During 2005, Bosch continued to invest heavily in research and development, with approximately nine percent of the company’s automotive technology sales devoted to this important area – far above the industry average. Commenting on Bosch’s performance at the Geneva Motor Show, Dr. Bernd Bohr member of the Board of Management of the Bosch Group and Chairman of the Automotive Group, explained: “Bosch is set for growth. This year we expect stronger growth than in 2005.” Bosch and MANN+HUMMEL have recently announced the intention to jointly acquire the Purolator filter business from ArvinMeritor.

In Geneva, Bosch is presenting a range of new products and technologies. The focal points are clean and economical drive systems and driver assistance systems. “We anticipate significant growth in driver assistance systems,” Bohr added. “In these new systems in particular, sales will grow annually at double-digit rates over the period up to 2015.”

There is currently strong demand for the Bosch night vision technology which, under the name ‘Night View’, had its debut as a new driver assistance system in the Mercedes S-Class in September 2005. This year, the Audi Q7 will showcase more new Bosch technology including ACC plus adaptive cruise control. This system enables the vehicle to automatically maintain a safe distance between the vehicle in front, even in heavy traffic. “ACC plus is the basis for the second generation of our predictive safety systems,” Bohr explained. This represents another step toward the ‘sensitive car’ and accident-free driving. “On the basis of independent accident studies, our experts were able to show that only one percent of drivers made the optimum use of their brakes in serious accidents,” Bohr said. The studies showed that 54 percent failed to apply the brakes at all and 45 percent failed to press the brake pedal hard enough. If the driver fails to react properly when there is a threat of a rear-end collision, the safety system warns the driver by briefly applying the brakes and prepares the system for full braking. This alerts the driver and allows them to take early preventative action.

Electronic Stability Program (ESP), first launched by Bosch in 1995, also makes a significant contribution to road safety. This is demonstrated by several international studies and for this reason, ‘Cars 21’, the high level group set up by the European Commission, has now recommended that the system be made standard equipment in cars. Although the percentage of cars equipped with this system in Europe has increased from 29 to just under 40 percent since 2003, and has reached 34 percent in the UK, the percentage of small cars equipped with this technology in Europe is only nine percent – “not enough if we remind ourselves that such cars are mainly driven by inexperienced young drivers,” Bohr said. To increase awareness of the benefits of the ‘electronic guardian angel’, the Bosch ‘ESPerience’ training program has already demonstrated to more than 25,000 dealer sales staff how the technology works. The success of this program can be seen by the fact that Bosch recently delivered its 20 millionth ESP system.

Bosch also expects to see further developments for its clean and economical injection systems. During 2005, the company increased diesel sales with 8.3 million high-pressure diesel injection systems being delivered. Bohr has set his sights on production figures in the range of 8.7 million units for 2006.

At the end of 2005, figures showed that every other new car in Europe was fitted with a diesel engine featuring innovative diesel technology. Bosch expects to see this figure increase with diesel becoming more popular than petrol for the first time at some point in 2006.

The second generation of Bosch petrol direct injection is also soon to be launched in a 1.6-litre engine developed jointly by BMW and PSA.The Geneva Motor Show sees the debut of a petrol direct injection with piezo valves, which Bosch is supplying for the new Mercedes CLS 350 CGI. This petrol unit copies the successful example set by previous diesel systems. Bosch was able to fit petrol direct injection in more than 500,000 million engines during 2005, with this figure expected to quadruple by 2010.

Bosch media enquiries:

Chris Wakley/ David Eden   

Automotive PR

Tel: 020 7494 8050        

Email: cwakley@automotivepr.com / deden@automotivepr.com

Bosch OE enquiries:

Beverley Daniels

Communications Manager

Robert Bosch Limited

Tel: 01895 878155

Email: beverley.daniels@uk.bosch.com

About Bosch

The Bosch Group is the world’s largest provider of automotive technology to all leading vehicle and component manufacturers.  In 2005, the company generated automotive sales of €26 billion and employs 158,000 people in this sector.  The key business areas include: fuel injection technology (diesel & petrol); systems for active and passive vehicle safety (brakes, ABS, traction control, ESP, control units for restraint systems); electrical motors, rotating electrics and products for car multimedia.