Knorr-Bremse has successfully completed the acquisition of fellow German company, tedrive Steering Systems, as first announced in June 2016.
Knorr-Bremse will form a new business unit, the Center of Competence (CoC) Steering, as part of Knorr-Bremse Systems for Commerical Vehicles to be managed by tedrive Steering General Manager, Thomas Brüse (pictured).
“The acquisition of Tedrive Steering Systems GmbH represents another important element in our expansion of our capabilities as a systems supplier in the global commercial vehicle business,” said Dr Peter Laier, Member of the Executive Board of Knorr-Bremse AG responsible for the Commercial Vehicle Systems division.
“The product synergies between our tradition core competence in braking and the additional steering expertise offered by tedrive provide an ideal basis for the next stage of the complex control processes required for driver assist systems and automated driving.
“The addition of steering systems to our portfolio will help us access new markets. It means that, going forward, we will be able to actively influence both longitudinal and lateral vehicle dynamics – in order to keep the truck in lane automatically, for example, or steer it past a hazard.
“This is where tedrive’s iHSA (intelligent Hydraulic Steering Assist) technology plays a decisive part – a hydraulic steering system with electronic actuation, specially developed to meet the demands of automated driving in commercial vehicles.”
The acquisition of tedrive Steering brings some 320 employees across two production plants in Wülfrath, Germany, and at production, sales and technical facilities in Turkey, Russia and the US.