Bosch CEO: The European automotive industry is too dependent on Asia! – PRAVDA.sk

Europe is said to have missed the train in the field of electromobility and it is extremely important to achieve self-sufficiency in it, says the head of the Bosch supervisory board. According to him, the biggest carmakers should cooperate.

Franz Fehrenbach, Head of the Supervisory Board of Bosch.

The European automotive industry has become overly dependent on Asia and other parts of the world for battery cells and other vital components, said Bosch Fehrenbach, the outgoing head of the Bosch supervisory group, in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

He said battery cells and car chips had become the two most important components to support Europe’s growing electric vehicle sector – but carmakers had no choice but to rely on supplies from Asia, at least unless European production capacity increased.

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“We have become too dependent on other regions and a change of course is needed,” Fehrenbach said, adding that “this is not a policy mistake, but it is related to supply chain cost optimization.”

Fehrenbach’s warnings came just months after Bosch unveiled plans to offer global battery manufacturers a “central location” for the supply of the necessary battery technology and equipment, which the company says could reach an annual turnover of around € 250 million (£ 213 million) by 2025. ).

Bosch is also investing around € 70 million to launch full-scale production of its second-generation 48V lithium-ion batteries for hybrid cars at its plant in Eisenach, Germany. In addition, Bosch opened a chip plant in Germany this year. This € 1 billion investment was the largest in the group’s history.

In this case, however, Bosch may be just trying to catch up with the train that started earlier. Plans for the construction of six large battery plants by the VW Group have been known for several months, and the Automotive Cells Company was established just over a year ago. This should be the European battery mega-concern.

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The original founders of this project are Stellantis and TotalEnergies, and in September of this year, the German Daimler joined them. He is gradually investing at least a billion euros in it. The partnership aims to develop cells and battery modules and “help ensure that Europe remains at the heart of the automotive industry – even in an era of electricity dominance,” said Ola Källenius, CEO of Daimler.

The group plans eight large battery plants, including one in the US and four in Europe with existing partners and one new unnamed partner with a capacity of at least 200 gigawatt-hours (GWh).