Commercial vehicles: Electrically powered and safer in the future

Preview of the IAA Transportation Commercial vehicles: Electrically powered and safer in the future

2024-07-26 From Alfred Vollmer * | Translated by AI 7 min Reading Time

At its Global Technology Day, ZF provided insights into the innovations the company wants to present at the IAA Transportation. This included electrical drives in tractor units and trailers, driver assistance and safety features, as well as software and a new, fast interface between truck and trailer.

Back in April, the announcement of the PCIM conference keynotes hinted at significant changes coming to commercial vehicles this year. The future of commercial vehicle drives belongs to E-drives with battery technology, emphasized semiconductor expert Prof. Dr. Leo Lorenz at the time, only to then add that the next generation of batteries will likely last up to 1 million kilometers (approx. 621,000 miles). Because the batteries have a long “second life” in stationary applications after their use in commercial vehicles, a battery exchange after one million kilometers is a very realistic scenario. The appropriate drive solutions are necessary for this, and it is exactly those that ZF will present at the IAA Transportation together with various safety and software solutions. “With organic growth of 20 percent in the year 2023, our commercial vehicle division has developed disproportionately strongly compared to the market,” explained Prof. Dr. Peter Laier, Board Member of the Commercial Vehicles division at ZF to the press. Currently, ZF alone has a “lifetime turnover” of around 5 billion Euros (5.43 billion USD) in the books for trucks.

Focus on technology openness

Thus, ZF sees itself as “leading the development of drivetrains for the next generation of electromobility”. The electric construction kit with the central drives CeTrax 2 and CeTrax 2 dual as well as the axles AxTrax 2, AxTrax 2 dual and AxTrax 2 LF offers “everything that commercial vehicle manufacturers need for the production of emission-free electric vehicles”. In addition, the AxTrax 2 electric axle can be integrated into trailers. With this new concept, ZF can transform a conventionally driven truck-trailer combination into a hybrid vehicle. Especially advantageous: The electric trailer increases the range of an electrically driven towing vehicle in combination. The concept saves fuel emissions by up to 16 percent and— when using the plug-in variant—even by up to 40 percent. The AxTrax 2 electric axle drive system enables recuperation and traction support for up to 210 kW (continuous performance) and a maximum of 26,000 Nm torque.

In addition to drive solutions for the full electrification of trucks and buses, ZF also announced the new TraXon 2 Hybrid transmission for heavy commercial vehicles. The company has already reported two OEM orders for this transmission, one of which is based in Asia and the other in Europe. According to Dr. Laier, hybrid technology helps shape the transition to e-mobility and achieve ambitious CO₂ targets. Because the registration figures for fully electric vehicles are currently rising slower than expected for both cars and commercial vehicles, the supplier sees hybrid technology as very interesting, which ZF CEO Dr. Holger Klein describes with the words “Hybrid technology is enjoying a comeback in many markets”, with the company being according to Dr. Klein’s words accordingly technology-open and prepared: “We offer the right approach for every step of the transformation.” The word “technology-open” was used quite often during the press conference on Global Technology Day, and Dr. Holger Klein has the explanation for it: “One of our greatest strengths is our flexibility. For more than 100 years, technology openness has been part of our corporate strategy’s DNA. That is now paying off.” However, the market itself is currently not exactly booming; ZF describes the situation in a statement as follows: “Above all in Europe and the US, demand for electric vehicles is stagnating, leading to price wars in many markets. ZF is prepared for such interim steps or regional differences.”

Safety and software

Thanks to electronics, safety while driving trucks is also increased, with lane changes in particular often being underestimated maneuvers, especially for trucks with trailers. Based on the Highway Assist Lane Change (HALC) research project, ZF has now developed a system whose intelligent functions make lane changes on highways safer. The system uses ZF’s latest braking and steering systems with OnGuardMAX, mBSP XBS, and ReAX. In addition, an additional camera in the driver’s cabin monitors the traffic situation on the side lanes and the driver’s attention. The system also checks whether another vehicle is ahead and regulates the safety distance. For the execution of the lane change, sensors monitor the traffic in the adjacent lane, while on the other hand, the driver must make all necessary control looks, such as mirror checks, before a turn signal can be set for lane changing. If both conditions are checked and fulfilled, the system allows for an automatic lane change. If one or both conditions are not met, the system issues a warning to prevent the maneuver. At the company’s own test site near Hanover, Germany, ZF demonstrated a corresponding test carrier that makes lane changes safer. Supported by radar and cameras, the system monitors traffic in automated driving mode while always keeping an eye on the driver’s attention. Acoustic and visual warnings alert the system to potentially dangerous lane changes or carry them out independently in non-critical situations. This helps the system avoid collisions during truck lane changes. According to ZF, up to twelve percent of all accidents on German roads could be prevented in this way.

And on the subject of safety, the supplier also uses group-wide synergies, as around half of the technologies used come from the passenger car segment, where they are “tried and tested millions of times”. An example of how ZF uses synergies and existing technological know-how across divisions and segments is the market launch of the chassis software cubiX now also in the commercial vehicle sector. As the automation of commercial vehicles increases, electrified and networked technologies for vehicle motion control are becoming increasingly important. More and more car manufacturers are looking for ways to differentiate themselves through functions, less complexity in the development phase, and standardized interfaces, especially in the chassis. This is exactly what cubiX is designed for: This “control software for the chassis optimizes driving behavior with a view to stability, safety, precision and performance”, explains ZF’s commercial vehicle board member Peter Laier: “cubiX has interfaces to the virtual driver systems and the vehicle actuators—regardless of whether they originate from ZF itself—to enable optimal driving dynamics.” Originally developed for passenger cars and already successful in series there, the company is expanding the cubiX portfolio towards commercial and special vehicles. “ZF is thus entering the market with a uniform and comprehensive solution for controlling the chassis and drive—across all vehicle classes,” adds Holger Klein.

Another new system from the Friedrichshafen-based group uses sensors and a cloud-based database to calculate information on the road surface and the available traction. The measurement of the surface grip values optimizes the performance of safety systems such as the Autonomous Emergency Braking System (AEBS), the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), ABS, and ESC/ESP. The system is also capable of exchanging information between vehicles to warn following vehicles of dangerous situations. In addition, a novel truck-trailer connection allows fast data transmission (including video data) in real-time between the towing vehicle and the trailer. Functional safety is also part of the new development, as the truck-trailer link allows multiple side and rearview cameras on the trailer to be connected. They then give the driver the ability to detect blind spots around the trailer. The system also supports a backup aid with an automatic braking function.

(Vehicle) once different—Just Next Mobility

On the sidelines of its technology day, ZF also previewed CentriX, a 2.5 kg lightweight drive for bicycles, which with its 90 Nm of torque at a maximum of 600 W demonstrated not only its enormous power but also its extremely pleasant parameterization in various support modes on a short personal test ride in an e-bike prototype. The drive is available in two versions (also with 75 Nm at a maximum of 450 W) as a complete system including drive control and batteries with a capacity of 504 or 756 Wh.

The author, a bio-biker, was also thrilled by the smoothness when the e-drive was switched off. Personal conclusion: If this drive proves its longevity, then ZF has the chance with this solution to shine as a new star in the market for pedelecs and e-bikes. Even with people like the author, who always want to pedal intensively and as close to 100 percent as possible, but in certain situations (in a suit to the appointment, at 30 °C to the subway etc.) and on steep inclines would also occasionally take advantage of electric drive support as an additional boost, this system can excite and thus perhaps open up a completely new market. In classic pedelec mode, CentriX is probably the ultimate anyway. It will not be long before the new system, which with a mounting size of 88 mm diameter and 118 mm width is only unequally larger than a 0.33-l beverage can, is also used in mini-commercial vehicles like e.g. for parcel delivery in city centers—and with that the circle to the topic of commercial vehicles is closed. (se)

*Alfred Vollmer is a freelance journalist with ‘NextMobility’.

This article was first published on our sister brand ‘NextMobility’ (German Edition), Vogel Communications Group