Bosch wants to take advantage of growing demand for hybrids

Automotive supplier Robert Bosch GmbH is hoping to grab a significant chunk of new business over the next decade as hybrids and diesels take up a bigger share of the automotive market. Bosch is forecasting that hybrids will take four percent of the North American market and nine percent of the Japanese market by 2015. That's considerably more than the current sub-one percent and four percent shares.

Bosch has assigned over 250 engineers to hybrid development including creating modular components that auto-makers can purchase to apply to their vehicles. The Bosch parallel hybrid system is being developed as an electric motor/generator module that can be combined with existing transmissions. This differs from most current production hybrid systems where the electric drive hardware is incorporated into the transmission.

Bosch is also teaming up with transmission manufacturer to develop a hybrid setup to work with their dual clutch transmissions. Bosch says they have customer deals for both gas and diesel hybrids although they haven't announced who they are yet.

Related:

• Bosch chairman doesn't see hybrids making a dent in CO2
• Bosch, Siemens VDO, Delphi predict GDI sales will get boost from new emissions rules

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]