ZF Continues to Expand Steering System Capacity in China

Those in attendance at the ceremony included Han Wei, Secretary of the Zhangjiagang Municipal Party Committee, Chang Zheng, Member of the Standing Committee of the Zhangjiagang Municipal Party Committee, Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Management Committee of the Economic and Technological Development Zone, Jiang Peng, Member of the Standing Committee of the Zhangjiagang Municipal Party Committee and Executive Deputy Mayor of Zhangjiagang Municipality, Zhao Yu, Deputy Mayor of the Zhangjiagang Municipal Government, and ZF executive management, including Renee Wang, Executive Vice President, President of China & Operations Asia Pacific, ZF Group, Ben Roos, Senior Vice President of Chassis Solutions ZF Asia Pacific, Tigger Xu, Senior Vice President of Sales and Customer Development of ZF Asia Pacific, as well as Ken Wang, Vice President of Steering Product Line, Asia Pacific, ZF Group.

“The signing of this agreement demonstrates our firm confidence in the long-term development of the Asia Pacific market and commitment to continuous investment. The passion and dedication of local Chinese customers for new technologies greatly inspire us to strive for launching new products first in China. We will further enhance our local responsiveness to meet customer needs more agilely and efficiently, injecting strong momentum into the intelligence and electrification, and high-quality development of China's automotive industry,” said Renee Wang, Executive Vice President, President of China & Operations Asia Pacific, ZF Group. “As a global leader in chassis technology, ZF is always committed to driving development through innovation. Relying on systematic solutions with deep integration of hardware and software, we aim to achieve mutual empowerment with our partners, create a more competitive product portfolio, and promote industry transformation and upgrading. Such initiatives will also provide shared experience for the mass production of new products in other regions of ZF, including Europe.”

“Since ZF established its presence in Zhangjiagang in 2014, its continuous expansion and increased investments fully reflect ZF’s high recognition of Zhangjiagang’s business environment and also highlight Zhangjiagang’s important role in ZF’s global strategy. We believe that the SOP and the launch of new products will provide strong backing for ZF to expand its business and advance into a new phase of ‘led by China’,” said Han Wei, Secretary of the Zhangjiagang Municipal Party Committee. “It will also inject robust momentum into Zhangjiagang’s efforts to accelerate the development of a new energy vehicle and auto parts industrial cluster with an output value of hundreds of billions of yuan. The Zhangjiagang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government will continue to create a first-class business environment, fully serve as a steadfast supporter for enterprise development. We will join hands with ZF to jointly write a new chapter of Zhangjiagang.”

According to the agreement, ZF will utilize an existing plant space approximately 6,900 square meters to increase the annual production capacity of AKC products from 400,000 to 600,000 sets, and that of SbW systems from the current level to 380,000 sets. The SbW project is scheduled to achieve official SOP in the first quarter of 2026. Previously, ZF’s second-generation localized AKC was officially put into mass production at the Zhangjiagang campus in July 2024, and is currently providing supporting services to numerous domestic vehicle manufacturers.

Following the signing ceremony, Zhangjiagang campus unveiled its three new intelligent chassis systems, including integrated brake control system, rear-wheel steering system, and steer-by-wire system.

Amid the trend of “software-defined vehicles”, ZF’s SbW technology achieved SOP at its Zhangjiagang campus in the first quarter of 2025, paving the way for Level 3 and above autonomous driving. This technology has been applied to NIO ET9. Through cooperation with Mercedes-Benz, SbW technology has entered the European market.

ZF’s steer-by-wire technology achieves a revolutionary "soft decoupling" between the steering wheel and the wheels by completely replacing the traditional mechanical connection with electronic signals. This offers groundbreaking advantages: it provides unprecedented flexibility for vehicle design, freeing up cabin space and enhancing crash safety. Furthermore, through freely programmable steering feel and gear ratios, it can seamlessly adapt to various driving modes — from comfort to sporty. As a key cornerstone for enabling high-level autonomous driving, it provides core support for the precise, rapid, and intelligent execution of steering commands, ultimately significantly improving the vehicle’s dynamic performance, safety levels, and personalized experience.

AKC is widely used in mainstream premium vehicle models worldwide. In line with the technology innovation, the megatrends of electrification and consumers' pursuit of driving experience with new energy vehicles, ZF AKC has also been successively applied to the vehicle models of Chinese and international new energy brands such as SAIC MOTOR IM and Dongfeng M-Hero 917 and 817. According to different scenarios and working conditions, the second generation AKC can achieve a unilateral steering angle output of up to +/-12 degrees, and provide larger steering angles according to customer needs, significantly improving the dynamic performance of the vehicle chassis. Integrated with other chassis hardware and software technologies, it can effectively reduce the turning radius, greatly improve maneuverability and stability. This system also enables innovative and practical features, such as “crab walking” in narrow spaces and parallel parking. Up to now, the cumulative global sales volume of ZF’s AKC are expected to exceed 2.4 million sets.

As a global “lighthouse factory” and the largest production base of ZF Group in the Asia-Pacific region, Zhangjiagang campus has a total investment of 2.7 billion RMB. Since its establishment in March 2014, it has successively built four plants specializing in braking, passive safety, electronic steering, and chassis components, gathering ZF’s cutting-edge technologies in multiple fields, including AKC, SbW, IBC, DP-EPS, and lightweight and intelligent chassis systems, passive safety systems. Recently, First Injection Plastic Assembly stabilizer link achieved SOP in Zhangjiagang CC Plant. With its lightweight innovative design and advanced manufacturing, it provides a new solution for the upgrading of new energy vehicle chassis components.

Ahead of the ceremony, ZF and Zhangjiagang Economic and Technological Development Zone co-hosted a sharing session themed “Partner with ZF, Advance with Zhangjiagang”, focusing on cooperation opportunities in the new-energy vehicle industry. Around 550 representatives and 30 group executives from 220 ZF suppliers attended the event.

During the session, Bian Chunsheng, Member of the Working Committee and Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee of Zhangjiagang Economic and Technological Development Zone, delivered a presentation on the new-energy vehicle industry. Speaking to all ZF business units and 28 of its strategic suppliers, he offered a holistic overview of Zhangjiagang’s all-round support for the NEV sector. The aim was to facilitate in-depth collaboration between the Development Zone, ZF and its suppliers to strengthen the industrial chain and achieve mutual success.

On the same day, ZF’s Asia-Pacific Supplier Conference was also held in Zhangjiagang. Matthias Lang, Senior Vice President of Global Non-Production Material Procurement, and Vice President Material Management Asia-Pacific, ZF Group, engaged in in-depth communication with attending suppliers and partners.