By ATN
The three megatrends of electrification, software-defined vehicles and autonomous driving are creating new opportunities and challenges – especially for chassis technology. In the future, the chassis must be able to connect with its architecture and its environment. ZF’s answer is the Chassis 2.0 concept.
In Chassis 2.0, ZF’s chassis-specific cubiX software ensures that all actuators, such as steering, brakes and dampers, work together perfectly in every driving situation. CubiX effectively networks the actuators with minimal latency, orchestrating all the actuators on the chassis side in parallel.
By-wire technologies play a key role in Chassis 2.0: As the world’s largest supplier of chassis technology, ZF offers, among other things, a comprehensive portfolio of purely electronically controlled steering and braking systems as well as controlled damping systems – and has already secured significant market share in the growing field of by-wire chassis systems. For example, ZF is equipping the ET9 electric flagship of the Chinese manufacturer NIO with the latest generation of its steer-by-wire system. At the beginning of the year, the technology group also announced a major order in the field of brake-by-wire systems and will supply the electromechanical braking technology (EMB) to a leading global vehicle manufacturer for almost five million vehicles.
In Chassis 2.0, an active chassis technology prevents pitching and rolling of the vehicle during steering, acceleration and braking maneuvers. If automated and autonomous driving continues to increase in practice, this suspension feature will become increasingly valuable for all vehicle occupants. The sMOTION active suspension system is based on the well-known ZF CDC (Continuous Damping Control) adaptive damping system with two external valves that independently control the damper’s compression and rebound. The new Porsche Panamera and Taycan models already use parts of ZF’s sMOTION active suspension system to implement the Porsche “Active Ride” air suspension – namely the damper and valve technology of the technology company. sMOTION is also attracting a great deal of interest from Chinese customers.
For more chassis technology news, please click here.
