ZF Friedrichshafen AG Expands China, Asia-Pacific Headquarters

July 29, 2014

Mary Chuff

ZF Friedrichshafen's plans for expansion include adding space for 900 employees and the addition of more laboratories and test benches. The building will be completed in 2015.

ZF Friedrichshafen AG recently announced the expansion of its headquarters for China and Asia-Pacific, located in Shanghai. The company will expand its space for offices, laboratories, and test benches to 54,000 m² (581,000 ft²), an increase from the current 11,000 m² (118,000 ft²). The expansion will make room for 900 new employees; currently, 400 employees work at the Shanghai location. Construction began last week and will be completed at the end of 2015. ZF plans to invest approximately €50 million (more than US $67 million) in this project over the next five years. The expansion will also create more room for laboratories and test benches. The new space will allow for testing products of car driveline and chassis technology and commercial vehicle or construction machinery transmissions, according to Stefan Sommer, ZF’s CEO. Engineers from all divisions in the group will be united in the same building, which will facilitate networks and enable engineers to exchange knowledge to adapt products to the Asian market. The expansion project also includes a test facility for the new nine-speed automatic transmission. As of 2017, the new transmission will be produced in China.