What Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems makes

Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems designs, develops, and supplies braking and active-safety systems for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, tractors, trailers, buses, and other commercial vehicles across North America, all under the Bendix brand. The product line spans four families. Wheel-end solutions cover air disc brakes, drum brakes, slack adjusters, actuators, and brake shoe assemblies. Air charging and management covers compressors, air dryers, filtration, reservoirs, and the hoses and fittings that carry compressed air around the vehicle. Air control covers truck, tractor, and trailer valves. The fourth and fastest-moving family is electronics and advanced driver assistance, including electronic braking systems, antilock braking and stability control, automatic traction control, and the Bendix Wingman Fusion collision-mitigation platform, AutoVue lane departure warning, BlindSpotter radar, and SmarTire tire-pressure monitoring.

Bendix also builds integrated vehicle modules, remanufactured components, torsional vibration dampers, and diagnostic hardware and software such as ACom, the Remote Diagnostic Unit, and the Trailer Information Module. It serves a wide set of vocations: common and contract carriers, private and government fleets, transit and school buses, motor coaches, fire and rescue, refuse, bulk and hazmat haulers, and construction, mining, and logging vehicles. The company describes its plants as Centers of Excellence run on a Six Sigma quality culture.

Ownership and history

Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems is a member of Knorr-Bremse, the Munich-based, publicly listed braking and mobility group (SIX: KBX). The air-brake business behind the Bendix name is old. Westinghouse Air Brake was established in 1869, and the Bendix-Westinghouse Automotive Air Brake Company formed in 1930 from the merger of Bendix Corporation and Westinghouse Automotive Air Brake. The business passed through Allied, AlliedSignal, and Honeywell over the following decades. In 1999 Honeywell operated the unit as a joint venture with Knorr-Bremse AG, holding 65 percent to Knorr-Bremse's 35 percent. In 2002 Knorr-Bremse took full ownership and the company adopted its current legal name, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC.

The company employs approximately 4,000 people and is headquartered in Avon, Ohio, at 35500 Chester Road. Headquarters had operated in Elyria, Ohio since 1941 before the move to Avon in 2021. Because Bendix is a wholly owned subsidiary of a listed parent, it does not publish standalone financials, so this profile reports no separate revenue figure for the LLC. Day-to-day leadership, per the company's April 2026 leadership materials, is led by Piotr Sroka, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Operating Officer, with Thierry Ormancey as Chief Financial Officer, Americas. The executive board also includes vice presidents for supply chain and purchasing, quality and product safety, sales and marketing, and each North American product line.

Manufacturing and locations

Bendix runs three manufacturing sites plus a network of engineering and distribution centers across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Bowling Green, Kentucky, opened in 2007, builds foundation drum brakes and air disc brakes. Huntington, Indiana, the oldest site, dates to 1980 and handles electronic-component and legacy OE manufacturing, integrated vehicle module assembly, vibration dampers, remanufacturing, and aftermarket distribution. Acuna, Mexico spans three locations that produce ABS, air dryers, compressors, valves, and actuators along with the company's Global Scalable Brake Control and Global Scalable Air Treatment platforms; the first Acuna plant opened in 1987 and a fourth came online in 2024.

Engineering is spread across four centers: Avon, Ohio; a wheel-end R&D center in Kalamazoo, Michigan (2004); an engineering technical center in Monterrey, Mexico (2018); and a tire-pressure-monitoring R&D center in Vancouver, Canada (2008). Distribution runs through Huntington, Mexico City, and Montreal. This footprint is one reason the company's nearshoring posture matters to fleet buyers: assembly and remanufacturing sit close to the North American truck market rather than overseas.

Certifications and quality

Bendix maintains current-cycle quality and environmental certifications at its plants. Its manufacturing sites hold IATF 16949, the automotive quality-management standard: Acuna and Huntington on 2025 to 2027 certificates and Bowling Green on a 2024 to 2027 certificate. The Avon headquarters holds ISO 9001 on a 2023 to 2026 certificate. Environmental management runs under a multi-site ISO 14001:2015 certificate covering Avon, Acuna, Bowling Green, Huntington, Mexico City, and Monterrey. The certificate PDFs are posted on the company's own site, and Bendix describes product safety and continuous improvement as core values backed by a Six Sigma culture.

Known customers

Bendix supplies original-equipment brake and safety systems broadly across North American truck manufacturers. As a member of Knorr-Bremse, it is one of the two largest suppliers of air-brake and ADAS technology to the North American commercial-vehicle market. The named program relationships below come from the company's own product announcements.

Sourcing evidence

Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems has one of the largest US import records of any commercial-vehicle supplier: 34,352 US sea shipments since January 2015, with the most recent landing on September 21, 2026. The record reads like an OEM supplier's inbound flow, dominated by brake and servo-brake parts (HS 8708.30), valves, seals, and cast components rather than finished goods. Customs-derived estimates put cumulative ocean shipping spend around $64.5M, with cost data covering roughly 59 percent of shipments, an order-of-magnitude figure rather than an audited one.

The origin mix is unusual and tells the parent-company story directly. Germany accounts for 16,542 shipments, far ahead of China at 6,948, India at 4,610, Thailand at 3,100, and Vietnam at 1,383. The reason is intra-group sourcing: the two largest foreign suppliers on record are Knorr-Bremse's own European commercial-vehicle plants.

Seven shown of the recorded supplier list. Recent activity has softened: the most recent full month showed 306 shipments, down about 30 percent year over year, consistent with the softer 2026 North American truck-build environment. Even so, the volume and recency mark a continuously active importer.

Coverage caveats apply. These are US ocean-freight records only. Air, truck, and rail movements do not appear, which understates the cross-border flow between the US sites and the Acuna, Mexico plants. Some records name freight intermediaries rather than manufacturers, and product categories come from declared manifest codes, which are noisy. Absence of a record is not evidence of absence.

Frequently asked questions

What does Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems make?

Bendix makes braking and active-safety systems for commercial vehicles: air disc brakes and drum brakes, air compressors and dryers, truck, tractor, and trailer valves, electronic and antilock braking systems, and advanced driver assistance products including the Wingman Fusion collision-mitigation platform, AutoVue lane departure warning, and SmarTire tire-pressure monitoring. It also builds integrated vehicle modules and remanufactured components.

Who owns Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems?

Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Knorr-Bremse AG, the Munich-based, publicly listed braking and mobility group (SIX: KBX). Knorr-Bremse took a 35 percent stake in a joint venture with Honeywell in 1999, then acquired full ownership in 2002, when the company adopted its current name.

Where is Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems headquartered?

Bendix is headquartered at 35500 Chester Road, Avon, Ohio 44011. Headquarters operated in Elyria, Ohio from 1941 until the move to Avon in 2021. The company also runs manufacturing plants in Bowling Green, Kentucky; Huntington, Indiana; and Acuna, Mexico, plus engineering centers in Kalamazoo, Michigan; Monterrey, Mexico; and Vancouver, Canada.

How many employees does Bendix have?

Bendix employs approximately 4,000 people across its North American operations, per the company's own materials. It does not publish a standalone revenue figure because it is a subsidiary of the listed Knorr-Bremse group.

What certifications does Bendix hold?

Bendix holds IATF 16949 quality certification at its Acuna, Bowling Green, and Huntington manufacturing plants, with certificate windows running to 2027, and ISO 9001 at its Avon headquarters (2023 to 2026). It also holds a multi-site ISO 14001:2015 environmental certificate covering Avon, Acuna, Bowling Green, Huntington, Mexico City, and Monterrey. The certificates are posted on the company's website.

Who are Bendix's customers?

Bendix supplies original-equipment brake and safety systems across North American truck manufacturers. Documented program relationships from the company's own announcements include Peterbilt (EnduraSure-Pro brakes and Bendix Fusion ADAS) and Kenworth (Bendix Fusion and IntelliPark). As a Knorr-Bremse company, it is one of the two largest air-brake and ADAS suppliers to the North American commercial-vehicle market.

Last verified September 27, 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.