American Axle and Manufacturing, Inc. (AAM) in Detroit and Drexler Automotive GmbH today announced an agreement to bring high-performance differentials and differential technologies from the premium market to the general market of passenger cars, light trucks, crossovers, and SUVS.
The expanded relationship between AAM and Drexler immediately integrates Electro-Mechanical limited slip differentials (eLSDs) into the AAM TracRite family of differential products.
The systems greatly improve vehicle handling and traction for all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive vehicles. The system, used extensively in high-performance vehicles from OEMs, provides active torque control of the wheels by translating vehicle torque requests into accurate axle torque response.
“AAM and Drexler are partnering to offer the market mature differential technology that will allow the general driver new levels of excitement by taking handling and traction to new levels of performance,” says Alberto Satine, president of AAM Driveline. “Combining AAM and Drexler’s design, engineering, and manufacturing expertise will provide our customers with the highest-quality, most-advanced driveline systems.”
The system’s power-dense, four-pinion differential design supports axle modularity with open and eLSD differentials in the smallest packaging space. Additionally, the scalable clutch, actuation, and differential design of the technology drives a wide range of applications and vehicle segments.
“AAM’s global scale and high-volume manufacturing capability make the company the perfect partner for Drexler,” says Herbert Drexler, founder of Drexler Automotive. “We look forward to engineering and developing differentials that meet the needs of our global OEM customers.”
TracRite Electro-Mechanical eLSD will go into production later this year.
American Axle is a leader in design, engineering, validation, and manufacturing of driveline, metal forming, powertrain, and casting technologies for automotive, commercial, and industrial markets. The company has more than 25,000 employees operating at more than 90 facilities in 17 countries
