Mansuetti, president of Robert Bosch LLC, started his journey at Bosch working on electric fuel pumps. Mansuetti, the President of Bosch, talked to Lou Ann Hammond, CEO, www.drivingthenation.com, about Bosch automotive supplies.
Bosch is a $72 Billion non-profit business, or Stiftung, as it is known, in Germany, global company, up 9 percent over 2010. Many people know Bosch as a household appliance supplier, some as a solar panel supplier, but 60 percent of Bosch’s revenue comes from original automotive equipment.
Those systems divisions are made up of GS, DS, CC, AE Build, GS being gasoline systems, DS being diesel division, CC being chassis systems control, AE Build being Automotive Electronics which consist of semi-autonomous parallel parking, cross parking and pull-out control maneuvers using ultrasonic technologies. Electronic battery sensors that help save fuel and extend battery life, and Bosch DC/DC converters that enable the fuel-saving and emissions-reducing Start/Stop feature.
Mansuetti said that Bosch spent more than 4 billion euros ($5.8 billion) for research and development in 2011, and applied for over 4,100 patents worldwide. That’s 8.1 percent of the gross revenue of Bosch, with nearly 3.3 billion euros in the Automotive Technology sector alone.
The U.S. federal government instituted new fuel economy regulations that require car companies to reach a greenhouse gas equivalent corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) of 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2025. Bosch is creating technologically advanced systems that will be instrumental in helping those OEMs meet these new requirements.
It would be easy to create technology that just improved fuel efficiency, but consumers want infotainment, and governments want safety, and there are people that still want performance and driver comfort. It is a delicate balance, and Bosch is dancing with the stars to make it happen.
Mansuetti showed us a graph that said that by 2020 there would be 110,000,000 internal combustion engine vehicles on the road, 12,000,000 more would be hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles or plug-in electric vehicles. “We know that the internal combustion engine will be the predominant powertrain for consumers for the next 20 years. Gasoline and diesel engines continue to show significant gains “ up to 30 percent “ in fuel economy. While we focus considerable attention on the internal combustion engine, we also are preparing for the long-term future of electromobility.”
Mansuetti said, “Bosch is striving to provide automakers with their powertrain of choice “ which may include gas, diesel, hybrids, and EVs.” What about compressed natural gasoline (CNG)?
