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Press release #Connected mobility
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Mobility for metropolises: Bosch’s future lies in the smart city

Mobility for metropolises

Bosch Mobility Experience 2017 – #BoschME

  • Technological solutions for better quality of life in cities
  • Bosch vision for urban mobility: zero emissions, zero stress, zero accidents
  • Already 14 beacon smart-city projects worldwide
  • Bosch Mobility Solutions growing three times faster than the market in 2017
Joern Ebberg

Joern Ebberg

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Boxberg, Germany – Bosch is becoming a provider of mobility services for conurbations. In the future, the company will focus more on developing and providing mobility solutions in connected, smart cities. The demand for smart mobility concepts for the urban environment is rising rapidly worldwide. Megacities across the globe are full to bursting point. In many places, there is a threat of total gridlock. More and more people are returning to cities, or will live there in the future. By 2050, there will be more than six billion people living in megacities, twice as many as now. By then, urban traffic will have tripled. With roughly two-thirds of the global population living in conurbations in 2050, and the growth in urbanization this will involve, there will also be a growing number of problems.

More and more people in a limited amount of space will also mean more traffic, and thus more pollution, less green space, more noise, and more time wasted sitting in traffic. “With technological solutions, Bosch can help improve quality of life in megacities and conurbations. The main means to this end is emissions-free, stress-free, and accident-free mobility,” says Dr. Rolf Bulander, member of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH and chairman of the Mobility Solutions business sector. In business terms as well, smart cities are a growth area for the supplier of technology and services. In the period up to 2020 alone, the smart-city market will grow 19 percent each year, reaching a volume of 700 billion euros. In its cross-selling projects, Bosch has already doubled its sales in this sector over the past two years.

Today: congested roads and polluted air

Ages spent looking for somewhere to park, inefficient final-mile delivery, roads chockablock with private cars – all these are already common mobility problems in many large cities. “For city-dwellers, it’s the same old story – congested roads. There’s no sign of progress. It’s high time the opportunities offered by connectivity were used to make urban traffic smart,” Bulander says. In the future, no megacity will work without smart traffic, and a new model for mobility. “We are moving away from the car-centric city to an idea of mobility that is both smart and multimodal,” he adds.

Tomorrow: emissions-free, stress-free, and accident-free mobility

At the Bosch Mobility Experience in Boxberg, Bosch is demonstrating how the company is shaping urban mobility:

Our efforts to help create an urban environment that is free of emissions, stress, and accidents are tied to three technological developments: automation, electrification, and connectivity,

says Bulander

For Bosch, the focus here is on getting from A to B without stress. To achieve this even in a bustling metropolis, public transportation, cars, self-driving shared and delivery vehicles, and other means of transport − in short: all the means of transport in the city − will have to be seamlessly connected with each other. “Multimodal mobility services that users can reserve with just a few mouse-clicks will play a major role in reducing congestion.”

The increasing automation of urban traffic will also result in greater safety and fewer accidents. Even now, Bosch’s motorcycle stability control MSC provides a kind of ESP for motorbikes. And the ABS for e-bikes that was recently premiered may also be an important lifesaver. “Connecting cars, two-wheelers, other road users, and infrastructure may help reduce accidents, and thus save lives. Especially in emerging markets, road users such as riders of two-wheelers are at risk,” Bulander says. One of the solutions Bosch has developed for this is a digital shield for motorcyclists. And in emergencies, the eCall developed specifically for motorbikes can save lives.

Electromobility and combustion engines for better air quality

Especially in conurbations, air quality will remain an important issue. For this reason, Bosch is pursuing the goal of low-emission traffic. “In the cities of the future, both electromobility and combustion engines will be part of the solution,” Bulander says. Even now, Bosch’s e-bike business makes it the market leader for drive units for the world’s most successful electric vehicle. More than 200 million e-scooters are on the road in China, and Bosch powertrains play a role here as well. For light two-, three- and four-wheel electric vehicles, Bosch has developed a compact powertrain system that can power two-wheelers such as the E-Schwalbe and small four-wheel vehicles such as the e.Go. Moreover, parcel deliveries in large cities are becoming increasingly electrified. The German company Deutsche Post DHL is already leading the way here with its Streetscooter, which also features Bosch powertrain components. Apart from driving forward the development of electromobility in all vehicle classes and segments, the company is working to further improve the combustion engine. Bosch spends roughly half its R&D budget on environmental protection and resource conservation. All in all, this is a sum of roughly 3.5 billion euros.

Full-liner for smart cities

Even now, Bosch is pursuing 14 beacon projects relating to smart cities. They include urban projects in Singapore, San Francisco, Berlin, and Hamburg. Seven projects include urban mobility solutions. Apart from connected parking and fleet management, these solutions also involve electromobility and multimodal transport. Bosch’s latest collaboration agreement in the area is with the Chinese city of Tianjin. The aim of this alliance is to make this port into a smart city.

Growing three times faster than the market

In its transformation into a provider of urban mobility, the company is benefiting both from its technological expertise as the world’s leading automotive supplier and from its economic clout: the Mobility Solutions business sector’s 227,000 associates worldwide generated sales of 43.9 billion euros in 2016. This year, the Bosch Group’s mobility business is expected to grow by some 7 percent. This is nearly three times as fast as global automotive production.

We are growing faster than the market and, as an automotive systems supplier, will remain a strong and above all innovative partner of the automotive industry. Moreover, we are evolving into a provider of services for every road user,

says Bulander.

This also means that Bosch will be reinforcing the Mobility Solutions business sector’s research and development efforts over the course of the year. By the end of 2017, the business sector will employ 48,000 R&D associates, roughly 4,000 more than at the start of the year.

Mobility is the largest Bosch Group business sector. In 2023, its sales came to 56.2 billion euros, or just under 60 percent of total Group sales. This makes the Bosch Group one of the leading mobility suppliers. Bosch Mobility pursues a vision of mobility that is safe, sustainable, and exciting. For its customers, the outcome is integrated mobility solutions. The business sector’s main areas of activity are electrification, software and services, semiconductors and sensors, vehicle computers, advanced driver assistance systems, systems for vehicle dynamics control, repair-shop concepts, as well as technology and services for the automotive aftermarket. Bosch is synonymous with important automotive innovations, such as electronic engine management, the ESP anti-skid system, and common-rail diesel technology.

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 429,000 associates worldwide (as of December 31, 2023). The company generated sales of 91.6 billion euros in 2023. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. With its business activities, the company aims to use technology to help shape universal trends such as automation, electrification, digitalization, connectivity, and an orientation to sustainability. In this context, Bosch’s broad diversification across regions and industries strengthens its innovativeness and robustness. Bosch uses its proven expertise in sensor technology, software, and services to offer customers cross-domain solutions from a single source. It also applies its expertise in connectivity and artificial intelligence in order to develop and manufacture user-friendly, sustainable products. With technology that is “Invented for life,” Bosch wants to help improve quality of life and conserve natural resources. The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its roughly 470 subsidiary and regional companies in over 60 countries. Including sales and service partners, Bosch’s global manufacturing, engineering, and sales network covers nearly every country in the world. Bosch’s innovative strength is key to the company’s further development. At 136 locations across the globe, Bosch employs some 90,000 associates in research and development, of which nearly 48,000 are software engineers.

Additional information is available online at www.bosch.com, www.iot.bosch.com, www.bosch-press.com.

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