Bosch and other three giants may build their own cars

According to Handelsblatt, Bosch is working with Benteler and Pininfarina to develop an electric vehicle platform. As a global giant in the automotive parts industry, Bosch may break the taboo and build a complete vehicle platform for the first time.

(Photo: "Mobile chassis" jointly developed by Bosch and Benteler )

A piece of news in early March did not attract much attention, but it may actually have a huge impact on the future of the automotive industry: Italian car design and body manufacturing company Pininfarina joined the cooperation between Bosch and Benteler .

This project may seem insignificant, but it is actually a strategic layout. Even during the current epidemic, Bosch is still insisting on promoting this project. This project involves a billion-dollar market. Bosch, Benteler and Pininfarina, three auto parts companies, can complete the design and manufacturing of the whole vehicle together. In the future, any company that wants to enter the electric vehicle market can entrust these three companies with full authority.

German auto parts suppliers including ZF , Mahle and Hella learned that although automobile production is now largely stagnant, projects related to future travel technology are still progressing normally, mainly electric drive and unmanned driving related projects.

Bosch and Benteler have a long history of cooperation, and recently they jointly launched a "mobile chassis" designed specifically for electric vehicles . Benteler provides collision solutions, chassis and battery systems; Bosch provides drive rods, steering, brakes and electronic appliances including control systems. With the addition of Pininfarina, vehicle design and integration have also become possible. The three companies working together can fully achieve high-quality vehicle design and matching.

Of course, the platform concept has been successfully implemented before. As an automotive platform expert, Volkswagen Group plans to produce more than 3 million electric vehicles on the MEB platform built specifically for electric vehicles.

So why does Bosch bother to build its own platform? Bosch said that if auto parts suppliers want to survive in the future, they must have their own platforms. Bosch Chairman Volkmar Denner once said that Bosch will not delve into platform technology, will remain a parts supplier, and will not become a competitor to OEMs.

But Denner also said that Bosch wants to become a leader in the electric vehicle market and gain a larger market share in the electric vehicle market than in the traditional fuel vehicle market.

To achieve this goal, Bosch needs to not only retain existing customers but also turn its attention to new entrants into the market, namely startups and mobility service providers, which have not yet launched their own car manufacturing plans but need specialized vehicles to support their business models.

Uber and Didi Chuxing are typical examples. The needs of these companies can be met by installing a specially designed body on the "mobile chassis" jointly created by Bosch and Benteler.

All these efforts can account for at least 60% of the value of the entire vehicle industry chain. In order to improve their competitiveness, large automakers have decided to increase the proportion of independent research and development. Therefore, auto parts suppliers must open up new battlefields. The main target customers of the research and development results of "Bosch" are those companies that do not have independent research and development capabilities or do not want to do independent research and development.

Bosch has already announced that it will not enter the battery manufacturing industry, which is a key link in the electric vehicle value chain. In this case, the "mobile chassis" project is even more critical to Bosch. In addition, the project is also a test of the relationship between Bosch and the OEMs, and may form a direct competitive relationship with the OEMs.