Zenvo Automotive

Opened in 2007, car manufacturer Zenvo Automotive A/S (Zenvo) specialises in producing handcrafted hypercars; a category of premium, high-performance sports cars with unique designs and superior build quality. After gaining traction in Europe, Zenvo decided to expand their footprint and introduced their high-performance sports cars to the American market. They required two prototypes of their latest model, the TSR-S, transported from Europe to the United States for a 12-month tour of the Americas with their sales, marketing and production teams. In order to achieve this, Zenvo reached out to DSV and engaged with our specialist DSV Vehicle Competence Center team who began the planning process for the transport across the Atlantic Ocean.

Handling with care at all stages of the supply chain

Prior to shipping, several circumstances had to be carefully considered. Zenvo’s cars are highly valuable, and discretion and caution were therefore key factors to the success of the project. For the same reason, DSV’s Vehicle Competence Center team ensured that physical monitoring was made available at all stages of the transport, and a DSV employee was present to oversee all handling activities and mitigate any handling errors.

“Due to the delicacy of the cars as well as their unique specifications, planning for a transport like the one we did for Zenvo is not something that can be done overnight, so our preparations began months ahead of the actual shipment. One of our key tasks was to ensure that the two cars were handled correctly at all stages of the transport. We therefore put together a series of trainings for our teams in DSV and created a dedicated manual based on Zenvo’s own instructions that carefully explained how the two cars were correctly managed,” explains Nils-André Nebel, Global Business Development Director of the Vehicle Competence Center, who was in charge of the transport.

Specialised transport solutions

The transport of the two Zenvo cars began at Zenvo’s manufacturing facility in Denmark and ended at the DSV warehouse in Los Angeles. The DSV team arranged for the cars to be transported by road and ferry from Denmark to Luxembourg in a specialised closed truck. From here, they were loaded onto a plane and flown to Los Angeles. At the Los Angeles airport, the cars were then picked up by the local DSV team and transported to a DSV warehouse. Shortly after the arrival in the US, representatives from Zenvo picked up the two cars from the DSV warehouse in Los Angeles.

Zenvo’s CEO Angela Hartman and CCO Jens Sverdrup, who have been closely involved in the planning phase of the transport of the two hypercars, were happy with the process and the service that DSV delivered:

“We put a lot of resources into making our cars, so it is of course very important to us that they are treated with utmost care. In DSV, we have a partner that has demonstrated a thorough understanding of our requirements for this shipment, and we appreciate the exceptional service that we have received from the teams working on the project.”

- Jens Sverdrup, CCO, Zenvo Automotive

The journey back 

Upon the arrival in the US, the two Zenvo cars toured the Americas for 12 months, showcasing the advanced features of the car models at numerous demonstrations and events. When the time came to return the vehicles to the manufacturing facilities in Denmark, DSV also played a central role. However, for this shipment, different customer requirements called for a more conventional transport solution: 

“During the return transport from the US to Denmark, there were fewer time constraints and less discretion required than for the initial delivery to the US. For this reason, it was natural to transport the cars across the Atlantic via sea freight rather than air freight. This also significantly reduced the cost of the transport quite significantly, which was a priority for Zenvo during this shipment,” shares Nils-André Nebel.

For the first leg of the return journey, the cars were shipped from Los Angeles to Hamburg in Germany. To ensure that the cars were well protected throughout the journey, two sets of customised wooden skids were built to accommodate their unusual dimensions and facilitate the loading and offloading.

Once the cars arrived at the port in Hamburg, DSV’s teams were ready to pick them up and drive them for the last part of the journey to Zenvo’s manufacturing facilities in Denmark. With the cars safely returned, Zenvo could then begin preparing the cars for their next demonstration tour – this time in Asia.