Season 2026 · The BRAKE Report
OE Power Rankings
The monthly scoreboard of verified events across 23 global OE light-vehicle brake suppliers. Every point links to a public source. Point schedule and rules.
Issue #1 — June 2026 (Inaugural)
Published June 15, 2026 · Data window: May 1–31, 2026 · Light-Vehicle Edition
Welcome to the first OE Power Rankings. The rules are simple: 23 suppliers are swept every month, and the ones with verified public events appear here — ranked by points, with every point tied to a press release, regulatory filing, or investor report you can check yourself. No event, no entry. May was a brake-by-wire month, and six of the 23 suppliers in the universe made the scoreboard.
| Sensify brake-by-wire platform entered large-scale series production with a leading global automaker, fitted as standard across the program, with additional customer contracts signed. Brembo press release · May 4, 2026 | +8 |
| Raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to +3% at constant exchange rates alongside Q1 results (net profit up 11.2% to €56.9M; revenue flat at constant FX). Brembo Q1 2026 earnings release · May 7, 2026 | +2 |
| Motion Technologies Q1 revenue rose 14.8% year over year to $397.2M (from $346.1M; +5.3% organic, the balance favorable FX), with ITT citing strength in Friction original equipment and continued MT share gains. ITT Q1 2026 earnings release (SEC 8-K) · May 6, 2026 | +5 |
| Commissioned the dustIN brake particle emissions dynamometer at its Friction Competence Centre in Spain to validate TRW pads and discs against Euro 7 limits effective November 2026 — its 31st dynamometer dedicated to friction development. ZF announcement · May 13, 2026 | +3 |
| Safety and Motion segment — the brake-relevant business — posted Q1 sales down 7.2% year over year, with segment EBIT down 22.2%, even as group adjusted EBIT rose 14.3%. Aumovio Q1 2026 results · May 7, 2026 | −2 |
| Disclosed a ¥1.7B extraordinary loss for restructuring tied to consolidating North American operations to a one-plant structure, continuing the wind-down of the Elizabethtown, Kentucky plant by end of 2026. US aftermarket production continues from Glasgow, Kentucky. Akebono FY2026 results disclosure · May 2026 | −5 |
| Named as supplier of the front-view camera at the center of Hyundai’s cross-border phantom-braking recall: 421,078 vehicles in the US and 81,646 in Canada (2025–26 Tucson family and Santa Cruz). Root cause is front-camera software calibration causing earlier-than-expected automatic braking; remedy is a software reflash. NHTSA campaign 26V316 · Transport Canada filing, May 19, 2026 | −8 |
Named a GM Supplier of the Year in the brake control category for the sixth straight year, citing the Motor-on-Caliper system. The ceremony was held in May, but the public announcement landed June 9 — it scores in the July issue.
Q1 net revenue of R$1.25 billion (reported May 6) against roughly R$1.3 billion a year earlier — a decline sitting near the −3% tier line. Awaiting the exact year-over-year figure from the filing before ruling; no points either way until then.
Q1 results reported mid-May with group revenue of ¥148 billion, ahead of estimates. The brakes-segment year-over-year figure is pending from the financial statements; financial points await it.
Ford’s electronic brake booster campaign kept spreading through European registers in May, including an 804-vehicle Ranger action in Ireland. The filings name Ford only — no supplier scores without a regulator or OEM filing naming them.
Announced a 50:50 commercial-vehicle air brake joint venture in Chennai with TSF Group. Commercial-vehicle scope, outside this light-vehicle edition; non-qualifying.
Closed from the demo review: ITT’s Motion Technologies segment detail arrived in the SEC filing and scored above; TMD Friction’s solar installations were a March announcement, outside the May window.
The story of May was software-defined braking arriving on both ends of the ledger at once. Brembo put brake-by-wire into series production at scale — the first Western tier-one to do so — while Hyundai Mobis absorbed the month’s heaviest penalty for a braking defect that lives entirely in camera software. As automatic emergency braking mandates phase in on both sides of the Atlantic, expect calibration, not hardware, to claim a growing share of this section. The friction side, meanwhile, claimed a podium spot the quiet way: ITT’s Friction original-equipment business drove its Motion Technologies segment to double-digit reported growth in a down global production quarter.
The by-wire race
Brembo is first to series production with dry brake-by-wire. Bosch, ZF, BWI Group, and Astemo have all promised production this cycle, and Chery’s Exeed EX7 has claimed the first full EMB production car. Each issue tracks who reaches start of production next.
Software is the new recall surface
May’s biggest brake recall was a camera calibration, and the Bosch booster pattern is electronic too. As AEB becomes mandatory in the US and Europe, we track what share of brake recall volume traces to software rather than hardware — and which suppliers carry that exposure.
Euro 7 countdown
Brake-dust limits take effect in November 2026. ZF just commissioned its own certification bench; we track which friction suppliers publicly demonstrate compliant pad-and-disc couples first, and who is left renting lab time.
| # | Supplier | Points | Season points to date | Issues |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brembo SYS | +10 | 1 | |
| 2 | ITT Motion Technologies FRI | +5 | 1 | |
| 3 | ZF SYS | +3 | 1 | |
| 4 | Aumovio SYS | −2 | 1 | |
| 5 | Akebono FRI | −5 | 1 | |
| 6 | Hyundai Mobis SYS | −8 | 1 |
Swept, no qualifying events yet (17)
Only suppliers with scored events hold a rank. The full 23-supplier universe is swept every month; suppliers listed above without a rank generated no qualifying public events this season and enter the standings with their first scored event. Season points accumulate across the 2026 calendar year toward the OE Supplier of the Year, announced in the December issue.