Friedrichshafen. ZF is demonstrating its extensive systems expertise with the e.Go Mover. The company is supplying its technology to this vehicle as a partner in the newly founded e.GO Moove GmbH joint venture. In addition to other innovations which ZF will show at IAA in Hanover this September, the e.GO Mover is part of an entire digital logistics offer including hardware, software and services. With this. the company is highlighting its strategic orientation.
ZF’s CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider and Dr. Giinther Schuh, founder and CEO of e.GO Mobile AG based in Aachen, have announced that series production will begin in Aachen. The e.Go Moove GmbH joint venture partners manufacture people and cargo movers primarily for the urban mobility needs of the future. Five-digit volumes are initially scheduled for annual production and ZF is expecting that the demand for these vehicles will reach approximately one million in the next five to seven years. The company is equipping the e.Go Mover with electric drive systems, steering systems and brakes as well as ZF’s ProAl central computer (using artificial intelligence) and sensors which enable automated driving functions
“System providers like ZF can especially benefit from the worldwide trend toward automated driving and electromobility,” said ZF CEO WolfHenning Scheider dyuring the ZF Technology Day 2018 in Friedrichshafen. ‘The e.GO Mover is the first production-ready vehicle featuring ZF systems which provides an autonomous mobility concept for cities.”
ZF is presenting further examples for digitally connected technologies using an autonomous, electrically-powered delivery vehicle for package delivery services. With this, the courier neither has to drive nor park the vehicle follows them independently from one home to the next with zero emissions.
A benefit for commercial vehicles
At the IAA Commercial Vehicles show in September this year, ZF will show further use cases for its ZF ProAI supercomputer and broad set of related sensor systems which can help to increase efficiency and save costs throughout the entire logistics chain. ZF’s CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider clearly sees the benefits for commercial vehicles when it comes to introducing autonomous systems. ”Initially, we expect to see automated driving activities more commonplace on company premises and logistics depots, in harbors or in agricultural environments as operations here tend to be more recurrent and the surroundings are not very complex.” The technology is also expected to prevail in freight logistics and passenger transport because it can reduce operating costs and at the same time help to increase safety for all road users. As a supplier for passenger cars, trucks, buses, light commercial vehicles, agricultural applications and construction machinery, ZF is in the optimal position to create synergies between these areas.
