Bosch says it will continue to expand its presence in China and has opened a new plant for infotainment systems in the eastern Chinese city of Wuhu. Bosch sees good long-term opportunities in the region, especially in the Chinese market.
New plant drives connected mobility in ChinaOn a surface area of 18,000sqm, infotainment systems, instrument clusters, and connectivity control units (CCUs) for vehicles will be manufactured for the Chinese market. Bosch invested around EUR36m in this plant, which will expand its local expertise in connected mobility. Just this March, the Bosch Group signed a strategic alliance with the infotainment startup Banma, a joint venture between Alibaba and the Chinese automaker SAIC. In the future, Bosch will continue to develop new digital displays, voice support, haptic feedback, and other HMI technologies.
Mobility services and Industry 4.0 drive IoT business forwardOverall, China is a strategic growth market for Bosch’s connectivity strategy. Reasons include the Chinese government’s goals of expanding intelligent connected driving in the world’s largest car market and of becoming the world’s leading industrial nation. Above all, with the establishment of the two new operating units Connected Mobility Solutions and Connected Industry at the beginning of 2018, Bosch is also making significant progress in its internet of things (IoT) solutions business in China.
The Connected Mobility Solutions division will focus mainly on solutions specifically tailored to local traffic conditions, such as intelligent parking, predictive diagnostics, and advanced fleet-management systems. For the Bosch Connected Industry business unit, China is one of its three main locations alongside Germany and Hungary. In this new unit, the company is pooling its Industry 4.0 activities, also in the areas of software and services.
Source: Bosch
