Bosch has announced that its mobility business is expected to increase its sales from day-to-day business by four percent, at IAA Commercial Vehicles show in Germany.
The IAA Commercial Vehicles takes place in Hannover every two years, and is the world’s leading trade show for transport, logistics and mobility.
Bosch announced at the show that its mobility business will continue to grow twice as fast as automotive production.
The company generates one-fourth of its sales revenue from technology for commercial vehicles, ranging from vans to 40-ton trucks. Its business with solutions for trucks and off-highway vehicles is growing especially rapidly, at a rate of between seven and eight percent. In 2017, sales of heavy trucks grew by almost eight percent in China, 18 percent in the United States, and 45 percent in India.
By the end of the year, the mobility solutions business sector will employ over 54,500 R&D associates, an increase of 5000 since the January.
“As road freight evolves to face the future, Bosch offers both commercial and technological strength in equal measure,” said Dr. Rolf Bulander, chairman of the mobility solutions business sector of Robert Bosch GmbH.
“We want trucks to be beasts of burden, but not a burden for others,” Bulander said. According to Bosch, this goal incorporates electrification, automation, and connectivity for commercial vehicles.
At IAA 2018, Bosch revealed that it is working to develop diesel and alternative power-train solutions, to make commercial vehicles more efficient and environmentally-friendly.
“For many years to come, the development of commercial-vehicle power-trains will involve a number of disciplines. We would be well advised to approach their electrification with a technologically open mind,” Bulander said. In 2025, 80 to 90 percent of all trucks will be diesel-powered. But by 2030, one in four new commercial vehicles worldwide will be electrically driven.
“Nobody who wants to give heavy trucks a secure future can afford to rule out the option of producing alternative fuels using electricity from renewables, known as synfuels,” said Bulander.
Bosch has set itself the goal of being the international market leader in electromobility. To this end, the company offers solutions for the electrification of commercial vehicles , including 36-volt power packs for cargo e-bikes, the e-axle for delivery vans, and fuel-cell power-trains for 40-ton trucks
Another major growth area alongside electrification is the automation of commercial vehicles. Bosch announced during the show that it's developing solutions such as the turn assistant, blind-spot recognition, and predictive emergency braking system and radar sensors among other products.
