Global automotive supplier

Founding of the company

On April 1st, Ernst Hülsbeck and August Fürst founded a company in Velbert that manufactured, bought and sold locks, fittings, small iron and brass goods. After only a short time, the Huf brand had become a synonym for high-quality lock and locking systems – initially only for the furniture industry.
 

Huf supplies its first locking system for a car

In the 1920s, the car had gained momentum as a new means of transportation – and Huf has accompanied this success story from the very beginning. The company based in Velbert, Germany and specialized in locks supplied the first locking system to Mercedes-Benz in 1920. To this day, the inventor of the automobile still relies on Huf’s dependable products.
 

Improvement in production and product quality

The automotive industry flourished: Ford Motor Company built a plant in Cologne in 1931. Huf became the preferred supplier to the American mass production manufacturer and supplied its products to many other car manufacturers in Germany. Huf began producing the castings itself in 1935 in order to meet demand and ensure consistently high quality.
 

Huf supplies well-known manufacturers of the post-war period

From the early 1950s on, Huf supplied nearly all locking systems, door handles and fittings for Volkswagen, the Ford plants, Daimler-Benz, BMW and Opel. Among them are numerous icons of the automobile history. The best example: In 1955, the one millionth Beetle rolled off the assembly line. Like all Beetles before it, this anniversary vehicle was also equipped with door handles from Huf.
 

First two-track locking system

Huf revolutionized theft protection in cars by introducing the two-track locking system (also called the magnetic key system). With the key in a two-track system, the normal key bit has been eliminated; instead, notches were milled into the flat sides of the key blank. These tracks were thus laterally reversed to each other, making it impossible to simply lay them on top of each other and file them down like a normal key bit.

Huf goes global

At Huf, we concentrate closely on our customers and their needs. Maintaining close relationships with our customers is crucial to acting as an expert partner at all times. Huf has therefore rapidly expanded its global network. Huf España, the first Huf plant located outside of Germany, was opened in 1983. In 1985, Huf continued the internationalization of production and established Huf Korea, its first subsidiary outside Europe.

First remote control key triggers a revolution

The beginning of a new era in the automotive world: In 1989, Huf introduced the first infrared key in the Mercedes SL (R129). It is the first radio key in which the signals change after each operation. Huf thus presented the safest product and thieves with virtually unsolvable tasks.

Passive Entry and Passive Start

Huf took another step towards hands-free access by launching the world’s first passive entry/passive start system. In the following five years, Huf continued to expand its lead in mechatronic locking systems and was represented with its PEPS components at Daimler-Chrysler, BMW, Audi, VW, Porsche, Ford and Hyundai, among others.

Important anniversary

Huf resumed production in 1950, after World War II had come to an end. Since then, the company that specializes in car access and authorization systems has delivered 500 million keys for cars.

The founding of Huf Secure Mobile

Huf introduced the smartphone as a digital key. In founding Huf Secure Mobile, this technology was introduced as an after-market solution for fleet and car sharing companies. Huf offers a complete system for digital key management, from software applications to programming interfaces and hardware for inside the vehicle.