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8 FROM THE TOP » WILSON BRICIO, ZF September 2018 | AutoData Z F celebrates its 60th anniver- sary in Brazil: on August 15, 1958, the company began the construction of its first factory outside Germany, in São Caetano do Sul, in the ABCD region in São Paulo. The first Brazilian product was the DKW’s transmission as- sembled by Vemag. Soon after, ZF do Brasil ex- panded operations to commer- cial vehicles, producing transmis- sions and directions. The factory was small and in 1981 the Sorocaba unit was born in the countryside of São Paulo, which received 100% of the production in 1997. Today, ZF is keeping an eye on the electric powertrain supply, in Brazil by the way, asWilson Bricio, president of the company for South America and 17 years at ZF, reveals in this exclusive interview. He criticized the incentive poli- cies and does not see ethanol as a good option for Brazil: he believes that the electric vehicles will arrive in one way or another and Brazil needs to get ready for it. Read the main excerpts from the interview. Interviewed by André Barros and Leandro Alves From the DKW to electric vehicles expatriates came from there to Brazil and then Brazilians went from Brazil to there. Brazil had a very strategic relevance for the company. It is a very rich story and that continues: we recently have received the great news that Brazil will be one of the global centers for the development of agricultural engineering products. What has changed in ZF’s operation in SouthAmericawith theTRWacquisition? It was an extremely complementary ini- tiative. The only area where there was some conflict was in directions, and we created a spin-off for this operation. Everything else came to complement, such as electronic products, air bags, brakes and aftermarket. The great chal- lenge is to unify two cultures, American and German, to a third culture, the Bra- zilian culture. Everything happened in record time, in the first year we already had almost 80% of the integrated ope- rations, wewere the first to integrate the aftermarket area, then purchases, little ZF is celebrating 60 years in Brazil.What is the secret for an auto parts manufac- turer to achieve such longevity in Brazil? It is a demonstration of persistence, belie- ving that we have potential in Brazil, and also competence: without these things, it is not possible to survive here. ZF lear- ned to knowBrazil, its necessities, how to do things in the country, how to manage business. We have been through a few scares, even in recent years, but we have learned howto dealwith these things and in addition to bringing a lot of technolo- gy, we have trained and exported many professionals. There is no Silicon Valley that covers the management class that you havewhenyouwork in an automotive industrycompany in Brazil. Todaywe have Brazilian engineersworking in operations in China and in the United States. This was the first ZF unit outside Ger- many... Yes, and that’swhere the companybegan its internationalization learning, the first