ZF, a global technology company and supplier of systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and industrial technology, announced on Feb. 4 a $200 million investment over the next three years at the company’s Gray Court, South Carolina, facility.
The investment is expected to generate 500 new jobs.
“ZF is a 106-year-old technology leader that has been in the U.S. for many decades, and this investment in U.S. manufacturing of sustainable driveline technology further proves our commitment to the North American commercial vehicle market,” said Martin Fischer, ZF’s North America president and a member of the company’s board of management. “Together now with WABCO, ZF offers customers around the world an unrivaled product portfolio that includes driveline, steering, braking, ADAS technologies and telematics, coupled with a full-service network.”
ZF plans to use the investment to create a new production line to allow the company’s Gray Court facility to begin producing the ZF Powerline eight-speed automatic transmission, which is designed for buses, heavy-duty pickup trucks and medium-duty commercial vehicle trucks, in 2023.
The company began producing its PowerLine eight-speed automatic transmission at its global headquarters in Friedrichshafen, Germany, at the end of 2020 and made its first supply to North American customers in 2021.
Since opening its South Carolina operations in 2012, the facility has produced 5.5 million automatic transmissions. The 1,687,000-square-foot facility currently employs 2,200 people with capacity to produce 1.2 million transmissions per year.
