‘We have a massive connected population’

Away from the bustle of the Auto Expo 2020, we caught up with Sandeep N, Executive Vice President — Mobility Solutions at Bosch, for a chat about the latest goings-on in the next phase of mobility

Over the last five years, Bosch have focused on connectivity and electrification and a lot of it has borne fruit. What sort of spread do you see and are there any particular areas that have met or even exceeded targets so far?

Over the last five years, apart from the focus on the, let’s say, regular legislative impulses coming out for migration from BS-IV to BSVI. Then, we had traction of ABS, ABS in four-wheelers, ESP in four-wheelers, so that’s one part of the traction we have built in the last five years. Mobility is also changing, as you have heard. We don’t look at mobility from the viewpoint of just automotive technology like we have done so far, but look at it more on our experience level as well and that’s where connectivity and personalization come in. One part of connectivity, of course, is linked to efficiency. For example, we have ongoing traction built up for telematic devices and for commercial vehicles and there is a lot telematics can contribute to efficiency. We are definitely seeing a lot of traction built up there. Connectivity in two-wheelers, connectivity in passenger cars, also a lot of traction in a lot of projects. You see connectivity in the latest launch, the Nexon; you see connectivity in the Bajaj Chetak. Those are examples where solutions have already hit the road, so I see quite a bit of traction there.

Since the Chetak came up, is the eAxle a part of that package or is it something similar?

The electrical drive system in the Chetak is supplied by Bosch. The eAxle is a completely different concept. [Smaller versions] are under development.

What have been your key areas of focus?

Well, we basically have to get BS-VI to hit the road in a way which is kind of all-inclusive, including our OEMs, including our legislative authorities, type approval, homologation, and a seamless introduction of BS-VI — that is priority one. Then, the bigger wave coming in next years would be how we get into being a mobility solution provider rather than just an automotive technology provider.

Sustainability is somewhat unclear with the rate of growth not just of the population, but also vehicle users. From an environment perspective, there shouldn’t be any more individual users, but from a business standpoint, that’s counter-productive. Where does one draw the line?

Well, it depends on how you look at it. So far, the metric for the business has been number of vehicles sold, but there is also another metric, let’s say, billion passenger kilometres and billion tonne kilometres, which would definitely be dependent on the population, need for people to be mobile and your GDP and IIP growth, and the need for you to move goods. So, if you look at it through a different lens, there would be a healthy CAGR, so the question for us is how do we move from just measuring the number of vehicles sold to these, which would definitely open up a lot more opportunities in the automotive industry.

Mobility is evolving more from a product to a service. They are seemingly mutually exclusive. With shared mobility fast becoming a need, is personal mobility going to become a luxury very soon?

I would say there would be a multi-modal mobility and not a situation where you will have shared mobility completely taking over the entire mobility landscape. But it depends on the use-case. I think the approach of the industry will gravitate towards use-cases rather than having onesolution-fits-all. There will be areas where you would see personal mobility continuing which is driven by ambition of people.

Going to the future, the fact that you are connected opens up a lot of opportunities for you and you will start looking at your mobility as per your use-cases. Say you have an office commute; you look at it in a different way. You have a weekend commute; you look at it in a completely different way. And the fact that you’re connected enables you to do all this. There the options will be explored.

Where do you see the biggest breakthrough coming in next? What’s the avenue that could break new ground for a new market, perhaps?

There are four pillars that you can look at this breakthrough. We call it PACE: Personalization, Automated driving, Connected, and Electrified. Connected and Electrified have received a lot of press, but we will see bigger strides being made in Personalization as well, such as services. Automated driving depends on how you see the use-cases. Automated need not be only Level 4 or Level 5 completely automated environment. There is a way to get there and that is where we will start seeing more traction in the market building up, because there are use-cases that get benefited out of this. Personalized solutions are a way to get automated driving and connected greater traction. Connected is more about one having to be connected, the second part, once you get that, opens up options for you for more value-added business.

Do you see the potential for a considerable improvement in infrastructure in India in terms of V2X and so on? Will the present mindset of the masses allow that to be sustained and establishing itself as something that people can actually use?

I think we will find our own way there. There is always a balance between what you do at edge to what you do in a cloud. I think we have lots of opportunities for what we can do in the cloud and there the approach will be more appropriate for India and we may not spend so much money in edge computing and making the vehicles very complicated. The fact is that we have a massive connected population and we can still orchestrate quite a bit through the cloud.

When it comes to personal mobility, lastmile mobility, are there any other smaller solutions that we have not heard of? Some that could make a big impact on an individual and the masses?

Well, there are multiple start-ups that are working on such personal last-mile mobility solutions. At the moment in India we are not focusing on that particular part but more on last-mile connectivity issues; for example, electrification of three-wheelers. This is one segment we believe will have a good potential going forward and the business model will possibly drive the need to have electrified three-wheelers. So, the digital business models will open up a lot more opportunities in this space.

I think we have lots of opportunities for what we can do in the cloud and there the approach will be more appropriate for India