ZF Friedrichshafen has opened a new plant for automatic passenger car transmissions in the US.
Located in South Carolina, ZF Transmissions Gray Court is a new manufacturing site for the eight-speed automatic transmission, already in use, as well as the world’s first nine-speed unit.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“We are honored to present the US home of the automatic transmission,” said ZF CEO Stefan Sommer at the official plant opening on Friday.
“This is an important step toward bridging the distance to our customers and having an even better opportunity of accessing North America, an important foreign market for us.”
About 1.2m transmissions are expected to be produced at this plant annually; this includes 400,000 eight-speed and 800,000 nine-speed automatic transmissions.
The new plant expands the existing capacities at the Saarbrücken location to produce eight-speed automatic transmissions.
So far, ZF has spent around EUR300m building the new factory which is around 130km north-west of Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. A total spend of EUR450m is planned.
“It is the largest single investment in the almost century-long history of ZF,” said ZF finance and North America region chief Konstantin Sauer.
The 90, 000 sq m – 13 soccer pitches – facility will once again become a construction site at the start of production because of the strong demand for automatic transmissions.
Sommer said: “We will be increasing the existing footprint by almost half.”
By 2016, 130,000 sq m will be available so customers can be adequately served; consequently, the number of employees is expected to increase from 1,200 to 1,650.
“We are very confident,” Sommer continued, “that in addition to our current customers, Land Rover and Chrysler, other automotive manufacturers will join in and benefit from the advantages of our nine-speed automatic transmission.”
The new transmission is specially designed for passenger cars with front-transverse engines. Compared to today’s standard six-speed automatic transmission, it cuts fuel consumption by up to a claimed 16%.
“Since around three quarters of all passenger cars worldwide are fitted with this drive configuration,” said Sommer, “I see great potential for our new product – especially in North America.”
ZF chose South Carolina because numerous automobile manufacturers and suppliers are already located in the area, and the local government provided a number of great opportunities to build a new factory. In addition, Piedmont Technical College established a new facility near ZF to aid in the training of a skilled workforce. Clemson University in the area provides opportunity to recruit future engineers.
New US employees were trained in transmission assembly by experienced, specialized ZF workers from Saarbrücken via a ‘buddy programme’. The employees, trained internally through this programme, now work as ‘multipliers’ in Gray Court and are passing on their knowledge to the subsequently recruited US colleagues.
