Prioritize sustainable material
- Recycled content
- Renewable material
- Lower carbon impact materials
- Avoid substances of concern & critical raw materials
Research & Development
Looking at the Big Picture
The mission statement for our research and development is clearly defined: Clean, safe, comfortable and affordable mobility – for everyone, everywhere. This starts with innovations for cars and commercial vehicles, and extends to technologies for industrial systems, construction machinery, marine propulsion systems and wind energy.
Customers benefit from our ability to think about new products in system landscapes and platforms and to pick up on pioneering trends. Our strength lies in technology transfer across several fields of mobility applications - including digital solutions and new vehicle architecture. This makes our development equally attractive when it comes to high-performance components and their integration into the vehicle environment.
"We are working very intensively on the topics of artificial intelligence, software-defined vehicles and digital twins."
Technology Trends
Central research and development combines ZF's specific know-how in all its technology fields with current megatrends in mobility:
We have long been following these megatrends in practice. ZF is active in cross-company networks that promote the software-defined vehicle (SofDCar) and is driving the trend forward with its own software product, the cubiX chassis control controller. With the high-performance computer ProAI, one of the central computers or domain controllers already ready for series production for robust use in cars comes from ZF. And AI algorithms have played an important role for years when it comes to optimizing our own development or production processes or enhancing our products and services.
Sustainable R&D Makes the Difference
Because sustainability is a central component of our corporate strategy, ZF attaches great importance to anchoring this principle in all areas of the company. Research and development (R&D) plays a key role here.
Within research and development, our goal is to design products which are sustainable and circular. These enable the company to reduce its overall emissions and thus reduce its own Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF). Early in the product development stage, we check the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) and can influence (lower) the PCF. Our engineers follow clear guidelines and give preference to materials with the smallest possible carbon footprint during the development process. Where possible, they use alternative materials with lower emissions such as green steel, recycled aluminum and sustainable polymers. This serves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions along the entire value chain.
ZF designs products in a circular way such that they can ideally be reused as a whole or at least in part after remanufacturing. Remanufacturing our own products is very important to extend the product life cycle to a second or even further use cycle. Extending the product life cycle improves sustainability. Remanufactured products have significantly lower PCF values when compared to their original equivalent products due to reduction of upstream supply chain emissions of raw materials.
Acting sustainably is a top priority for ZF. As more and more customers expect this, sustainability is becoming a competiti
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Optimize resource use
Optimize resource use
- Material efficiency
- Responsible use of water
- Sustainable energy use
Eliminate waste
Eliminate waste
- Circular business models & portfolio
- Partnerships/ ecosystem/ platform
- Skills & mindset
Rethink value creation
Rethink value creation
- Circular business models & portfolio
- Partnerships/ ecosystem/ platform
- Skills & mindset
Figures
R&D Expenditure Remains High
In the fiscal year 2024, ZF invested €3.6 billion (2023: €3.5 billion) in research and development. This corresponds to a sales share of 8.6% (2023: 7.6%).Patent Applications
In the year under review, a total of 2,880 invention disclosures (2023: 3,431) were filed by the Group.The filings led to 1,885 (2023: 2,081) new patent applications.
Invention Disclosures
2880
Filings
Main Development Locations
As a globally active technology group, the company has 20 main development sites in ten countries.
Driving Innovations
We are already successfully putting the four megatrends of artificial intelligence, software-defined vehicle, cloud edge computing and digital twins into practice. In addition, open source is also becoming increasingly important in the automotive sector. Find out more about current projects and developments here.
Download
Annual Report 2024 as PDF
Strengthening our strengths and unlocking our potential – ZF plans to continue developing globally as a high-performing and sustainable company with a portfolio focused on profitable growth. More details as well as facts and figures on the 2024 annual financial statements can be downloaded here as a PDF file.
