ZF Friedrichshafen recently tempered expectations for 2022, saying growth will be "moderate" because of rising inflation, supply chain bottlenecks tied to the war in Ukraine and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the cautious outlook, ZF CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider is confident the world’s third-largest supplier will outperform the overall market based on the early numbers the company sees from Europe, North America and China. He is also bullish about ZF’s ability to become a key supplier to full-electric cars. He explained why in an interview with Automotive News Europe Managing Editor Douglas A. Bolduc.
What is ZF’s outlook when it comes to its transition to electric cars?
ZF, without question, believes the world will be fully electric and for passenger cars it will be battery electric. When will this happen? For ZF, we expect that by 2028 there will be a 50-50 share between the number of combustion-engine only vehicles and vehicles with electrified powertrains sold worldwide. That is two years earlier than we anticipated in 2021. Somewhere at the end of the 2030s, we anticipate we will only be supplying fully electric new vehicles. Since we took the decisions early enough, we are confident we will be a strong partner that can provide components or complete powertrains to electric passenger cars, buses, trucks and delivery vans. Based on our strong order book, not only are we ready for the changeover to electric components, but we think that by the end of the decade we will have a stronger business in the e-mobility area than we ever had in combustion engine-related components.