Driving fuel injection technology further Bosch India

DRIVING FUEL INJECTION TECHNOLOGY FURTHER

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services for a broad range of industries. Bosch India is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bosch Group, which continues to dominate the domestic marketplace with its advanced technologies in the automotive and energy sectors. Philip Yorke takes a closer look at a company that continues to drive technology forward in Asia and throughout the world.

Bosch is one of the world’s best known brands in the technology sector and in 2015 the group employed over 375,000 people and generated sales of more than €70 billion. Its operations are divided into four distinct business sectors: Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods and Energy and Building Technology.

Bosch’s global manufacturing and sales network covers more than 150 countries worldwide. The company bases its future growth on its innovative strength and high-tech manufacturing facilities. To help achieve its objectives, it employs almost 60,000 people in research and development in 118 locations across the Globe.

Bosch established its first plant in India in 1953 and recently the company’s state-of-the-art diesel systems manufacturing facility at Bidadi, Bengaluru in India was inaugurated. The Bidadi plant is the 14th manufacturing facility the company has established in India. The total investment in the new plant is approaching €50 million since the project was begun in 2013. The second construction stage is due to be completed by 2018. The new plant will produce diesel products that were previously manufactured at its Adagodi plant, which is also located in the south of India and will employ over 2600 people when

it is fully commissioned. Bidadi will now become the lead plant for the production of single cylinder common rail diesel pumps, as well as for conventional fuel injection plants.

Smarter parking

Today Bosch is tapping into a whole new market by offering a range of parking technologies and services to the growing automotive industry. In doing so, Bosch takes a standardised approach by simplifying the search for parking spaces and automating the entire parking process. Potential customers for Bosch parking solutions include vehicle manufacturers and car park operators, as well as cities and communities around the globe.

The company has already made major progress in this area, especially with its systems for automated parking and driving and this in turn is leading Bosch towards an important milestone this year. “In 2016, our sales in driver assistance technology will exceed one billion euros,” said Dr Dirk Hoheisel, member of the board of management at Robert Bosch GmbH. Worldwide almost 2500 Bosch engineers are working to further develop driver assistance systems and automated driving technology.

Over the next few years as part of its move towards fully automated parking, Bosch plans to launch a host of new parking assistance systems. These revolutionary systems help drivers to park accident free, or even guide them into a space at the touch of a button. (“Parking as we know it won’t exist in the future,” Hoheisel commented.) Even before the end of this decade, cars will drive themselves to a space in a parking garage, thanks to Bosch technology. Drivers will simply leave their car in a handover zone outside a parking garage and instruct it to park by smartphone.

Investing in the future

Bosch sees a lot of growth potential in India and has been investing in new facilities and technology every year since its first venture into the Asian market. The developing industrial area in Bidadi provides

great potential for increasing capacity and has better infrastructure. Growth in the area is interwoven with the close relationship that the company enjoys with the Indian state of Karnataka. Bosch recently completed a state-of-the-art gasoline systems plant there, which is dedicated to the production of gasoline fuel injection systems. Opened in 2015, the new plant is the sixth manufacturing facility established by Bosch India and is already playing an important role in its strategy to enter the highly competitive two-wheeler market in India with its electronic fuel injection systems.

Today the impressive new plant is producing power train sensors, fuel delivery modules and air management components for both automotive and two-wheeler applications. In the Indian market Bosch is a leading supplier of technology and services in the area of mobility solutions, industrial technology, consumer goods and energy, as well as building technology. The company operates in India through a total of nine companies and since its manufacturing operations began in the country in 1953, they have grown to include 14 manufacturing sites and seven development and application centres employing a total of more than 29,000 people.

India is also home to the largest Bosch development centre outside Germany and the company employs over 12,000 research and development specialists there. Last year Bosch’s diesel systems division achieved growth of close to 10 per cent and the gasoline systems division also registered strong double-digit growth. The company told Industry Europe that it was its approach to localisation that had been a key factor in achieving this impressive growth. In the past year Bosch has expanded its market presence in the automotive aftermarket segment by adding around 300 new distributors to its sales network. n

For further details of Bosch India’s innovative products and services visit: www.boschindia.com