The Bosch Group has set itself a target of â‚22 billion in sales by 2015. "By then, we want our Asian business to contribute a strong 25 percent to total sales," said Franz Fehrenbach, chairman of the Bosch board of management, at the opening of the company new headquarters in Seoul. Bosch has a network of 58 sites in the region, where it employs some 50,000 people.
By 2015, the region's economic output will reach the level of Europe and North America. By that time, it is estimated that the region's population will total some 4.4 billion, and Bosch Group is preparing for this growth and stricter environmental standards to support growing sales of efficient injection systems, including clean diesel units. Demand for safety will increase significantly: braking control systems such as ABS and ESP® will gradually become established. In Suzhou, China, Bosch is currently expanding its production of control units for airbags, ABS, and ESP®, at a cost of roughly â‚100 million.
Bosch expects that by far the largest share of cars manufactured in Asia Pacific will continue to be made by Japanese, Chinese, South Korean, and Indian manufacturers. Today, the figure is roughly 93%.
This also means that the low-price vehicle segment below â‚7,000 - will become even more significant. In 2015, it is expected that low-price vehicles' share of the global car market will be in excess of 15%. This translates into annual growth of roughly 6%: twice the rate of the car market as a whole. Bosch has already developed products specifically for this market: its Value Motronic, for example, is a control unit platform for petrol engines with two, three, or four cylinders and port injection.
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