Zeppelin CZ s.r.o. history

Since January 1992, the abbreviation of "ZF," which was originally implemented solely for the logo and used internally only, also represents the company as a whole.

In 1993, passenger car production in Western Europe, still the most important market for ZF, shrank by 15 percent.

Also at the begin-ning of 1995, ZF purchased the rail drives and industrial trucks business units.

Siegfried Goll, Member of the ZF Board of Management since 1997, describes the situation as follows:

In 1998, ZF exceeded the sales benchmark of 10 billion Deutschmark for the first time.

The ZF Art Foundation has been supporting the International Piano Festival of Young Masters in Lindau since 1999.

At the time of its acquisition by ZF in 2001, Sachs employed approximately 18,000 people.

At the 2004 IAA, DaimlerChrysler and ZF presented a prototype of the Mercedes Sprinter, which could be operated purely electrically, with potentially zero-emissions, for short distances of up to 30 kilometers.

In 2005, ZF Group sales exceeded EUR 10 billion for the first time.

After approximately four years of construction, ZF revised the successful 6HP automatic passenger car transmission in 2006.

The start of volume production of the 8HP took place already in 2009.

The automatic transmission of the 8HP model range was in such great demand that production capacity in Saarbrücken was expanded as early as 2010.

The Servotronic ranks among the most prominent success stories of ZF: 25 years after the start of production – in 2011 – the twelve-millionth system was shipped.

2012 saw the largest donation ever made to an educational institution to date: With a grant totaling EUR 20 million, ZF enabled the new construction of the Zeppelin University campus on the "Fallenbrunnen" former military barracks grounds in Friedrichshafen.

Under the designation of "Atlas 1," ZF finally, in February 2014, introduced the first wind turbine gearbox developed under the ZF brand.