Bosch braces up for BS-VI norms
Bosch, a world-leading multinational engineering and electronics company based in Germany, supplies technology and services in the areas of mobility solutions, industrial technology, consumer goods, and energy and building technology. In Bengaluru Bosch has the largest development centre outside Germany, for end to end engineering and technology solutions. Bosch India is gearing up with products to support the upcoming BS-VI norms in the country.
“We are working on a lot of BS-VI products and we want to support the OEMs for the timely launch in 2020. We have a big team of system engineers and categorisation engineers who are working on the BS-VI solution. On technology-agnostic solutions, we are working closely with various OEMs, and legislative agencies and are trying to participate in legislation and technology development for the future,” Sandeep N, Executive Vice President, Mobility Solutions, Bosch, told AutoComponents India.
The Bosch Group is present in more than 150 countries. In India it operates through 12 companies that carry out functions in both automotive and nonautomotive businesses through several manufacturing sites. The activities of Bosch in India are further empowered with R&D centres, and nationwide service and support networks.
Technological support
India plans to achieve BS-VI implementation from April 2020 and adopt electromobility solutions built for Indian conditions. Bosch offers the right technology to support both initiatives. The company believes that the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) will continue to be the mainstream solution for freight and commercial vehicles. However, a key role here will be played by Bosch India’s electrification initiatives, to address the transformation in urban mobility. Keeping in mind the country’s climate change targets, Bosch views the co-existence of fossil fuel engines and electrification with hybridisation as an interim solution.
Hybrid technology will be a vital contributor towards the electrification goal in India due to the nation’s unique stopstart driving patterns and road congestion. In the light of that, fleet operators and smaller vehicles are poised to adopt electrification as soon as feasible options are available in the market. Bosch experts believe that the use of synthetic fuels as a scheduled supplement to electrification will play a vital role to reduce CO2 emission.
To make low emission traffic a reality, the company is making heavy investments – both in making electromobility a market success and in enhancing the combustion engine. Both technologies benefit the demand of the Indian market. Bosch has now achieved a breakthrough in diesel technology: with their new diesel technology, Bosch engineers have succeeded in getting NOx emissions massively down.
Another field of growth in India’s thriving automotive industry is the rising demand for connected mobility. Bosch continues to drive forward its transformation into a provider of mobility services. The company recently established a Connected Mobility Solutions division to develop and sell digital mobility services. In India, the new business division will work to develop a global telematics platform that will be enabled and operated by local engineering talent. The key offerings will include vehicle sharing, ridesharing, and connectivity-based services for car drivers.
With the new regulations coming in, Bosch is working
on the changes needed to be made in the components also. For the two-wheelers, there is a transition from the carburettor to engine management systems and the firm is working in that space. It is working on the safety feature also. For the passenger cars and commercial vehicles, the focus is on the exhaust gas treatment systems.
For the BS-VI, most of the component will be manufactured in India. Speaking about the components pricing, Sandeep said, “The main thing is that there is an ability to develop smarter system configurations. With smarter systems, we will have the chance to have cost-effective components. This is the way for the industry to go.”
Bosch provides a variety of products for fuel injections, low-pressure fuel supply, air management, transmission, e-mobility. For powertrain, it has products in cooling systems. Speaking about the powertrains, Sandeep said, “We are basically looking at the automotive technology in 3 domains: electrified, connected and automated. Although we term it as electrified, we are looking to provide solutions for emissions-free. Zero emission is the ultimate target.”
Innovations
Bosch R&D stands up to its corporate principle of ‘Invented for life’. The department holds around 60,000 associates who support Bosch worldwide. The centre is also the biggest software development centre outside Germany. The company also has an electromobility centre in Bengaluru, spearheading the local innovation in the area of e-mobility. The development capacity in India is now extensively working for BS-VI. Talking about the new developments in the software side, Sandeep said, “From a software point of view, there are quite a few activities happening. We are developing our own software platforms and going forward, this space will be a busy space. The first step is to establish connectivity. We have our connectivity control unit called the i-trans, which is a locally-developed solution. This helps us in setting up the first level of connectivity between car and cloud.”
Adding more about innovations, Sandeep said, “We have been traditionally a components manufacturer and a system integrator. We are now trying to go up the value chain and we are also trying to go both sides of the value chain. Connectivity is going to be a domain where you will see a lot of innovation coming up. Asset utilisation and shared mobility are the areas where you will see more innovations.”
Localisation
Sharing his views on the new technology for commercial vehicles, Sandeep said, the biggest challenge for the truck segment would be BS VI, telematics and connectivity. He feels that there is a lot of potential in trucks, especially in the light duty and the last mile segments for improvement of asset utilisation. This is where he expects the technology of the future to come in.
“As the market in India is extremely dynamic in terms of legislation, the company has to improve not just in propulsion and emission, but also in safety and connectivity. We expect that most optimum technology definitions to be from here. We have a very extensive production work, and we are producing a lot in China and in the Asia-Pacific region. We would definitely localise in India. Our depth of manufacture in India is proven and it is just a question of how the market is,” he said. The company will be expanding its capacity to cater to the increasing volumes. “There will be investments in terms of electromobility and software development capability in India in the powertrain side. Investment is indeed covering the entire spectrum of mobility solutions,” he said.
Sharing his view on the electric vehicles, he said, Bosch is very clear on the e-mobility segment and it will come. “We believe that the e-mobility will emerge out of the specific used case. The two-wheelers and three-wheelers are in the form of pilot segments in achieving commercial viability which will be followed by commercial and taxi applications. We believe in this roadmap and we are getting equipped to provide solutions. It will come, and how long will it take? We have to wait and see,” Sandeep said.