ZKW receives Lighting Star Award

ZKW receives Lighting Star Award

The Wieselburg company was awarded the “Lighting Star Award” for “Best front lighting design” in Munich by the industry association DVN (Driving Vision News). The award recognizes the innovative front lighting design that ZKW developed for the animated “Thorhammer” LED headlights on the Volvo EX90. When switching to high beam, the daytime running lights split up and down, revealing the main headlight. “We are particularly pleased about the award, which rewards the elaborate development of this unique, brand-typical front lighting,” explains Wilhelm Steger, CEO of the ZKW Group.

As a community of industry experts, DVN organizes regular workshops and serves as a platform for its members from the automotive industry to exchange information. The DVN Award ceremony, at which ZKW was honored, was the highlight of the first DVN workshop in 2024. Among the numerous specialist lectures, Udo Hornfeck, CTO of the ZKW Group, spoke about “Design and lighting in the Volvo EX90”. At the CEO talk on the topic of “The changing automotive industry”, ZKW CEO Wilhelm Steger discussed strategies for the future, sustainability, software defined vehicles, artificial intelligence and much more with well-known representatives of other automotive suppliers. Gerald Böhm, GSM Advanced Technology and Technology Relationship Management ZKW Group, provided exciting insights into the future of vehicle lighting in his contribution to the topic “Display – Technical Possibilities and Outlook”.

For the award-winning headlights of the Volvo EX90, ZKW uses a digital segment light module that combines matrix high beam and low beam. The system combines daytime running lights, position lights and indicators in the particularly compact form of the striking “Thorhammer” design. The innovative kinematics enable the daytime running lights to “wink”: When the vehicle is unlocked, the individual headlight elements flash one after the other before opening and releasing the high beam with a blinking effect. The smart headlight was developed at the ZKW site in Wieselburg and is manufactured at ZKW in Silao/Mexico and Dalian/China. “Our development department was able to meet the brand’s high design standards with a lot of commitment,” says Steger.