Bosch aims to double Asia-Pacific sales in 2020

The Bosch Group hopes to double its sales in Asia-Pacific by 2020 after having doubled them over the last ten years, said  Dr Volkmar Denner, chairman of the Bosch board of management, during a press briefing in Bangalore.

Forecasting further strong growth for India over the next few years, the company sees India as a key pillar of its growth strategy in Asia Pacific.

In India, the focus is on a new engine management system for two wheelers as well as technologies for connectivity of mobile phones to two-wheelers. It is also working on a single-channel ABS for markets such as India’s.

Denner has forecast that after recording an economic growth of around 4.8 percent this year, India will likely grow by 6 percent in 2015. This makes the country one of the global engines of growth alongside China, he said. “We expect to see India establish itself as the world’s fifth largest vehicle manufacturer by the end of this decade,” Denner added.

In 2013, Bosch generated sales in India of approximately Rs 13,200 crores, a three-fold increase over ten years ago. Bosch currently employs 27,000 associates at ten production sites and seven R&D locations in India.

Since 2010, the Bosch Group has invested Rs 5,400 crores in the expansion of manufacturing and research facilities there, of which some Rs 1,200 crores has been invested in the current year alone.

Bosch has also developed a cost-effective engine management system specially designed for the Indian and Asian markets in the two-wheeler segment. Denner told the press meeting that the number of two-wheelers sold annually on the subcontinent will reach 27 million by 2020.

 Worldwide, the number of motorbikes and electric e-scooters sold is expected to increase from 100 million today to 150 million by the end of the decade. By comparison, Bosch forecasts that some 110 million new cars will be sold worldwide in 2020.  Against this backdrop, Bosch is also entering the global motorcycle market with new powertrain systems.

On other fronts, Bosch filed 220 patents last year up from 20 in 2008, according to Dr. Steffen Berns, president of the Bosch Group in India. “That’s a more than ten-fold increase within five years,” Berns said. Among the innovations developed by the Bangalore-based centre is a compact retina camera with special software that can detect conditions such as cataracts at an early stage. This fast and cost-effective eye diagnostic tool was specifically designed to meet the needs of the Indian market, and can be easily put into use in similar regions as well.