Hyundai Xcient truck to use ZF’s fifth-gen electronically controlled air suspension 

ZF’s Commercial Vehicle Solutions (CVS) division has announced the series production of the latest, fifth generation of its market leading Electronically Controlled Air Suspension (ECAS) technology OptiRide ECAS for Hyundai Motor Company (HMC). The series production for HMC follows the start of production for one of the leading European commercial vehicle manufacturers in 2024.

Hyundai Motor Company began integrating the system into its buses destined for the Japanese market at the end of last year. The system provides a range of functions including a kneeling functionality to facilitate safer and effortless passenger entry and exit. The system also controls the chassis height on air-suspended axles to increase comfort for drivers and passengers through excellent ride quality. The next application of the new OptiRide ECAS system will be in the Hyundai Xcient truck model.

The system provides air suspension control to lift and lower the chassis for more functions such as efficient loading and unloading for commercial vehicles, as well as load dependent stability control. The solenoid valve and pressure sensors have been consolidated into one smart pneumatic actuator to achieve a significant reduction in the number of components, simplifying the integration into truck and bus design platforms.

Paweł Porczyński, Product Line Leader Chassis Structure for ZF CVS, said: “Our latest generation of OptiRide builds on more than 6.5 million sold units and three decades of engineering expertise in the field of air suspension systems to deliver a highly sophisticated system that provides maximum flexibility for customization while serving even the most complex commercial vehicle applications."

The new generation of ZF's OptiRide ECAS system is composed of several single components including the Smart Pneumatic Actuator, height sensor and remote-control unit.

Produced at ZF’s manufacturing plant in Wroclaw, Poland, it adopts a streamlined system layout enabling the components to be condensed into a compact design, reducing the number of components – in some applications from five to two – as well as the installation efforts for the OEM. This space-efficient approach minimizes wiring and piping while maintaining full functionality and performance.

The system processes data on the ECAS actuator while integrating application software into an existing electronic control unit (ECU) of the vehicle. This split system intelligence eliminates the need for a separate ECU, further simplifying the overall system.