ZF Promises to Spend more Money on Production of Electrified Transmissions
The German company ZF will invest 800 million euros ($911 million) to upgrade its transmission manufacturing facility in Saarbruecken, Germany, to produce units for electrified drivetrains.
ZF Plant in Saarbruecken, Germany
The investment will help to launch the production of sophisticated electrified gearboxes. According to ZF representatives, it is expected that there will be tenfold enhancement of the share of hybrid products in production, from 5 % to 50 % over the next decade. The money allocated for the plant at Saarbruecken is part of a three-billion-euro investment to make ZF's transmission segment ready for electrification, including the process of manufacturing, infrastructure and the company's supplier chain.
According to ZF officials, hybrid technologies
gain more and more popularity in the automobile industry, which opens the door
to environment-friendly E-mobility. Numerous studies say that pure E-mobility
will grow fast.
ZF Saarbruecken at work
But, on the other hand, the rapid process of
hybridization may lead to the risk of job losses among the workers at the ZF
plant in Saarbrucken. However, ZF representatives assured that the company
takes adequate measures to ensure that the plant workers will have enough
expertise and skills to successfully meet new requirements of the employer. Moreover,
the transition process will take several years; therefore ZF workers will have
enough time to undergo a thorough training to stay competitive and efficient.
It is known that the process of training will include IoT projects and the use
of artificial intelligence.
ZF ranks No. 5 on the Automotive News Europe list of the top 100 global suppliers with their worldwide sales to automakers in 2017 amounting to $34.48 billion.
