, it’s easy to understand why ZF’s production facilities are located in nearby Sorocaba, São Bernardo do Campo and Araraquara, with another plant a little further away in Betim. ZF’s 4,300 or so employees in Brazil produce transmissions for commercial vehicles, axles and transmissions for agricultural machinery, marine transmissions, and clutches, chassis components and steering systems for cars, trucks and commercial vehicles. Playing in this part of Brazil is like a home game for ZF. Special training programs ZF is a popular employer in the country – and not just for young engineers. The company organizes special in-house training programs to develop the skilled workers it needs in production and assembly. One of them is Genivaldo de Oliveira Couto, who

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“It’s difficult to overstate the significance of São Paulo for the German economy.” FRIEDRICH DÄUBLE, GERMANY’S CONSUL GENERAL IN SÃO PAULO

4

1 Friedrich Däuble, Germany’s Consul General in São Paulo. 2 São Paulo’s Bus Rapid Transit system is being expanded.|| 3 The São Paulo metropolitan area sprawls to the horizon. 4 Genivaldo de Oliveira Couto works in ZF’s paint shop and plays as goalkeeper on the ZF works team.

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2

1 + 2 Clauderice Alves works in transmission assembly in Plant 1 on ZF’s main Sorocaba site. 3 In Sorocaba, tractor axles are painted in each customer’s preferred color after assembly.

1

has been working in one of ZF’s two plants in Sorocaba for 14 years; he lives with his wife and two daughters in this city of 600,000 people. ZF’s Sorocaba site, less than 90 kilometers (60 miles) away from São Paulo, has the largest workforce – it’s the beating heart of ZF do Brasil. Genivaldo de Oliveira Couto has worked in various production areas. At the moment he’s working in the paint shop. But most of his colleagues – who are all just as football-crazy as he is – simply call him “Black Ceni”, after Rogério Ceni, the goalkeeper and captain of his favorite soccer team: São Paulo FC. The multiple Brazilian champions and Club World Cup winners have also brought forth such national heroes as Kaká, Raí and Cafu. While Genivaldo enjoys watching soccer games, he plays soccer, too. Did we say, “plays”? He lives and breathes soccer – and doesn’t mind showing us a few tricks, first bouncing the leather ball on his forehead, then juggling it alternately between his feet and upper thighs. When he was a kid, he and his buddies played street soccer all day long. They didn’t have a soccer pitch or a leather ball – a rubber ball did just as well. Or even an empty tin can, which they would kick around with their bare feet in front of goals marked out by a couple of paving blocks. 34

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With an area of

3,287,612 square miles

Brazil is only slightly smaller than the U.S.

There can only be one World Champion Of course things are a little different now. Genivaldo plays as goalkeeper for the ZF works team in Sorocaba, and ZF supplies the balls, soccer shoes, jerseys and a wellmaintained soccer pitch. The ZF keeper trains three times a week. On Saturdays, the team usually plays a match against a works team from another company. And whenever he can, he and his team-mates and colleagues go to watch his favorite club’s home games. Sadly, he wasn’t able to get hold of tickets for any of the six World Cup matches scheduled in São Paulo. Although 57 percent of the 2.5 million tickets went to Brazilians, Genivaldo wasn’t one of the lucky ones. Most of the 43 percent of World Cup tickets left over went to American, Colombian, German, Argentinian and British fans. According to a survey organized by Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, 82 percent of Brazilians are intending to watch the games on TV – even though there were violent protests against the decision to host the event, as well as against corruption and the sheer expense of the preparations. A recent survey suggests that 24 percent of Brazilians are still opposed to hosting the World Cup in their country. Genivaldo, on the other hand, can’t wait. He’s hoping ZF will allow factory 1.2014

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INTERVIEW

“Market leaders in so many segments” Even though the Football World Cup hasn’t boosted the economy as much as expected, Wilson Bricio, President of ZF South America, is very satisfied with the way business has developed.

How are things looking for ZF in Brazil at the present time? ZF sales have doubled over the last nine years, growing on average 50 percent faster than the market as a whole. We’re the leaders in most commercial-vehicle segments, and in many car segments. What are your long-term goals and vision for ZF in Brazil? We’re intending to maintain our market position and increase our market share by systematically developing the skills of our regional workforce. This will put us in a good position to be able to meet local demand for new technologies. In your view, are there even greater opportunities for growth? Yes, in automation for commercial vehicles, but also in greater fuel efficiency and improved safety for cars; those are areas where we see definite potential. Applications tailored specifically to local needs are especially important. We also see major growth opportunities in wind power and marine technologies.

“German discipline and Brazilian creativity – that’s what will take us forward.”

Has the World Cup significantly boosted ZF’s business in Brazil? To some extent, but not as much as we were expecting. The anticipated largescale infrastructural development didn’t really happen. But the bus market grew by 14 percent between 2012 and 2013, so there’s a big opportunity for us there.

WILSON BRICIO, PRESIDENT OF ZF SOUTH AMERICA 3

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workers to down tools whenever the Brazilian national team’s games are shown on TV. He’s counting the days until the opening game. His tip for the World Cup final? The goalkeeper’s gentle smile is belied by his flashing eyes: “Brazil versus Germany, ending in a 2:1 victory. There can only be one World Champion: Brazil!” Automotive market of the future “We are actually considering whether to shut down during Brazil’s matches,” admits Wilson Bricio (see interview on page 35), who has been President of ZF South America since 2005. “I’m sure our customers will be doing exactly the same thing.” In business terms, the head of ZF’s South American operations had expected the World Cup to provide more of a boost for ZF do Brasil, but he’s still happy with the way business has developed in recent years. “We’ve doubled our sales over the past nine years. We’re the market leaders in certain passenger car segments, and in almost every segment of the commercial vehicle market. And we’ve only just started our assault on Brazil’s booming market for construction machinery.” So what are the most important items on his agenda at the present time? “We want to become even more competitive, and we want to see even more interaction between Brazil and Germany,” he replies. 36

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3

1 Roberto Cortes, head of MAN Latin America. 2 Bushings for a tractor axle awaiting installation. 3 Anita Luiza Muller assembles clutches at the ZF plant in São Bernardo do Campo. 4 A view of ZF Plant 2 in Sorocaba.

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GLOBALIZATION

Then he smiles and adds: “German innovation and discipline, combined with Brazilian adaptability and creativity – that’s what will take us forward into the future.” The fact that truck sales in Brazil have risen by 160 percent since 2002 has also strengthened ZF’s South American arm, which now works with all the largest and most reputable commercial vehicle manufacturers. “For MAN, Brazil is the most important market in the world,” says Roberto Cortes, CEO and President of MAN Latin America, the largest manufacturer of trucks and second largest manufacturer of buses in South America. He goes on to explain that 85 percent of the company’s

“Brazil is a resource-rich, rapidly emerging nation that is very important to ZF.”

1958

is when ZF set up the company’s first international production plant in São Caetano do Sul in the state of São Paulo.

4300

employees currently work at the four ZF sites in Brazil.

ROLF LUTZ, MEMBER OF THE BOARD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SOUTH AMERICA REGION

4

Early days for football euphoria From Sorocaba, we travel back toward São Paulo. The World Cup kicks off in a few weeks, but there’s little along the freeway to suggest incipient soccer euphoria – no roadside advertising hoardings displaying portraits of soccer stars, no Brazilian flags tied to the antennas or rear-view mirrors of passing cars and trucks; no hint of the great event. Even the media are low-key. “That’ll change in a flash as soon as the first teams travel to Brazil and move into their accommodation,” proclaims snack bar owner Toni Dedè confidently. “Then there’ll be nothing but football coverage and round-the-clock celebrations.” Inspecting diaphragm springs During a brief stopover at ZF’s plant in São Bernardo do Campo, which manufactures clutches, we ask Anita Luiza Muller if she’s interested in the World Cup? With a loud laugh, she nods vigorously. “It’s a point of honor! Even Brazilian women are born football fans!” Anita Luiza Muller has been working here for 30 years. At the moment, she’s checking that diaphragm springs for car clutches are 100 percent compliant with specifications. She inspects them with a trained eye, occasionally glancing at digital readouts on her computer screen. “After so many years, my colleagues tease me and say I’m ZF company property,” smiles the high-precision worker with her tightly scraped-back hair. “But it doesn’t annoy me. On the contrary: it makes me very proud.” She’s also proud when she spends weekends with her family and friends on the beach, or in one of Brazil’s beloved shopping malls. She can’t resist pointing out to them: “Just look, many of these beautiful cars wouldn’t run at all if I hadn’t had a hand in building them.” ■

sales are generated in Brazil, the remaining 15 percent in the other Latin American countries. “Roughly every third truck driving on Brazil’s roads today is one of our products. And when I look into the future, there’s so much more we can do in Brazil.” After all, around 300,000 of these trucks are between 20 and 25 years old. Despite all the favorable forecasts, there are still some contrary winds to cope with in this nation of equatorial sunshine. “Brazil is a resource-rich, emerging economy, where ZF is currently having to deal with strong wage growth and rising commodity prices,” is how Rolf Lutz, ZF Board member responsible for South America, recently summarized the situation. Fourth largest automotive market Despite all the ups and downs and the ever-present challenges, the decision to establish a presence in Brazil at an early stage has paid off for ZF. Brazil’s economy, already seventh largest in the world, is still building up steam: analysts at the International Monetary Fund predict that by 2015, Brazil will overtake France in fifth and Great Britain in sixth place.

With 3.76 million vehicles sold in 2013, the country’s automotive market is ranked fourth in the world behind China, the U.S. and Japan, according to Brazil’s National Association of Automotive Manufacturers, ANFAVEA. In 2010, the country’s economic growth reached a record high of 7.5 percent, levelling off at 2.5 percent in 2013 (with a rate of inflation of around six percent). An impressive achievement in which ZF, as both employer and business powerhouse, has played a part.

Author Jörg Heuer used to work as a reporter for legendary Tempo magazine. Now he freelances for

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print magazines like National Geographic, Stern and ZEITmagazin, for daily papers such as Die Welt and The Guardian, and as a TV journalist.

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ON TOUR Germany’s bus market is booming! Since early 2013, more and more passengers have been using the services offered by a steadily growing number of operators and are choosing to travel by intercity bus. drive decided to join them. Text: Freddy Boom Photos: Eva Häberle

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he road is positively blinding – it rained during the night, and the wet asphalt is mirror-bright in the morning sun. Driver Ali Aydin straightens his sunglasses. His bus is cruising quietly through the North German lowlands; there’s very little traffic. A few commuters, a couple of tractors. The journey takes us past villages with names like Sülze (“Aspic” in English), Didderse and Wipshausen. Homemade signs along the roadside advertise “Lovely potatoes – fresh from the farm!”, “Firewood, going cheap” and “Tanya’s tasty takeouts”. In the brown fields, crows are pecking at the stubble; moorland sheep are nibbling the fresh spring grass. Sightseeing in the peaceful heart of Lower Saxony – aboard a bus that’s making the railway companies very nervous. Intercity bus travel is booming This Friday’s outing is taking us from Hamburg to Munich. Around 30 passengers assembled at eight o’clock this morning in Hamburg’s central bus station – official name: “Bus Port”, because the city is a major port – waiting to board the bright green bus (a MAN Lion’s Coach) operated by travel company MeinFernbus. Some of them are traveling as far as the foothills of the Alps, a trip lasting more than 12.5 hours. Others are disembarking in Braunschweig, Magdeburg or Leipzig. They’re all united by one thing: they’re trendsetters, because they’re traveling by bus rather than by train, budget airline or car. By intercity bus, to be precise. Since the deregulation of Germany’s long-haul bus market on January 1, 2013, business has been booming. By the end of the year, around 40 long-distance bus operators were offering more than 5,000 scheduled trips within Germany each week, according to a survey carried out by the IGES Institute in Berlin on behalf of the Federal Association of German Bus & Coach Operators; just 12 months ago, there were fewer than 1,500. Since then, independent web portal FahrtenFuchs (English: TravelFox) reckons the figure has risen to 8,000 a week. Germany’s long-distance rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) has some serious competition at last. From MeinFernbus.de in particular. The Berlinbased company is currently German market leader, with a 39.7 percent share of the scheduled road miles. Like its competitors, MeinFernbus is attracting young people and senior citizens in particular – a clientele that’s price-sensitive and doesn’t mind spending more time on the road. After all, while long-haul bus journeys are usually much cheaper than comparable trips by train, they do last longer. It takes bus passengers 40

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12.5 hours on average to travel from Hamburg to Munich; by train it takes around six hours.

40 bus firms

are fighting for German customers in this new travel segment.

Market leader among German intercity bus operators is currently Berlinbased firm MeinFernbus, with

39.7 percent

of the scheduled road miles.

Direct connections to smaller destinations But intercity buses do excel at one thing: they can drive directly to smaller destinations that are only accessible by train if you’re willing to make multiple changes. As a bonus, passengers enjoy free Internet access by Wi-Fi, plus snacks for one euro (1.35 dollars) and soft drinks for 1.50 euros (two dollars). More and more operators are pushing into the market; firms like DeinBus.de, Flixbus and ADAC Postbus. It’s not surprising – estimated annual industry sales are as high as 600 million euros. Even Deutsche Bahn is muscling in. Its subsidiary Berlin Linien Bus GmbH has just opened ten new bus routes: Hamburg-Munich and Hamburg-Cologne, for example. For Simon Illner, who boarded the bus in Hamburg, price and comfort were key factors in deciding to make his first trip by intercity bus. The student teacher from Magdeburg has been visiting his sister and nephew in the harbor city; now he’s traveling back to his home town. “If I’d made the journey by car, I’d have needed at least three hours,” he reckons, “and I’d have been exhausted by the time I arrived.” Then he excuses himself, because he wants to say goodbye to his nephew, who was still asleep when he left the house this morning. Simon Illner makes the call, speaking in the typical voice of an adult talking to a three-year-old. As he hangs up, he notices some of his fellow-passengers have been eavesdropping; they all laugh together. “That’s something else I like about buses,” he murmurs with a grin. “You soon find yourself chatting to people.” Then he opens his laptop and starts doing some Internet research for a term paper.

Pioneers from Friedrichshafen One of the first players in Germany’s long-distance bus market was DeinBus.de. The company was founded by three students from ZF-sponsored Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen. DeinBus.de started as a “bus-pool service” – meaning the founders could circumvent the legislation in force at the time, which more or less prohibited long-distance bus services in Germany from competing with the (partially state-owned) train operators. As it was, Deutsche Bahn attempted to sue DeinBus.de in 2010, but lost because the company didn’t offer any fixed bus routes at that time. Today, the bus operator runs services between 30 cities in Germany. 1.2014

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Saying goodbye in Hamburg... the southbound bus makes an early start. Most of the passengers aboard the bright-green vehicle are students, trainees and seniors, who don’t mind traveling through the countryside as long as they have reasonably priced coffee and free Wi-Fi.

“A large proportion of our customers are car drivers, who choose to travel by bus as a stress-free alternative.” TORBEN GREVE, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MEINFERNBUS

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Up, up and away: international bus travel In Germany, regular intercity bus services are a new trend. In many other countries, however, they’ve been around for a long time – often because of inadequate or incomplete rail networks. In the U.S. and Canada, buses run by market leader Greyhound alone carry 18 million passengers a year to a total of 3,800 destinations – the journey from New York to Los Angeles, for example, takes three days. Founded in 1914, the Greyhound logo is one of most iconic brand symbols in the world. In Mexico, many places can only be reached by bus, and the country’s bus operators offer three different classes of service: Deluxe express buses offering every possible passenger comfort; first-class luxury buses with video, aircon and onboard toilet – and last and very much least, second-class buses, which are usually crowded and often act as heavy-duty taxis for agricultural produce, farm animals and pets. In Europe, intercity buses have been a regular feature of road traffic in countries like Sweden, the U.K. and Switzerland for decades. In the U.K., the railway monopoly was broken up back in the 1980s, while in Switzerland the distance covered by the longdistance bus network is twice as long as the country’s (also extensive) rail network.

Student Simon Illner (top left) is using the onboard Wi-Fi; bus driver Ali Aydin (top right) helps passengers with their luggage, and pensioner Reinhardt Kohlrusch (right) is visiting his grandchildren in Bavaria.

“It’s just like sitting in a helicopter!” One row in front of him, immediately behind bus driver Ali Aydin, sits Reinhardt Kohlrusch. The 64-year-old pensioner from Flensburg has made himself very comfortable. A friend drove him to Hamburg, and now he’s taking the bus all the way to the central bus station in Munich. He always tries to sit in the front row, because “when you’ve got an unobstructed view through that huge windshield, it’s just like sitting in a helicopter!” While he’s finishing his second breakfast – a salami roll and an apple – Kohlrusch tells us all about his seven children and four grandchildren. Nearly all of them live on Lake Starnberg, which is where he’s traveling now. He’s not a native of the Flensburg area, either, as we’d already guessed from his distinctive Bavarian accent. Kohlrusch approves of 42

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bus travel: “There’s no stress this way”. It might be a “little quicker” by car, or indeed by train, but the legroom in the bus is unbeatable. His son booked the ticket for him on the Web. Now he can sit and daydream in peace, taking an occasional nap and watching the scenery pass by. Then there’s the price: just 28 euros (38 dollars) for a one-way ticket. For pensioners on a modest income, that makes a very strong case for traveling by bus, laughs Reinhardt Kohlrusch. Student Illner and pensioner Kohlrusch are typical intercity bus customers. “A large proportion of our passengers are traveling as tourists, or visiting friends and family, or going to business appointments,” says Torben Greve, Managing Director of MeinFernbus. As it happens, the new long-distance travel operators are not primarily targeting rail customers. It’s “car drivers 1.2014

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8000 scheduled trips a week are currently offered by Germany’s intercity bus operators. in particular” who view intercity buses as a “comfortable and stress-free alternative to making the journey in their own cars,” as Greve puts it. And it’s true: last year, the number of rail passengers didn’t decline, despite the new competition on the nation’s roads. Transport expert Christoph Gipp, one of the consultants working for the IGES Institute in Berlin, believes that many intercity bus passengers are “new travelers”, including many senior citizens who found the whole process of changing trains too strenuous and so didn’t travel at all. Now, thanks to the rapidly growing bus network with its direct connections, this target audience is discovering a new kind of freedom. “Another passenger segment comes from carpooling or car-sharing environments, or previously traveled by car or train,” adds Gipp.

Applause for the driver The green bus has left the A7 freeway near Soltau-Süd and is now rolling down country roads toward Celle, the first stop of the morning. The highway runs rulerstraight down an avenue of alders and beeches. The morning mist rises from the fields, windmills turn sedately on the horizon, and here and there you can see Lower Saxony’s “green hills”: biogas plants set up by state-of-the-art farming operations. “I love it,” says Ali Aydin, our bus driver. He’s taken off his sunglasses. “This early-morning calm – it’s beautiful.” Aydin, a trained mechanic, tells us how he used to work as a taxi driver in Bad Harzburg and Goslar a couple of years ago. He decided to retrain, and signed up with bus operator “Der Schmidt” in Wolfenbüttel, a subcontractor of MeinFernbus. He’d always wanted to travel further away, not just hang around in the Bad Harzburg neighborhood, and the idea of driving a really big vehicle with plenty of horsepower really appealed to him. And that’s what he’s doing: the MAN bus is propelled by a 440 horsepower engine, as well as AS Tronic, ZF’s 12-speed automatic transmission system. Ali Aydin steers the bus, which can carry nearly 60 passengers, into the bus station in Braunschweig, then picks up the microphone and wishes his passengers a safe onward journey – a new driver will take them the rest of the way to Munich. Aydin laughs, pulls on his green MeinFernbus anorak, and climbs out – to applause from his passengers. In 20 years of driving a taxi, he never experienced that. ■ 43

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The “fabrics” out of which composite materials are made: fiberglass (in the background) and carbon-fiber mats.

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THE ART OF LIGHTWEIGHT DESIGN The only way for cars and commercial vehicles to meet CO2 emissions targets is to lose weight. In the Composites Tech Center in Schweinfurt, ZF is developing revolutionary weight-saving components for series production. By Achim Neuwirth

Photos by Peter Neusser

Early sample of a suspension strut-wheel mount module made out of CFRP – still a long way to go before it will be ready for series production.

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Nathalie Wieber, Mathias Schramm and Alexander Hamacher (from left) all work in the ZF Composites Tech Center.

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he press slowly opens – somewhat like a theater curtain angled at 90 degrees – to reveal a wheel mount made out of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic. The exceptionally durable component feels very light in the hand. Even so, it’s hard to believe what it’s made of: the material – rolled-up mats of carbon fiber – looks more like fabric intended for the clothing industry, the kind of thing used to produce cotton sweatshirts. Since July 2013, the ZF Composites Tech Center in Schweinfurt has been developing lightweight products made out of fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) for a variety of structural components. Two types of composite materials are used: carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) and glass fiber-reinforced plastics (GRP). ZF has already produced a lightweight wheel mount made out of both types of plastic. Combined with a lightweight damper, the new wheel mount takes care of damping and wheel guidance in cars – at the same time, it weighs 40 percent

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less than more conventional designs. To make sure such weight-saving solutions are put into series production as quickly and cost-efficiently as possible, ZF has invested 3.1 million euros (about 4.2 million dollars) in the Composites Tech Center, which has a total area of 400 square meters (4,300 square feet). The buildings, machinery and equipment all exude the spotlessly clean atmosphere normally associated with clean-room laboratories. “We provide the production technology expertise required to design and build functioning, pre-production prototypes – but we’re not a production facility,” is how Dr. Ignacio Lobo-Casanova, head of the Center, describes its remit. “Because there’s a very close relationship between the manufacturing processes and product characteristics of fiber-reinforced plastics, we help the ZF divisions with their development work from a very early stage.” Dr. Michael Heselhaus, the man responsible for developing the Composites Tech Center, goes on to explain. “Compared to steel or aluminum, there are so

many more variables to consider when you’re working with FRP. In other words, each component makes different demands on the material and how you work with it.” Developing prototypes in-house Other specifications include target production costs, planned quantities and required cycle times for series production. “We work with the product development teams to draw up detailed specifications covering all requirements, so we can make sure that when the FRP products go into series production, the whole process is as efficient and cost-effective as possible. This means, for example, adjusting product designs to achieve optimized cycle times while calculating the costs involved,” adds Heselhaus. Another advantage of the Composites Tech Center for ZF’s development network: the technology company is now able to produce FRP prototypes in-house, without resorting to external partners. The development departments in the various ZF divisions very much appreciate this facility. 1.2014

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TECHNOLOGY

Prototype of a combined suspension strutwheel mount for cars, made out of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP).

The main tool in the ZF Composites Tech Center: a Dieffenbacher DCL 1000-ton press.

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The ZF Composites Tech Center exudes the spotlessly clean atmosphere usually associated with clean-room laboratories (top). Calculating material properties for manufacturing FRP panels (bottom).

Two processes for two plastics ZF works with different lightweight materials and technologies. Thermoset composites cannot be reshaped once they have been processed – in contrast to thermoplastic composites. Used as fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) in combination with long or continuous fibers, thermoset composites are very strong and thermally stable – two attractive characteristics in heavy-duty automotive applications. Typically, the plastic composites are reinforced with fiberglass (glass fiberreinforced plastics, or GRP) or carbon fibers (carbon fiber-reinforced plastics, or CFRP). The RTM process (Resin Transfer Molding) is easy to automate and benefits from short cycle times. In the ZF Composites Tech Center, a robot places the preformed layers of fiber matting into a prepared mold which 48

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is then inserted into the press. The press, which is capable of exerting up to 1,000 tons of force, then closes the mold, and a resin-hardener mixture is injected under high pressure. After curing, the press opens and the high-performance component can be extracted, ready for assembly. In the prepreg process, the FRP mats are already impregnated with the resin-hardener mixture before they’re placed in the mold. So they don’t react prematurely, they must be stored at subzero temperatures. At the processing stage, the prepared preforms are placed in the mold, then subjected to a predefined pressure profile at specific mold temperatures, causing the resin and hardener to react so the component is fully hardened (cured). 1.2014

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TECHNOLOGY

Dr. Ignacio Lobo-Casanova (left) with Dr. Michael Heselhaus.

“We provide the production technology expertise required to design and build functioning, pre-production prototypes – but we’re not a production facility.” DR. IGNACIO LOBO-CASANOVA

Making the most of every fiber In practical terms, collaboration between the ZF divisions and the Composites Tech Center – which is managed by the Corporate Production unit in Friedrichshafen – happens like this: once the general parameters and concept for an FRP component have been specified, the product engineers turn to the Composites Tech Center for advice and support. The first step is to produce material samples, which at this stage bear no resemblance to the finished product. They are tested for conformability, toughness and temperature resistance, along with a host of other properties. Virtual testing The next step is for the math wizards to process the test data using simulation tools. A high-performance workstation is used to model every detail of the prototype – the part that will eventually end up as a CFRP wheel mount, for example. The software analyzes how the component will behave under different load spectra, and how its geometry could be optimized where neces-

sary. The tools are even capable of testing how well the component will function in a vehicle – but only virtually, of course. Only then does the Schweinfurt team start working on the actual product prototypes. In the case of the wheel mount, a number of shaped layers are cut out of the fiber mats, and a robot then drapes them – paying meticulous attention to the orientation of the fibers – on a foam preform that is geometrically identical to the actual component. Lobo-Casanova and his team also develop a suitable mold for the press. Once the prototype has been produced using the RTM process (see box on left), it must prove itself in real-world vehicle tests. For testing the suspension strutwheel mount module, ZF uses a very exclusive car: the company’s all-electric innovation prototype. Adding value instead of cost “Emissions legislation is the main factor driving lightweight design in the automotive industry,” explains Lobo-Casanova, “because it will be very difficult for car-

makers to meet future emissions targets simply by improving their engines.” The ZF Composites Tech Center only handles some of the company’s lightweight design initiatives, concentrating mainly on thermoset FRP materials (see box on left). ZF is also testing thermoplastic FRP composites (such as organic sheet), as well as lighter metals. Before ZF will even consider building structural components out of FRP, or approve the production of prototypes by the Schweinfurt Composites Tech Center, they must meet two important criteria. First, GRP and CFRP will only be used if they are the materials that best match the properties required of the component. And second, the new component must be capable of integrating multiple functions – ideally by replacing several hitherto separate components. “This allows us to offset a large proportion of the additional cost that’s still associated with using FRP as a source material and with the complex processing involved,” explains LoboCasanova. ■ 49

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SMART DAMPING What exactly are the best damper settings? It’s a thorny question, especially for manufacturers of compact and subcompact cars and vans. Hard, for more safety and better handling? Or soft, for greater comfort? ZF has the solution, and it’s called CDC 1XL.

Damping force “as needed” There is a solution, however: an adaptive damping system such as CDC (Continuous Damping Control). The damping properties of conventional shock absorbers are set at the factory and can’t be changed. But in ZF’s CDC system, electronically controlled dampers on all four wheels adjust the hardness of the suspension to suit current driving conditions in real time. A central control unit (ECU) analyzes a steady stream of information from dozens of sensors in the vehicle, does the calculations, and issues the necessary instructions. The technology is already well-established in

many classes of vehicles – but so far, hasn’t been cost-efficient enough for smaller cars. That’s all set to change, thanks to ZF’s CDC 1XL (pronounced “one axle”). As the name suggests, the new system is fitted to just one axle – the rear one, which has the greatest influence on the car’s driving behavior because rear-axle loading varies so much. The technical concept behind single-axle CDC is the same as CDC for four wheels: a proportional valve constantly regulates the flow of oil into and out of the damper. The faster oil flows through the

In February 2014, the Honda Civic Tourer became the first car to offer CDC 1XL as an option.

Photo: Honda

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ompact and subcompact cars and vans dominate town and country roads around the world, whisking commuters through rush-hour traffic, ferrying shoppers to supermarkets, and sometimes even heading off on vacation, crammed full of people and luggage. Engineers have devised all kinds of i ngenious ways to make these vehicles more spacious. But they haven’t managed to solve one important question that a ffects both comfort and safety: just what is the ideal damping force? For safety reasons, damper settings are usually optimized for full loads – the worst-case scenario. But this means that when you’re driving alone, with little or no luggage, the constant jolting caused by the hard damper settings soon takes all the pleasure out of driving.

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TECHNOLOGY

valve, the softer the suspension. To harden the suspension, the valve constricts the flow, so the piston in the damper can’t displace the oil so easily. The electromagnetic actuators in the valve are controlled by the ECU, and respond in milliseconds. Just rolling along… ZF engineers have built sensors into all CDC control units. The sensors are capable of collecting key data – on road conditions and body velocity in particular – even without complex connections to the rest of the vehicle’s electronics. The data is used to calculate the ideal damping force for ambient driving conditions. Most of the time, the system varies the damping force without the vehicle’s occupants even noticing. When cornering, for example, the dampers are hardened – the best setting for safety and handling. You’re only likely to notice the system if you have to make a sudden evasive maneuver, especially if the car is fully laden. In everyday driving conditions, however, you’ll most enjoy a car fitted with CDC 1XL in the least spectacular scenario: when you’re cruising with a minimal load. Because thanks to the adaptive damping of the rear axle, you’ll find yourself just rolling (very comfortably) along. ■

Heart of the system An electromagnetic proportional valve reduces or increases oil flow within the CDC damper in just fractions of a second, instantly reducing or increasing the hardness of the suspension. The mechanism is controlled by sophisticated electronic hardware and software – all designed and built by ZF. 51

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ROOMS ON WHEELS Anyone trying to predict the future of the automobile needs to imagine something a little more sophisticated than smartphones on wheels. Till Grusche argues that voice and gesture recognition will be a key feature in the cars of tomorrow.

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t first, cars were synonymous with freedom. For young people across large parts of the Western world, a driving license was the golden ticket to discos, drive-ins and fun with friends. For most of the twentieth century, car owners were the leaders of the pack: weekends of good times with pals were soon followed by weekends of canoodling on back seats. It wasn’t long before the car became a status symbol. In fact, whole generations were labelled by reference to cars, like the “Golf generation”. Those were good times for anyone involved in selling cars. Dreams of freedom and social status are still used to sell cars today, of course. But with the advent of the “Millennial” generation, a profound transformation is taking place. Cars are turning into consumer items. The smartphone has replaced the driving license as a means of gaining independence and integrating successfully with one’s own peer group. Young people are no longer particularly interested in owning a car – nowadays, simply having permanent access to a “mobility solution” is regarded as hip and happening. The “sharing economy” reflects a new culture of sharing and environmental awareness. 52

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Mobile paradigm shift This shift in attitudes is largely driven by the digital economy. With her companies Zipcar and Buzzcar, American entrepreneur Robin Chase created the blueprint for modern car-sharing services. For over ten years, German company carpooling has used their web portal mitfahrgelegenheit. de to advertise unoccupied car seats to cost-conscious, socially aware travelers wishing to make medium or long-distance journeys. And Internet giant Google is already working on the next major paradigm shift with its driverless cars, prototypes of which can frequently be observed on test drives up and down Silicon Valley.

Heads of carmaking companies long ago realized that sooner or later, part of their business will depend on alternative mobility solutions.

But what about the automotive industry? Heads of carmaking companies long ago realized that sooner or later, at least part of their business will depend on alternative mobility solutions. BMW, for example, partnered up with Sixt to bring the “drive now” car-sharing service to market. Daimler is an investor in Car2Go, as well as the above-mentioned platform, carpooling. At the same time, automakers and their suppliers are all frantically working to incorporate new communication technologies into their vehicles that will ultimately make cars more intelligent and more networked – in a word, smart. Making technology relevant This is changing the whole driving experience, albeit along familiar lines. That’s because most manufacturers are fixated on a “personal computing” paradigm, attempting to integrate the user experience (UX) familiar to many people from their smartphones – text messaging, navigation, entertainment – into the dashboard instrumentation surrounding the driver. But is the industry choosing the right UX and usage model for these new technologies? Is turning cars into giant smartphones the right way to make them more accessible and relevant to users? 1.2014

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ESSAY

Author Till Grusche qualified in engineering and economics, and now works as head of marketing at carpooling.com, Europe’s largest car-sharing network with six million users.

Using technology collaboratively As we search for better models, it might make more sense to take a very childish conception of the car as our starting point. Because maybe the way small children draw cars – as a more or less square box on wheels – is, in reality, the best way to re-imagine the car of the future. In the coming Age of Smart Cars, the car could well be transformed into a small, mobile room: a room in which people would interact and share information using advanced collaborative technology. Let’s take the example of a car-sharing group traveling down a highway in a full vehicle. The driver suggests having lunch together in the next town. As a responsible driver, he doesn’t attempt to use his own mobile to find a suitable place to eat; he asks one of his fellow passengers to do so instead. Whereupon everybody in the car pulls out their smartphones, runs searches and then discusses the results. Once agreement has been reached, the driver enters the most promising result into his satnav. This is the typical “personal computing” paradigm – in this case, experienced by four people in parallel. Cooperative interface But the process would run so much more smoothly over an interface optimized for cooperation. One passenger might say, for example, “fast food”, while another might say “I’d prefer a small local restaurant”. The map on the driver’s head-up display would update itself in real time to show possible destinations, eventually focusing on the one preferred by the majority. Or let’s imagine a couple who want to buy a property. Why spend time and energy at home researching properties on real-estate websites, when ultimately they’ll want to drive to the property and inspect it in any case? Wouldn’t it make

more sense for the couple to travel directly to the area that interests them and start their search in the car? The vehicle’s incar systems would feed them relevant information in response to their gestures, conversation and geographical location. To turn scenarios like this into reality, the automotive industry needs to rethink the current models for interacting and interfacing with in-vehicle computer technology. As it stands, the car of today is a physical interface, into which automakers are

Your driving license will become an authentication tool, giving you access to an entire Smart Car ecosystem – however that may work.

now incorporating additional physical interfaces such as touchscreens. But this is only a tentative first step: in the future, new modes of input – especially voice recognition and gesture controls – will play a major role. Many exciting solutions have already been developed using technologies based on acoustic or spatial referencing systems, like the voice and gesture-controlled prototype RoomE, developed by design company frog, which uses the whole room as a user interface. Once designers start to think about how useful and conve-

nient smart rooms on wheels could be, their imaginations start to soar. The controlled environment inside a vehicle would provide better conditions for using audiovisual media than most living rooms or offices, for example. Thought experiments have already suggested all kinds of applications – from shared entertainment experiences through to interactive office meetings in driverless vehicles. Ultimately, none of them have very much to do with the traditional driving experience – these are collective, interactive experiences based on sophisticated computer technology that just happen to take place inside a car. Goal: the Smart Car ecosystem Of course such gigantic steps in automotive development are not made overnight. The high-speed development cycles that characterize the digital industry tend to slow to a more sensible pace when it comes to maneuvering several tons of steel and aluminum through the neighborhood. But you don’t have to be a prophet to be able to predict that sometime in the future, a driving license won’t be so much an indication of driving ability as a kind of authentication tool, giving you access to an entire Smart Car ecosystem – however that may work. If today’s automakers want to maintain some kind of ongoing relevance to the social environment in which the (great) grandchildren of today’s “Generation Y” will eventually interact, they might want to focus less of their attention on giant smartphones and more of it on rooms on wheels. Whenever you see a successful system come to fruition, you can be sure that the development process started by attempting to deliver exactly the kind of real-world experience that users really want – even if they weren’t aware of it until the system came into existence. ■ 53

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DIVERSITY IS KEY In HR departments everywhere, diversity is the next big thing. International companies know that a colorful workforce is more innovative, more productive – and more attractive. But the gap between purely symbolic policies and genuine cultural change can be hard to bridge.

Text: Friederike Beyer

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WORKING ENVIRONMENT

Young Sunwoo feels at home in many different places. For this 33-yearold German with Korean roots, changing cultural perspective is just something you do as a matter of course.

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Photo: Felix Kästle

hat the human brain is a marvelous machine is something everybody knows nowadays – even companies are starting to get the message. Young Sunwoo’s brain is an especially miraculous piece of machinery. This ZF employee can think about multiple things at the same time, his speech center switches effortlessly between multiple languages, his body language adapts instantly to whichever cultural milieu he happens to be in. He can apply Asian and German perspectives simultaneously – 360-degree cultural awareness, all the time, everywhere. In fact, aside from his degree in Business Administration, Sunwoo has that special something that is increasingly regarded as the key to tomorrow’s entrepreneurial success. He is a citizen of the world. Thanks to his background and upbringing, the 33-year-old manager appears to maneuver effortlessly through the complexities of global business. Cultural pitfalls “My parents come from Korea, I was born in Duisburg, and I studied Economics in Seoul and Shanghai,” he explains. Following an internship with BMW, Sunwoo came to ZF in 2006 via the international trainee program. He then worked in Controlling, did a stint in Business Development, and from 2011, was Commercial Manager of ZF’s Mexican operation in Saltillo. Now he’s living back on Lake Constance and working in the Mergers & Acquisitions and joint ventures unit. 55

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“I can dodge cultural pitfalls relatively easily, because I’m always looking at things from an international perspective,” he laughs. If you believe the trend scouts in the HR industry, an employee like Sunwoo is a major win for his employer ZF right down the line. Because it’s a long time since the technology company depended solely on sales made in Germany. China, for example, is becoming steadily more important as an overseas market. But how can companies position themselves most effectively in this rapidly changing world?

There’s plenty to do: Diversity Officer Silke Wolf in conversation with delegates at ZF’s first Global Women Leadership Summit.

Competitive advantage: diversity Nowadays, diversity is increasingly seen as a competitive advantage. “Many companies make systematic use of their employees’ diversity in order to achieve their goals more effectively,” asserts Professor Dr. Meike Tilebein, Director of the Institute for Diversity Studies in Engineering at the University of Stuttgart. In many large companies, the tensions between global and local requirements have increased considerably, she continues. But when they recruit skilled workers from multicultural backgrounds for global product development, the outcome is generally positive. “Sustainable success in international markets often depends on how close the senior management team is to the overall cultural profile of the business.” A study carried out by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 2012 came to very similar conclusions: a diverse workforce improves access to lucrative markets. The study also identified a recruitment advantage. In the global battle for the top talent and best brains, many companies are trying to reposition themselves as more open, heterogeneous and permeable. Balancing out the genders These are also important goals for Silke Wolf, who is responsible for all diversityrelated issues at ZF. “We now know that mixed teams are more innovative and produce better results than groups with a homogeneous employee structure,” explains Wolf. Future workforce development will be defined and guided by four key priorities: Gender Balance, All Ages, Different Skills and Mixed Cultures. Because what many companies really need is in-depth, systemic change. “If you want to increase the proportion of women in senior management positions over the long term, you have to initiate a comprehensive cultural transformation – from the top down,” confirms Professor Dr. Martina Schraudner, Director of the Responsible Research & Innovation unit at Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Germany. “Every company must work out how to drive forward such an in-house initiative most effectively.” 56

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The Daimler Group, for example, is aiming for a 20 percent increase in the number of women in executive positions by 2020, and has successfully linked this target with bonus payments to senior managers. Following a 12 percent increase in 2013, Daimler is currently right on schedule. Just a few years ago, only HR departments got excited about diversity. Now it’s starting to interest other specialist departments as well. As a result, more and more companies are systematically reviewing all their business activities in terms of diversity. According to consulting firm Synergy Consult, based in Cologne, as many as one third of the DAX 30 companies are using specific indicators to track their diversity management activities.

“As an employer, ZF must be as attractive to as many different people as possible.” JÜRGEN HOLEKSA

Global Women Summit Jürgen Holeksa, Head of Corporate HR at ZF, is also working on a wide variety of diversity-focused projects. Together, he and Silke Wolf organized the first Global Women Leadership Summit for female executives working at ZF. At the end of February, more than 130 women from 12 countries met up for two days of intensive dialog and discussion. Working together, the women managers identified what they regarded as the key concerns surrounding women’s careers and the whole issue of diversity. Key requirements at the top of their list were mentoring, job rotation and more flexible working-time models. 1.2014

04.06.14 17:56

WORKING ENVIRONMENT

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Photos: Sabine Kunzer (3), Felix Kästle, Bernhard Huber (1)

The women leaders put together a collage of iconic images for the Summit. But most of the time was spent discussing and defining the most important diversity issues at ZF.

All important issues, believes Jennifer Hubbard, who works as a senior executive in the Finance department of ZF North America. “We already have a good level of diversity, especially in terms of age profiles and variety of cultures,” says the manager. “But in numerical terms, we could certainly do more to improve our gender balance.” China is already ahead of the rest of the world in this respect, confirms Xueying Jiang, manager of ZF’s Global Commodities Purchasing unit in Shanghai. “Whether you’re male or female makes no difference in China. We have many women in management positions.” Transforming corporate culture in favor of a more diverse HR structure is also an important target for ZF CEO Dr. Stefan Sommer. “We must establish new models for management careers,” he emphasized at the Summit. Long hours in the office and on the road are no longer appropriate metrics for career positions. Intercultural training Where the concept of diversity hasn’t yet penetrated in depth, sometimes smaller, local initiatives can help. At ZF’s Auerbach site, Dr. Hong Yu teaches her colleagues about “Intercultural Communication”. Born in China, she has lived in Germany for 22 years and works in Purchasing and Supply Chain Management. She knows exactly where the pitfalls are lurking when Chinese and German mentalities collide.

Of course the hot topic of diversity has its critics, concerned about over-narrow definitions. Thus Professor Dr. Jutta Allmendinger, President of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, warns against prioritizing business success, differing management styles and skills shortages as the main motives for pursuing diversity. “Furthering the careers of people from diverse backgrounds is primarily a question of equal opportunities and equal rights.”

“The direct, German way of criticizing can have disastrous consequences in Asia.” DR. HONG YU

Playing the role of mediator The fact is, people with roots in multiple cultures are exceptionally quick to recognize differences of opinion or expression, often helping to keep teams steady and balanced. In many cases, they act as a kind of buffer or intermediary when there are cultural misunderstandings, because they are readier to adapt to different patterns of thought and behavior, and find it relatively easy to learn new languages. On this issue, world citizen Young Sunwoo has a suggestion: “I think it would make sense if ZF standardized on a single in-house language in the future. This would attract more global applicants.” Young Sunwoo has plenty of other diversity-related suggestions for his employer. After all, his brain simply isn’t designed to look at things from just one perspective. ■ Friederike Beyer works in ZF Corporate Communication, where she looks after the employee newspaper.

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04.06.14 17:56

YESTERDAY AND TODAY

A broad field, ripe for innovation ZF has been building transmissions for agricultural machinery for the last 75 years. It all started in 1937, when the company built a transmission for farm tractors capable of up to 22 horsepower.

yesterday ZF built the A 12 “universal transmission” back in 1937. Optimized for engines capable of producing up to 16 kW (22 bhp), the unit became the proud ancestor of several generations of ZF tractor drivelines. A hugely important product for the company, the A|12 was mass-produced until 1951. Tractor manufacturer Wahl (see photo) was one of the first customers to install the A 12 in their vehicles.

The A 12 universal transmission combined a manual gearbox and rearwheel drive in a single driveline system.

and

today

ZF presents the TPT 11 – a modular transmission that can be upgraded for the important and popular output range between 85 and 115 horsepower. The powershift transmission is constructed as an in-line unit, meaning that the transmission input shaft is level with the center of the rear axle. This makes it possible to design vehicles with low centers of gravity and reduced overall height – like the Steyr Multi (see photo).

ZF’s TPT 11 powershift transmission has 32 forward and 32 reverse speeds, along with an ergonomically tuned quad powershift.

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1.2014

02.06.14 11:55

SERVICE

THE ZF MAGAZINE

1.2014

BRAZIL

ALWAYS ON THE GO

PLUG-IN HYBRID Powertrain of the future DIVERSITY Victory through variety TECHNOLOGY The art of lightweight design

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About this magazine Publisher ZF Friedrichshafen AG, 88038 Friedrichshafen, Germany Publications Officer Matthias Lenz, ZF Friedrichshafen AG, 88038 Friedrichshafen, Germany Phone: +49 7541 77-960044, Fax: +49 7541 77-2764, Editors in Chief Martin Demel, Wolfgang Miller Editorial Team Michael Hopp, Frank Thoma (Managing Editor), Heinz-Jürgen Köhler (Senior Editor), Robert Buchmeier, Frank Discher, Corina Dreher, Torsten Fiddelke Other Contributors to this Issue Joachim Becker, Friederike Beyer, Birk Grüling, Till Grusche, Jörg Heuer, Andreas Neemann, Achim Neuwirth, Melanie Stahr, Andreas Techel Services Hoffmann und Campe Verlag GmbH, Hamburg, Germany Design Jessica Winter, Tobias Zabell Printing Bodensee Medienzentrum GmbH & Co. KG, Lindauer Strasse 11, 88069 Tettnang, Germany drive Reader Service Hoffmann und Campe Verlag GmbH Postfach 130573 20105 Hamburg, Germany Phone: +49 40 688 79-137 Fax: +49 40 688 79-199 E-mail: [email protected] Photo Credits Cover: Dominik Gigler; p. 2: Stephanie Füssenich, Getty Images; p. 3: ZF; pp. 4-5: Dominik Gigler, Eva Häberle, ddp Images, Peter Neusser, laif; pp. 6-7: Bildarchiv Werner Otto, ZF; pp. 8-9: Chery, Mercedes-Benz, Tata, Terberg, Kinkisharyo, BMW Group; pp. 10-11: Hagen Schönherr, ZF (3); pp. 12-13: ddp Images; pp. 14-15: Getty Images, VW, Audi, BMW Group; pp. 16-17: ZF, Corbis (2); pp. 18-19: Sascha Bierl, ZF; pp. 20-21: Dominik Gigler; pp. 22-23: Getty Images; pp. 24-25: Corbis (2), Dorhout R&D LLC, Sven Kleinwoerdemann/AMAZONE; pp. 26-27: plainpicture/ Caiaimages, plainpicture/Johner, Bernd Jonkmanns/laif, ZF; pp. 28-37: Dominik Gigler, ZF (1), German Consulate General in São Paulo (1); pp. 38-43: Eva Häberle; pp. 30, 34: istockphoto; pp. 44-49: Peter Neusser; pp. 50-51: Honda, illustrations: ZF; pp. 52-53: private; pp. 54-55: Felix Kästle; pp. 56-57: Sabine Kunzer (3), Felix Kästle, Bernhard Huber (1); p. 58: ZF (3), Steyr; p. 59: Dominik Gigler, ZF Reader Service If you are no longer interested in receiving future issues of drive, you may ask us to stop using your personal data for marketing purposes at any time, with immediate effect. Simply send us a short e-mail at [email protected] or call us on +49 40 688 79-137.

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02.06.14 12:42

WE ARE WITH ZF. STUDENTS AND MOTORSPORTS FANS. We are studying at different universities, but have one thing in common – a passion for Formula Student. This is a student design competition which demands commitment with all your heart. Together, we will design an entire race car from scratch in national and international teams. This is us – Johanna, Meike, and Tobias – ZF’s students at the Cooperative State University. That enables us to experience theory applied to practice as part of this educational concept and makes us benefit from ZF’s optimal support on the Formula Student endeavor. Find out more about us and ZF at: www.im-with-zf.com.

STUDENTS

ZF Friedrichsha

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