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In 1915, ZF embarked on its journey with the establishment of its first production facility in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Initially, the company manufactured gears for Zeppelins and similar airships.

It was in 1919, after the Treaty of Versailles, that ZF began manufacturing parts for the automotive market, thereby putting it on the map.

Over the following years, the company achieved several significant milestones. In 1920, ZF filed a patent application for the Soden six-speed transmission. In 1932, it started producing steering systems, while in 1953, it launched a fully synchronized transmission for commercial vehicles.

By the 1960s, ZF was supplying high-quality transmissions to renowned German automakers such as BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche, as well as French Peugeot and Italian Alfa Romeo.

As time passed, ZF continued to introduce new products and innovations that strengthened the company. In the 1970s, it established new factories worldwide, including in India and South Korea. In the 1980s, ZF began operating in Asia.

In 1986, it started producing transmissions for pickup trucks in the US, becoming one of the largest suppliers for Ford.

After the introduction of the first 6-speed automatic transmission in 1999, ZF continued to achieve milestone after milestone, including the production of 10 million airbag casings and 10 million automatic transmissions for passenger cars. It also developed the world's first 8-speed automatic transmission and the most efficient and technologically advanced 9-speed automatic transmission used in a production vehicle.

Today, ZF is known for its high-quality products in the automotive industry, as well as in industrial applications. While the company is best known for its manual and automatic transmissions for both passenger and commercial vehicles, it also manufactures chassis components, suspension struts, shock absorbers, electronic damping systems, clutches, torque converters, differentials, industrial drives, and many other products.

BMW has relied on ZF as a tier one supplier of BMW parts for decades.