Huf history: automotive supplier for more than a century

Whether it's a spectacular sports car, a practical everyday car or a versatile family van: Many iconic car models have components from Huf on board – from door handles to keys and lettering emblems to complete lock sets. VW Beetle, Opel "Laubfrosch" and Manta, Ford 12M, 15M and 20M, BMW Isetta and BMW 205/502, the legendary "Ponton" Mercedes of the W120 series, Mercedes SL, BMW Z8, ... – the list of legends on wheels using Huf know-how is long.

Automotive supplier Huf: Success story started with keys and locks for furniture

Now as then, the automotive supplier Huf is setting trends in the automotive industry as an innovation driver and offers its customers products increasing comfort and security, with high theft protection, very good durability and individual design. This is evident, for example, in modern access solutions such as remote keys, Phone as a Key and the new Light Touch Emblem, flush door handles, electronic steering column locks or the smart car key of the future featuring UWB, BLE and NFC. 

There are two things at the top of any enthusiastic driver’s wish list: get in and set off. Not many people know that Huf has been involved in shaping that special moment of getting into the car for a century. In 1920, Huf employed its locking systems for cars for the first time, opening the door to a successful future in the automotive industry. Over the next more than 100 years, the locks and fittings factory in Velbert, a city at the edge of the German Ruhr region, evolved into a globally positioned company with more than 7,000 employees.

Today, Huf supplies almost all automotive manufacturers worldwide and is the leading specialist for secure car access and authorization. The way to success: always focusing on customers and their needs while playing a key role in shaping the market for secure car access and authorization systems.

On June 17, 1908, Ernst Hülsbeck and August Fürst founded Hülsbeck & Fürst GmbH and moved into a 200-square-meter workshop in the center of Velbert. Here, the small company made locks and keys for the furniture industry – from huge wall closets to sophisticated glass cabinets. Huf quickly established a reputation as a reliable supplier of high-quality products and rapidly developed a sound customer base. In 1911, the company moved into the first factory of its own with 25 employees. A 450-square-meter new building provided capacity for further orders in the spring of 1920. However, these orders no longer came from the furniture industry alone.

Huf is in the middle of the rise of the automobile

Ernst Hülsbeck and August Fürst identified the need for secure locks for the automobile as an up-and-coming means of transportation. It was a logical step to offer them to the inventor of the automobile directly: In 1920, Mercedes was looking for a luxurious lock that would satisfy the demanding customers for its high-end vehicles built by hand in small series production. Huf met the requirements with a high-quality lock that impressed with its great reliability, thus laying the foundation for a fruitful cooperation with Mercedes that has lasted for more than 100 years now.

In the early 1920s, Huf was still able to fulfill the orders for Mercedes with the same machines that were also used to make locks for furniture. But demand soon started to increase. When Henry Ford invented the assembly line, he made cars affordable to broader social classes. Other manufacturers followed quickly. Opel was the first German manufacturer to take up the example set by the Americans: The Opel 4 PS, affectionately called “tree frog” because of its green paintwork, was the first German car to roll off an assembly line in 1924, presenting suppliers with the challenge of processing large orders in a short space of time.

Huf supplied all Ford models in Germany from 1931 onwards

Huf applied its experience in the furniture industry, which the company had been supplying with large volumes since its foundation. Huf soon made a name for itself as a reliable partner and accompanied the rapidly progressing motorization of the country. In 1931, the Ford Motor Company opened up its first European plant in the Niehl district of Cologne and commissioned Huf to develop new products.

From then on, Huf provided not only locking systems for all Ford models, but also made lettering, emblems, and trim strips for all of the brand’s German models. As a lock specialist, Huf also supplied the Volkswagen plant, founded in 1938, and thus became the leading supplier in this area in the 1930s. The Second World War brought this development to a sudden end. Huf was forced to convert its production to war materials.

The millionth VW Beetle fitted with door handles from Huf

In spite of the dismantling by the victorious countries, Huf quickly got back on track after the Second World War and supplied almost all locking systems, door handles and fittings to Volkswagen, Ford, Daimler-Benz, and Opel. In 1955, the millionth VW Beetle rolled off the line. Like the Beetles before, this anniversary car was also equipped with door handles from Huf. A true highlight in the Huf history. Huf also supplied other iconic vehicles of the 1950s, such as the BMW Isetta and the luxurious BMW 205/502, the first of the brand’s vehicles to cause a sensation with its powerful eight-cylinder engine.

Daimler-Benz also continued to rely on quality products from Huf. One example is the famous Mercedes 180 D (W 120): The sedan was the brand’s first high volume car model with a unibody construction and diesel engine. As a taxi, this model would become a familiar sight on the streets in post-war Germany just like the Beetle. For decades, almost every taxi driver had a Huf key in the pocket and pulled on a Huf handle to open the door to the passenger compartment for the guests.

Huf is setting the general standard with the "steering-ignition-starter lock”

On the occasion of the company’s 50th anniversary in 1958, Huf produced 200,000 door handles and over 100,000 locking systems each per month, having become the leading provider of vehicle access systems. Over the previous 50 years, Huf had set numerous standards for vehicle access and played an active part in shaping its development and would continue to do so in the future.

Under the German Road Traffic Regulations, a new law took effect on January 1, 1962: All cars that were built as from this date had to be equipped with a new anti-theft device, which was known as the steering-ignition-starter lock (steering column lock). Huf had already pioneered this combination and launched it two years earlier, and played an active part in shaping its further development. Huf had introduced the “block steering”, “prevent ignition,” and “switch starter on/off” functions, thus setting the general standard.

Solid constant in the history of Huf: colorful product variety for individual customer requests

Bell-bottoms, mini-skirts, and loud colors – it was not only the young who abandoned the etiquette of the previous generation in the 1960s. One of the trend setters of this era was the Opel Manta, which Huf supplied with fittings such as the “Opel lightning bolt” and the model logo. What was special about these add-on parts was that they were among the first chromium-plated plastic parts on a vehicle.

Huf had impressed its customers with high-quality metal fitting parts with a durable high-gloss chrome finish since the 1930s. At the end of the 1960s, manufacturers wanted to reduce costs and demanded cheaper plastic parts that were still to impress customers with their sparkling chrome luster. Thanks to its many years of experience, Huf met this challenge and remained the first port of call for the manufacturers. By 1975, Huf was already receiving so many customer requests for chromium-plated plastic parts that the company commissioned separate equipment for pre-treating plastic – another milestone in Huf-history.

In terms of the emblems, things got very colorful. Manufacturers offered their vehicles in different color variants. Door handles painted the same color as the car were in high demand from the 1980s. Huf made a start for Mercedes, at first with a manually painted large grip plate. In 1986, Opel followed this trend with the new Omega. The automotive manufacturer from Rüsselsheim commissioned Huf to paint the door handles in 19 different color variants. In order to deliver the customary high level of quality even with large unit figures, Huf established the first automated paint shop of its own in 1985 and laid the foundation for the company’s outstanding painting expertise. Today, Huf is the leading automotive supplier of painted door handles and operates highly-automated painting lines at its global sites.

Patented security key: Huf revolutionizes secure car access

As well as continuously expanding its manufacturing expertise, Huf has constantly set milestones with regard to safety and functionality throughout its history. In the mid-1970s, Huf introduced the new double-groove key, revolutionizing protection against theft. Instead of the conventional key bit, keys with a double-groove system featured grooves that were milled into the flat sides of the key blank. These two grooves were thus laterally reversed, making it impossible to simply place a key blank on top and file a copy, as was done with conventional key bits.

The new locking cylinder further increased the level of protection against theft: With the double-groove system, the number of guards lockings, i.e. the little pins that are inserted into the notches on the key, also had to be increased. This increased the number of locking variants to millions, making it virtually impossible to make a copy of the key.

Daimler-Benz AG was the first customer to buy this new safety key, on which Huf held a patent, and also used other Huf innovations to secure the valuable vehicles, such as the first locking cylinder with a free-wheeling mechanism that, if unauthorized persons exerted force, calmly rotated without allowing access.

Better safe than sorry: the clever infrared key for the Mercedes SL comes from automotive supplier Huf

Huf introduced a particularly trend-setting innovation in 1989: The Mercedes SL (R 129) was the first of the brand’s models that could be opened with a remote control by pressing a button on the car key. Huf was ahead of the competition even then, and presented Mercedes the safest model on the market with the infrared key. While the key signals of competitors’ products could be intercepted with the simplest means and used to open the car, Huf had developed a system that changed the signals every time the key was actuated.

Since the 1990s, the magic word for this feature has been “mechatronics”. The combination of precision mechanics and electronics has changed the way that passengers open and get into a car. The new electronics provided the possibility to connect different vehicle components. Huf took on a leading role in advancing this development. Soon, side doors, trunk lids, as well as side windows and sliding sun roofs could be opened and closed remotely.

Automotive innovations from Huf: electronic car door handle, passive entry and Phone as a Key

Further innovations followed, for example the electronic car door handle that detected the key within a certain radius around the vehicle and unlocked the doors automatically. Another new development from Huf: Thanks to a transponder integrated into the car key, the electronic solution detected the car key inside the vehicle, making it possible to start the vehicle just by pressing the engine start button next to the steering wheel.

At the turn of the century, Huf set new standards for entering the vehicle in a comfortable and safe way and for starting the engine. Drivers benefited from the mechatronics in the key fob that operated unnotedly further systems in the background. Huf named this array of functions Passive Entry and Passive Start, or PEPS for short. Car buyers came to know and appreciate the enormous added value of this system under illustrious product names like Keyless-Go (Mercedes) and Comfort Access (BMW).

What started in the luxury class at the beginning of the century, can now be found to varying degrees in every compact car. Whether it is a luxury limousine or a sporty little city car, it comes down to the interaction between mechanical and electronic solutions that ensure that the vehicle is protected even more reliably against burglary and theft while the level of comfort is increased.

Secure access and protection combined with an attractive haptics and great functionality: that is what Huf has provided to car manufacturers for more than 100 years. Today, Huf is the global market leader for exterior car door handles and lock sets and offers integrated car access and authorization systems.

What started back in 1920 with a high-quality mechanical car lock, is today being continued by Huf in the digital world. The UWB-based Phone as a Key solutions from Huf allow that car access and authorization can be digitally assigned and vehicle functions can be controlled conveniently via smartphone. The multiple benefits of Phone as a Key have also convinced a well-known European car manufacturer: It will equip the models of its global brands with the digital key system from Huf from 2025 onwards. This makes Huf one of the first suppliers to go into series production with a UWB-based Phone as a Key.

With a spirit of innovation and advanced technical know-how, Huf consistently sets new standards in secure car access and authorization systems. Latest examples: The clever Smart Emergency Access system and the patented Light Touch Emblem.

Digitalization, e-mobility, and autonomous driving: Huf is also accompanying the automotive industry in the latest trends, by providing innovative systems for secure and comfortable car access. The automotive supplier has stayed true to this maxim for more than 100 years.