Bosch ended its 2018 fiscal year with $14.5 billion (12.3 billion euros) in consolidated sales in North America, registering healthy growth of 6% compared with the previous year’s sales.

“North America continues to be an important market for Bosch, with sales equaling 16% of Bosch’s total sales,” said Mike Mansuetti, president of Bosch in North America. “In 2019 we expect a moderate increase in sales across all Bosch business sectors in North America, despite an expected cooling of the North American economy and the mobility market, specifically.”

The number of associates employed at Bosch in North America in 2018 rose to 35,400, a year-over-year increase of more than 2.5%. This number is expected to remain at a similar level in 2019.

Continuous investment in North America

Bosch invested more than $500 million in North America in 2018. The investment, primarily for Bosch’s Mobility Solutions business sector, went toward expanding manufacturing operations, including new equipment. In addition to expansions of Mobility Solutions plants in Charleston and Anderson, South Carolina, as well as a dishwasher plant and central distribution center in New Bern, North Carolina, the company is investing $120 million in a new plant in Celaya, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. The approximately 225,000-square-foot facility will manufacture electronic control units – key components for connected mobility – for the American market. In November 2018, Bosch opened a new technology and innovation hub in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

Bosch expects to invest a similar amount in North America in 2019.

Positive development across all Bosch business sectors

Bosch’s four business sectors – Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology – all saw growth in North America in 2018.

Mobility Solutions is Bosch’s largest business sector. With sales of $9.5 billion in 2018, the sector accounted for 66% of Bosch’s North American sales.

Bosch and Daimler announced last year that San José, California, would become the pilot city for an automated driving on-demand ride-hailing service. With their joint development work, Bosch and Daimler aim to improve the flow of traffic in cities, enhance road safety, and provide an important building block for the way traffic will work in the future.

Continuing to build its capabilities in the area of mobility services, Bosch invested in Mojio, a technology platform and SaaS provider for connected cars. Bosch and Mojio also signed an innovation agreement to co-develop a suite of advanced connected car services. At CES 2019, the organizations announced their first connected mobility joint development, an IoT-integrated emergency response solution.