ZF Expands Commercial Vehicle Test Track

With an investment of around €18 million, ZF’s Commercial Vehicle Control Systems division has expanded its commercial vehicle testing capability for trucks and buses at the Erich Reinecke test track in Jeversen, Germany.

The test track has a new 3.6-km oval circuit which incorporates a mix of curves and straight sections to replicate a wide range of road conditions to simulate real-life highway driving conditions. The circuit will support the development of advanced technologies including lane departure systems, traffic jam assistants and highway pilots up to autonomous driving.

The extended facility also includes a new 1000-m² project and customer center as well as two additional truck halls.

Leveraging ZF’s recent acquisition of Wabco, the expanded facility will play an even greater role in the testing and development of new solutions and technologies to help drive the commercial vehicle industry’s vision of an autonomous, connected and electric future.

“This unique test track consolidates ZF’s position as a global technology leader and offers exactly those extensive dynamic test possibilities which are necessary to fully exploit the growth opportunities for our company in the commercial vehicle segment,” said Wilhelm Rehm, member of the Board of Management of ZF Friedrichshafen AG with responsibility for Commercial Vehicle Technology, Industrial Technology, Materials Management.

The test track is named after Erich Reinecke, a former Wabco vice president of Group Engineering, who died in 2008. During his career, Reinecke played a major role in the development and market launch of a multitude of electronic control systems for commercial vehicles.