The world’s leading auto components’ maker, Bosch, has said that it was extremely positive about the Indian growth story and expects sales from its Asia Pacific operations to double by 2020.

“In India, we expect to see growth improving to 6 per cent in 2015, following positive signals provided by economic policy,” Volkmar Denner, the Chairman of the Bosch Board of Management, said during an interaction with journalists here.

He said over the past 10 years, Bosch has been able to double its sales in Asia Pacific and is targeted to double them once again by 2020. The Asian business contributes 24 per cent of the total global sales for the German-based company.

Long term forecasts suggest that India is positioned to become the world’s fifth largest car producing country by 2020 and the world’s fourth largest economy by 2030, larger than any of the European economies in terms of GDP, Denner pointed out.

In 2013, Bosch posted sales of about ₹13,200 crore in India, which is a three-fold increase over a decade. Since 2010, the Bosch Group has invested about ₹5,400 crore in the expansion of manufacturing and research facilities here, of which ₹1,200 crore has been invested in the current year alone.

Denner said the company has recently formed a separate organisation for two-wheelers which reports to one of the board members. He said safety features such as anti-braking system is a standard fitment in all two wheelers in Europe. Even the ESP (electronic stability control), which was first introduced for passenger cars in 1995 in Europe, will now be introduced in two wheelers. “We predict that the number of two wheelers sold annually on the subcontinent will reach 27 million by 2020,” Denner said. He said Bosch has developed an affordable and robust engine management system for two wheelers that is specially designed for the Indian and Asian markets. He pointed out that the many machines in Asia are still fitted with carburettors. By fitting the electronically controlled fuel injection system, fuel consumption can be reduced by 16 per cent.

He said the company expects to see fully automated driving by 2020 though it will take more time for it to come in India because of poor traffic management.

Denner said in emerging markets such as India, products and solutions are tailored to the needs of the local customers at affordable costs. “Apart from local manufacturing, we are increasingly also turning to local engineering — part of our ‘local for local strategy’,” he said. Arising out of this policy, the number of patent applications from India has grown from 20 in 2008 to 220 in 2013.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW