Automotive News Europe - March 2, 2009 - 12

PAGE 12 · www.autonewseurope.com March 2 , 2009 Bosch strengthens hybrid team Supplier could add 200 more people to new unit dedicated to supplying parts for cars with lower CO2 emissions Bettina Mayer Automotive News Europe MUNICH Wolf-Henning Scheider hopes hybrid-electric vehicle technology keeps humming along. Scheider, who heads Robert Bosch’s electric vehicle and hybrid technology unit formed January 1, predicts that hybrid technology will be a bridge to full-electric vehicles. He wants Bosch to be prepared for a field that could be lucrative in the next decade. “The arrival of new hybrid products in the market is happening very fast,” said Scheider, whose main job remains Bosch’s president of gasoline systems. “We have enhanced our team year-by-year to be ready.” During the next five years, Bosch plans to invest hundreds of millions of euros annually in the new business unit, Scheider said. Within the Bosch group, this expertise previously was pooled in the hybrid project unit founded in 2004. The purpose of the new business division is to develop and to market modular hybrid and electric-drive systems. Bosch engineers working on brakes or the engine management system also have to work closely with the new unit, because those components are affected by the cars’ electric-drive system and regenerative brakes, Scheider said. The 400-person unit is working on several hybrid series projects. The workforce is developing electric motors, as well as the power electronics for electric vehicles and hybrids. Scheider said he has to add personnel. He declined to give a specific number, but agreed that another 200 people could be added if Bosch continues to win new projects. In 2008, Bosch hired nearly 100 new people specializing in hybrid technology. “It was an important year for Bosch, because we won several series projects for hybrid powertrains,” Scheider said in an interview with Automotive News Europe. The biggest achievement was to become core partner for PSA/Peugeot-Citroen’s development of diesel hybrid technology. Bosch will codevelop and supply electric motors and power electronics for PSA’s four-wheel-drive dieselhybrid powertrain. The PSA hybrid architecture is a rear-axle drive with an electric motor, while the combustion engine drives the front wheels. PSA scheduled its first models with diesel-hybrid technology to launch in 2011. Working with PSA “Our partnership with PSA aims for a quick development process into the market,” Scheider said. Bosch also is working on a parallel-hybrid system, an electric motor combined with a combustion engine and transmission in one compact unit. The parallel hybrid system will find its way into the Volkswagen Touareg and Porsche Cayenne scheduled to hit the roads by next year. Bosch is aiming for serial projects on electric vehicles as the next step. Bosch’s experts are forecasting that 3 million to 4.5 million vehicles will be hybrids, from a total population of roughly 90 million Bosch’s growing hybrid and electric vehicle component division has won contracts with PSA, VW and Porsche. by 2015. While the vast majority of cars will still have a combustion system, optimization of diesel and gasoline engines will be key for Bosch as well, Scheider said. Bosch’s new hybrid unit is headquartered in Germany, but it already has subsidiaries in North America, China and Japan. Despite the market downturn, Bosch will continue ramping up its hybrid and electric car knowledge base. Key to any electric-drive vehicle is lithium-ion battery technology. That’s why Bosch invested ¤312 million to set up a joint venture with South Korean partner Samsung SDI. The so-called SB LiMotive started its operations in September and will start production of battery cells in 2010. The entire battery pack will follow in 2011, according to Scheider. “That’s a significant investment for Bosch,” said Scheider. “But we also are making a large investments in diesel and gasoline direct-injecANE tion systems.” “We won several series projects for hybrid powertrains [last year].” Wolf-Henning Scheider, Bosch gasoline systems division president Conti gets turbo customer Bettina Mayer Automotive News Europe HANOVER Continental has a customer for its turbocharger, CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann told Automotive News Europe on the sidelines of the company’s annual results press conference here. He declined to name the customer or say where the company will make the component. A Continental source said the customer is a non-European carmaker and said the turbochargers will be mated to 1.0-liter threecylinder gasoline direct-injection engines. Last April, Continental announced plans to open its first turbocharger plant by 2011. Wendelin Klügel, Continental’s head of powertrain systems and technology, said last year that Continental plans to make 100,000 turbochargers a year for four-cylinder, 2.0-liter gasoline direct-injection engines. Neumann said Continental will provide more details about its turbocharger business in the coming months. Conti and a joint venture of Robert Bosch and Mahle are entering the turbocharger field to challenge Honeywell Turbo Technologies, the world leader in the field with a market share of more than 50 percent, and No. 2 maker BorgWarner Turbo & Emissions Systems. Bosch plans to start production in 2011. Competition in the field is getting fierce because de- Neumann: More details mand for the com- later this year. ponent is expected to rise before tougher emissions standards take effect in 2012. Turbochargers help improve fuel economy for diesel and gasoline engines, with no loss of performance. Before the financial downturn, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants forecasted that global turbocharger unit sales would rise to 17.8 milANE lion by 2012 from 14.6 million in 2007. Citing costs, Conti kills IAA stand Guido Reinking Automobilwoche BERLIN To save costs, Continental will not have an exhibition stand at the IAA in Frankfurt in September. The German supplier is the second automotive company to withdraw from Europe’s biggest auto show. In February, Mitsubishi said it would not have a stand at the IAA because of “extraordinary business and financial challenges” in the current business climate. Industry insiders estimate that having a large stand at the IAA costs more than ¤1 million. Continental CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann said he could not justify the cost. “We cannot tell our employees to tighten their belts to save money and then pay a six-figure sum for a single auto show,” Neumann told Automobilwoche on the sidelines of an event here. A spokesman said Continental is discussing with IAA organizers other ways to be present in Frankfurt. “We won’t have a stand as in the past, but we will be present in some form,” he said. Auto companies are reviewing their plans to appear at car shows. In Europe, Mitsubishi will only be present at the Geneva auto show this year. Arjen Bongard contributed

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Automotive News Europe - March 2, 2009

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