Bosch can see clear indications of recovery in India, according to the company’s CEO.
“India’s economy is on the rise again and showing great potential,” said Dr. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management of the Bosch Group, during his multi-day visit to India. The country’s GDP is forecast to grow 7.7 percent this year, with a similar outlook for the years ahead. Even now, India is already Asia’s third-largest economy. The Bosch Group says it sees a wealth of possibilities there – for example with solutions for electromobility, connected mobility services and through government initiatives for smart cities and Industry 4.0. In the past year, the supplier of technology and services generated sales of 2.2 billion euros in the local market, registering double-digit growth of more than 15 percent. Bosch expects to see business continue to develop positively in India in the medium-term.
The Right Powertrain for the Indian Market
The transformation of India’s automotive market harbors major opportunities: this south Asian country has long since displaced Germany as the world’s fourth-largest automotive market. In 2017, vehicle sales rose 9.5 percent. Beginning in April 2020, India is planning to switch from the BS-IV to the BS-VI emissions standard (which corresponds to Euro 6). At the same time, the government is pressing ahead with the development of electromobility solutions adapted to the Indian market. The Bosch Group offers technology to support both initiatives.
Bosch to Make Heavy Investment in India
“In order to meet rising demand in the Indian market with tailored solutions, we will be investing some 220 million euros (approximately $256 million USD) over the next three years,” said Denner. In addition, the plan is to further expand India’s strong role in the Bosch Group’s global network. Apart from modernizing Bosch manufacturing plants in India, the bulk of the investments will go toward further expanding Bosch’s new Adugodi smart campus in the major city of Bengaluru, located in the southern part of the country. The former manufacturing site is being converted into a high-tech engineering center. In the past five years, Bosch has already invested a total of some 670 million euros (approximately $778 million USD) in the country.
Development for the Local and Global Markets
The new smart campus in Adugodi is at the heart of the Bosch Group’s engineering activities in India. More than 3,600 engineers are employed there. Altogether, some 18,000 of the 31,000 Bosch associates in India work in research and development at several locations in Bengaluru and Coimbatore. This makes India the most significant location for Bosch engineering activities outside Germany. The solutions developed by these Indian engineers include a connectivity solution tailored to the Indian market. The telematics platform makes precise vehicle data available on a smartphone. Some of the most important benefits include fleet management, emergency services, off-road applications and intelligent transportation for smart cities. The Connected Mobility Solutions division established by Bosch at the beginning of the year will be using solutions such as this to take the connected mobility business forward in India as well.
India One of Three Bosch Locations for Artificial Intelligence
India also plays a key role within the Bosch Group when it comes to artificial intelligence. In the past year, the company invested some 300 million euros (approx. $348 million USD) in the Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence (BCAI), which has locations on three continents. One of its main locations is Bengaluru – in addition to centers in Sunnyvale in the United States and Renningen in Germany. Furthermore, Bosch has entered into a partnership in India with the renowned Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai, or IIT Madras for short. The objective of the partnership is to establish the Robert Bosch Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, which will research topics such as the use of big data to improve error prevention and troubleshooting.
