Bosch realigns automotive supply business
Bosch has announced that it is reorganising its supplier business to take account of the trend towards software-based vehicle development: the division ‘Bosch Mobility Solutions’ will be renamed ‘Bosch Mobility’ and managed within the group as a business sector with its own business responsibility and management team.
The aim is to be able to serve existing and new customer needs even better and faster with customised solutions from a single source, according to the company’s statement. With around 230,000 employees at more than 300 locations in 66 countries worldwide, Mobility is the largest of a total of four Bosch business sectors.
In organisational terms, the individual business units within the sector will be partly reorganised as of 1 January 2024, with additional horizontal responsibilities across all units. In the new set-up, Bosch is targeting sales of more than 80 billion euros worldwide with its mobility solutions alone by 2029. The supplier assumes that software will account for around 30 per cent of development expenditure across the industry in 2030 – at Bosch, the share is already higher today. In addition, more than half of the associates in research and development at Bosch Mobility are already software developers.
The software-defined vehicles are intended to leverage two advantages in particular: The development speed increases, Bosch speaks of several days in which new functions can be realised in existing systems. On the other hand, the decoupling of software and hardware development allows cars to feel “like new” for a longer time after delivery thanks to software updates. However, this also requires changes in the hardware, especially in the new centralised electrical and electronic architecture (E/E architecture). Instead of more than 100 control units, the focus will be on a few high-performance computers for cockpit and networking functions, driver assistance systems and automated driving, as well as the powertrain – and precisely the appropriate software for these.
Bosch Mobility is led by a five-member management team around Bosch CEO Markus Heyn. Andreas Dempf has worldwide responsibility for sales and customers of Mobility. Klaus Mäder is responsible for operations, including all plants worldwide and quality. Uwe Gackstatter is responsible for the commercial tasks of the business sector. Mathias Pillin, responsible for technology, completes the all-male “Mobility Sector Board”.
“Software won’t only change how we use and experience cars in the future. It will also change the way cars are engineered,” says Heyn. “For some time now, Bosch has also seen itself as a mobility software company. Now, in response to customer requirements, our structure is changing to reflect this and to open up further growth.”
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