Reinforcement for Autonomous Driving and E-Mobility

ZF Friedrichshafen acquires 35 percent of the shares of the development service provider ASAP in order to obtain further resources for the expansion of its own activities in the fields of autonomous driving and electric mobility.

The automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG acquires 35 percent of the shares in ASAP Holding GmbH in Gaimersheim near Ingolstadt. The development service provider ASAP employs more than 1100 people at eleven locations and offers engineering services with a focus on e-mobility, autonomous driving, and networking.
»As an established development partner, the ASAP Group has extensive know-how in the areas of autonomous driving, e-mobility, networking, and vehicle software,« explains Torsten Gollewski, Managing Director of Zukunft Ventures GmbH and Head of Advanced Development for the ZF Group. »With this involvement, we gain access to the human resources of an outstanding engineering service provider with extensive industry experience and special expertise in testing and validation. Together with its employees, we are looking forward to developing future-oriented mobility solutions and bringing them to series production readiness.«
Michael Neisen, CEO of the ASAP Group, comments on ZF's entry: »Autonomous driving and e-mobility are the dominant trends in the automotive industry to which we have devoted intensive attention in recent years. With ZF Friedrichshafen AG, one of the world's largest automotive suppliers, we have a partner at our side with whom we will further advance these future-oriented technologies.«
By establishing strategic partnerships and equity interests - bundled under the umbrella of Zukunft Ventures GmbH - ZF has significantly expanded its development capacities in the area of autonomous driving in recent years.
The investment also follows ZF's strategy of significantly strengthening the Group's electromobility and autonomous driving divisions and expanding them to include software and validation. ZF CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider recently announced at the IAA Commercial Vehicles trade show that ZF will invest around twelve billion euros in these two areas alone over the next five years. Both partners have agreed not to disclose the price of ZF's 35 percent stake in ASAP.