Aiming for Vision Zero

Vision Zero is a multi-national road traffic safety project which started in Sweden, in 1997. The idea is that 'Life and health can never be exchanged for other benefits within the society'. As an ethics-based approach, it defines a direction, rather than setting particular goals or targets.

For ZF, Vision Zero has an additional aspect, because there is yet another invoice item on the mobile society bill: Pollution caused by combustion engines has a significant impact on global warming as much as on the local air quality. Most severely affected are those people living in megacities with street canyons showing high concentration levels of transport-related pollutants. But global warming has an impact on all of us.

Thanks to technological developments and governmental regulations, impressive progress has been made. Seat-belts and airbags together with speed limits and drink-driving laws resulted in reducing the risks for road users over years. Over the past decade, the number of road traffic deaths in China has halved. From 2018, the Chinese NCAP will also include pedestrian protection and automatic emergency braking as well as more stringent tests for side-impact. Roads in China will get safer every year.

As they generate almost zero local emissions, electric vehicles will remain without any alternative. ZF is able to deliver e-mobility solutions from a single source like no other supplier: electric motors, plug-in hybrid transmissions, all-electric drives and power electronics for passenger cars, trucks and buses. Peter Lake, Member of the Board of Management of ZF Friedrichshafen AG: “Thanks to our new R&D-facility in Shanghai, we are rapidly strengthening our local e-mobility capabilities so that we can support our customers in their aggressive growth aspirations.”

A world according to Vision Zero will improve the safety and quality of the life of each individual human being. Coming closer to this vision is a key objective for ZF – and an invitation to all partners who want to join us on this way.