From January 29 to 30, 2024, Bosch held the 9th Smart Mobility Innovation Experience Day in Guangde, Anhui Province, with the theme of "Shaping a New Era of Intelligent Mobility". This is also the first public appearance of the Bosch Intelligent Mobility Group since the reorganization of Bosch's Automotive & Transportation Technology business on January 1, 2024. During the experience day, Bosch showcased a number of innovative technologies, including intelligent vehicle motion control systems, parking software solutions, stand-alone thermal management systems, and electric drive systems.
Dr. Xu Daquan, President of Bosch China.
This is the biggest structural change for the Bosch Group in 138 yearsIn 2023, China's auto market once again achieved outstanding performance. In terms of total volume, the annual production and sales of automobiles exceeded the 30 million mark. In terms of electrification and intelligent technology, the scale of China's new energy vehicles has reached about 9.5 million, accounting for more than 30% for the first time, and it is still the world's largest new energy vehicle market.
For Bosch, although the 2023 full-year results have not been officially disclosed, Xu Daquan, President of Bosch China, revealed that the growth of Bosch's automotive business in China is still strong.
In view of technological development, differentiated local regulations, chain security, regional conflicts and other factors, Bosch reorganized its automotive and intelligent transportation technology business into the Intelligent Mobility Group, and the board of directors of Bosch Intelligent Mobility Group China was formally established to better meet the changes in market and customer needs. Regarding the organizational restructuring, Wang Weiliang, President of the Board of Directors of Bosch Intelligent Mobility Group China, commentedThis is the biggest structural change for the Bosch Group in 138 years”
The reason for this is that in the past, Bosch Automotive Technology was operated as a business unit and was directly controlled by the Group. As a result of this reorganization, the entire automotive technology business will operate as an independent company. Wang Weiliang mentioned that at the business level, although Bosch continues to continue its existing business plan, as a company, Bosch Smart Mobility Group is a new company. This "new" embodiment is mainly reflected in two aspects:
"Faster, better".Faster, i.e., faster drive business innovation, product development, and customer service. Better, that is, better to provide strong empowerment for China's largest enterprises from big to strong.
At the same time, Bosch emphasized that its position as a leading supplier of components remains unchanged. In response to this, Wang Weiliang said, ".Although the outside world calls Bosch the first champion, we know that Bosch is not a "champion", the champion is our users, our customers, and Bosch knowledge empowers the car and the company as a technology provider.
In terms of the board of directors of Bosch Intelligent Mobility Group China, Wang Weiliang is the president of the board of directors of Bosch Intelligent Mobility China, and Zhang Ying, Norman Roth, and Stephan Lampel are members of the board of directors of Bosch Intelligent Mobility China.
The pressure of the moment and the way to break the gameIn this round of technological change, vehicle companies are unwilling to be left behind. At present, there are two main means. From the perspective of differentiated technologies, all vehicle companies emphasize the proportion of self-development, and even full-stack self-development. From the perspective of vehicle sales, it emphasizes cost performance through the low-price strategy to boost market sales.
Zhang Ying said that since the beginning of this year, Bosch has received requests from major OEMs to reduce prices. Bosch respects the demands of OEMs for the highest quality, and also hopes that the price reduction should be controlled within a reasonable and benign range, which can leave profit margins for the follow-up R&D investment and even normal business operations of parts and components enterprises.
How to solve the cost pressure, Wang Weiliang mentioned three aspects. First, the "absolute cost" needs to be solved. Satisfy the customer's needs as much as possible. The second is to enhance innovation capabilitiesAt present, China has the best soil for innovation, and even under the current situation of huge cost pressure, vehicle customers are still constantly pursuing new technological upgrades and are willing to invest in them. The third is the speed of innovation iteration. Keep up with the pace of technological innovation in the industry. Wang Weiliang revealed that Bosch has cooperated with a wide range of customers, not only traditional car companies in the process of transformation and upgrading, but also new power car companies that have just been established. But now it is needed.
"Stay up, get through it and we'll win. Don't feel miserable, because the future is bright. ”
Regarding the challenges brought by the full-stack self-development of vehicle enterprises to Bosch, Wang Weiliang believes that if it is only a single car, this kind of full-stack self-development in a narrow sense can be realized, but if it is considered from a broad perspective, if a single enterprise realizes it, it is completely infeasible.
Bosch respects the customer's choice, insists on being an enabler for customers, and supports customers in differentiated technology development. Wang Weiliang mentioned the example of the cooperation between Bosch and Cummins before this, "Cummins is Bosch's largest commercial vehicle customer, and Cummins has its own software system, which is a "competitor" to Bosch from this point of view, but Bosch and Cummins have always maintained a cooperative relationship in many project cooperation and technology development processes. ”
Bosch's ability to respond to many changes in the industry is based entirely on its investment and reserves in innovative technologies. As for the technical architecture of electric intelligent vehicles, Bosch summarized it in a high-level way through "five vertical and nine horizontal". For the "five vertical and nine horizontal", Wang Weiliang explainedThe "five verticals" revolve around five business domains, that is, the direction of five industry classifications, namely intelligent driving assistance, sports intelligent control, energy and power, body & comfort, and infotainment. "Nine horizontal" is the nine levels from technology to market application, starting from intelligent hardware, then to semiconductor sensors, embedded electronic control units, computing units, operating systems, application software, operating system back-end interfaces, and then to services, and finally commercial solutions. "Five verticals and nine horizontals" is also the technical roadmap for Bosch's business layout.
In order to better support the implementation of innovative R&D and technologies, Bosch Smart Mobility has a total of 12 business units in 5 regions around the world. There are 10 business units and subsidiaries in China, namely Electric Drive Systems, Intelligent Mobility Aftermarket, Automotive Electronics, Power Systems, Vehicle Motion Intelligent Control Systems, Intelligent Driving and Control Systems, Bosch Engineering & Technology, ETAS, Two-Wheelers & Sports Vehicles, and Bosch China Innovation & Software Development Center.
Vision and expectations for the next 10 yearsBosch China has achieved great success in the past decade, with its sales exceeding RMB 100 billion for the first time in 2022, a fourfold increase in turnover compared to 2010.
Despite the current uncertainties, Bosch remains optimistic about the future. Wang Weiliang said, ".This is an era of change, an era full of challenges, and it will inevitably enter an era of innovation. ”
At the market level, Wang Weiliang believes that in addition to the advantages of scale, China's auto market has been leading the global mobility revolution in terms of demand and technology, which is mainly reflected in the rapid growth rate, diversified demand, and leading forward-looking technology. Superimposed on the increase in the proportion of Chinese cars going overseas in 2023,In the next 10 years, China's auto market is expected to stabilize at more than 30 million production and sales scale
Driven by market demand, Bosch is also confident in its own business growth. In May 2023, the Bosch Smart Mobility Group announced that it wants to achieve global sales of more than 80 billion euros by 2029. Bosch did not specify its future performance targets for China, Stephan Lampel saidBosch has a long-term growth target of 6 to 8 percent for the future, striving to grow faster than the market average
Also in this era of innovation, the "new forces" of automobiles are also emerging, in addition to vehicle companies including first-chain enterprises. Wang Weiliang said, ".Bosch and many new power companies are equal in the face of innovation。It is true that Bosch does have a certain degree of inflexibility in the decision-making process compared to the new players, and is slightly inferior to the new forces in terms of quick response to customers, but Bosch has always been in the leading position in terms of technology. Not only that, but because of the comprehensiveness of the technical layout, Bosch has a deeper understanding of the vehicle, and in addition to the technology itself, it also attaches equal importance to functional safety. Combined with the global layout, it can better meet the global needs of customers and help Chinese car companies go global.
The car is a marathon, and Bosch is ready for a long-term competition.