At its eMobility Tech Day 2025 today, ZF showed how it is responding to a dynamic, volatile, and technologically challenging market with its most comprehensive product range for electrified drives.

According to company execs, even if it is weakening in Europe, the market for e-mobility is growing globally. The large number of drive configurations required is challenging, and system providers for e-drives must now have a significantly larger portfolio than just a few years ago. In addition, customers are expecting shorter development times, faster innovation cycles, better integration, and optimized costs.

The company’s broader product range is based on its new Select e-drive platform, which enables a variety of system solutions and includes components such as electric motors, inverters, converters, reduction gears, and software. Some of these key systems and components were highlighted in the Lotus Eletre-based EVselect concept vehicle.

“With the Select platform, we are optimally prepared for the complex market requirements of e-mobility,” said Mathias Miedreich, member of the Board of Management and responsible for the Electrified Powertrain Technology Division at ZF. “With this focus, combined with our overall vehicle expertise, we offer customers a technologically leading, broad, and tailor-made product range. Our comprehensive range also includes offering attractive drive solutions for highly efficient combustion engines as well as the entire spectrum of electrified drives and constantly developing them further across all vehicle classes.”

 

Modularization and ‘high integration’

A major milestone in the company’s effort to lead in e-mobility for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles is modularization through the Select e-drive platform, combining the group’s system expertise with decades of experience as a supplier and innovator.

“The pace of innovation in many e-drive components is enormous,” explained Dr. Otmar Scharrer, Senior Vice President R&D, Electrified Powertrain Technology, at ZF. “Our customers want to have the latest technology available quickly, and with limited integration effort. This is exactly where we come in with our Select platform: the overall system and components are perfectly matched to each other – at the same time, the components are interchangeable depending on requirements.”

In the EVselect concept vehicle, pre-series versions of the Select platform’s electric primary and secondary drives provide its rapid propulsion.

The performance of ZF’s Select modular system is enabled by a newly developed e-drive focused on efficiency. An example is the coaxial PSM (permanently excited synchronous machine) primary drive delivering 300 kW and 5500 N·m (4056 lb·ft). At speeds above 100 km/h (62 mph), it reduces losses by more than 25% compared to “an already very efficient series solution.”

In almost all relevant parameters—from installation space to weight and cost—developers achieve better numbers with the Select platform, according to the company. It promises to develop future innovations for e-drives from the Select platform to make them more compatible, easier, and faster to integrate into customer applications. The company is pursuing the “principle of high integration” to merge several hardware and software functions into one system to save space, weight, material, and ultimately costs.

 

Select platform elements

With the Select e-drive platform, ZF says it can offer a dynamic, volatile, and technically highly differentiated market for pure-electric drive technology, an attractive and broadly diversified range with better development times, pace of innovation, and scalability. The concept is based on a range of components and subsystems like e-machines, power electronics, control software, and reduction gears.

The em:Select modular portfolio of e-machines includes proven PSM and ASM (asynchronous machines) to new SESM (separately excited synchronous machines) concepts.

Under-development innovations include an I2SM that, as a separately excited synchronous machine, enables performance comparable to that of a PSM by reducing the installation space and optimizing the rotor design. It does not require magnets, so it eliminates dependence on rare earths. Another under-development technology, a carbon-taped PSM-based rotor concept, allows for reduced magnetic mass to be reduced, lowering weight and complexity compared to a conventional PSM rotor without compromising on peak load and maximum speed.

The modular approach enables the company to adapt electric motors to the needs of customers. In addition to different rotor technologies, it can offer various outer diameters, active lengths, and wire geometries in its stator production system in a standardized global production concept for shorter time-to-market.

ZF offers rd:Select reduction gears in parallel-axis and coaxial designs that are essential for high torque density and efficient energy use when high-speed engine concepts are required. In the coaxial design, which integrates the differential, the company makes use of its planetary gearbox expertise from its automatic transmission experience. A reduction of up to 70 mm (2.8 in) in overall length and mass savings of more than 5 kg (11 lb) can be achieved compared to axially parallel reduction gears.

The company’s in:Select inverter platform is a flexible modular system for 400 to 800 V in the 100-650 A range, with peak efficiency of 99.6%. However, inverters that can handle up to 900 A and take up 30% less installation space are planned for the near future. The discrete design of the power-switching modules allows multi-sourcing when selecting semiconductor suppliers, which reduces the risk of supply bottlenecks, and scaling is possible without replacing software.

The company’s sw:Select software for electric drivelines to be modular to serve customers flexibly, quickly, and cost-effectively. Its software is compatible with standardized safety requirements or software architectures, can be optimized for use in central or zone computers, and is written to optimize CPU load, memory consumption, response time, and communication latencies.

ZF has added a key component to its portfolio in the co:Select converter program, which works across voltage classes and with some functionalities that can be expanded and scaled through hardware or software. The system includes bidirectional charging as well as V2L and V2G (vehicle-to-load and vehicle-to-grid) functionality, making the vehicle’s battery energy available for the power grid and/or external power consumers. The company can integrate these functions in just one housing with DC-DC conversion and for 12- or 48-V onboard power supplies.

 

Hybrid drives and range extenders

As the market for passenger-car electrified drives evolves rapidly and hybrid solutions regain momentum, ZF is seeing the opportunities and “actively expanding” its portfolio to meet the growing demand. At the event, the company presented the 8HP evo, an advanced concept version of its eight-speed automatic transmission for hybrid platforms, and new electric range extender systems to minimize EV range anxiety.

“The market environment for electromobility is characterized by dynamism and change, and will remain so in the long term,” said Miedreich. “These facts require a significantly larger drive portfolio than five years ago.”

The current-generation eight-speed automatic transmission, one of the company’s most successful products, was modularly designed to support conventional combustion engines and hybrid models. The 8HP evo concept significantly improves its electrification and efficiency. Updates to the electric motors and power electronics, including software-side function updates that exploit the updates, are the main contributors.

“The experience gained from our pure e-drive solution has been incorporated into these upgrades to our established benchmark product,” said Scharrer.

In the PHEV (plug-in hybrid EV) configuration, the maximum electrical output increases from 160 to 200 kW and the maximum electrical torque from 500 to 600 N·m (369 to 442 lb·ft). Losses at the input shaft are reduced by around 28%. Depending on the vehicle model and battery installed, up to 10% additional range is possible.

With the 8HP evo, ZF now also has a dedicated solution for vehicles for 400-V HEV platforms that charge the battery via recuperation when braking or while driving with the combustion engine. Compared to previous MHEVs (mild hybrid EVs), they not only support the combustion engine when starting or accelerating but also enable electric driving without having to rely on a charging infrastructure. With this variant, the company is responding to the increased demand, particularly in the U.S. market.

For the many potential buyers of purely electric vehicles still feeling range anxiety, the industry is increasingly turning to combustion engine generators coupled to electric motors to generate energy for the vehicle battery and extend range. According to ZF, this allows drivers to enjoy the benefits of electromobility without having to sacrifice the flexibility of a classic combustion engine or plug-in hybrid vehicle.

The company is working on the next generation of these systems. Its electric Range Extender (eRE) and electric Range Extender plus (eRE+) designs are intended to be flexible in terms of performance, electronics architecture (400 or 800 V), and semiconductor type.

The eRE combines an electric motor as a pure generator with an integrated inverter and a planetary gearbox controlled by its software. The eRE+ adds an intelligent clutch and differential, allowing the electric motor to be used not only as a power generator but also as an additional secondary drive. This enables OEMs to add electric all-wheel drive without installing an additional electric motor.

“This modular platform approach allows us to respond to dynamic market and manufacturer requirements,” commented Scharrer.

According to ZF, range extenders impress with lower additional costs, shorter development times, lower platform costs, and simplified supply chain management. This makes the technology particularly interesting for new OEMs having little experience with traditional combustion powertrains. However, range extenders for established manufacturers also allow for smaller (and more economical) vehicle batteries to be installed and help to comply with emission limits for fleets.

The company is preparing for range-extender production for its first customer project in 2026.

With the hybrid solutions, the company says it is supplementing its purely electric drive technologies to meet market requirements of a slowing transition to e-mobility.

“Our customers can be sure,” concluded Scharrer. “No matter what degree of electrification is desired, ZF makes the right systems for it.”