Q: How for much longer do you consider the worldwide semiconductor scarcity will final?
A: You’ll be able to’t remedy it this 12 months. It is not possible. It is going to be higher on the finish of this 12 months than now, however it may possibly’t be totally solved till past then. There will likely be one other necessary step subsequent 12 months as a result of there will likely be a change within the economic system on the whole that may impression the demand facet of the query. After which hopefully, on the finish of subsequent 12 months, we’ll have a a lot clearer view of the right way to transfer forward with the demand development.
As Bosch invests billions of euros in its semiconductor enterprise, does it plan to produce extra chips to different firms, together with provider opponents?
Many of the investments have been made to meet our personal demand. However in some areas, we do direct gross sales of semiconductors — particularly within the space of micro-electromechanical sensors. We’re an enormous participant within the MEMS market, and that goes not solely to automotive however into wide-scale client electronics. We spend money on MEMS as a result of it has big potential, not solely in automotive however for customers. Nonetheless, for many semiconductors, we purchase. Different individuals produce for us. It varies by phase.
Bosch can be investing closely in hydrogen fuel cell technology, regardless that it is a comparatively area of interest product. When do you see these investments paying off?
With electrification, we noticed an enormous transfer occurring that increasingly more automotive producers are partaking in constructing platforms for it. However then got here the query: “OK, you’ve the electrified drivetrain, however as you go to the heavier vehicles, how is that going to work? What number of tons ought to the battery weigh?”
Increasingly, you have been seeing producers clearly beginning initiatives on hydrogen as a result of that’s the path for heavy, long-range vehicles to grow to be CO2-free. So we began on gas cell techniques.
We noticed there have been a complete bunch of parts linked to it — not simply the stack and the system, but in addition some very technically difficult parts. And we like these sorts of issues. That is what we’re good at.
Your query is about velocity. We’ll should see. On hydrogen, we all know that you’re going to see much more autos with it, however the query is what share is it going to achieve and how briskly will it go there? That is nonetheless an open query. However I feel since it is a CO2-free know-how, it is going to be used. I am an enormous fan of any CO2-free know-how.
As Bosch adapts to rising applied sciences, how totally different will the corporate look sooner or later?
In 15-20 years, this will likely be a special firm, undoubtedly. There will likely be totally different product ranges, and new engine applied sciences will likely be a lot additional down the street. There will likely be far more software program engineers. There will likely be far more computational energy in every automobile, so there will likely be rather more software program. And which means fully totally different setups of groups and collaboration fashions.
We’ll most likely produce other partnerships on prime of that. We’ll work with extra semiconductor firms and work extra with software program firms and platform firms. Our partnership system will most likely explode.
And we’ll most likely should play rather more domestically. We’ll have stronger native footprints in the USA, in China, in Europe, and in addition have the ability to serve clients in these totally different areas as a result of they are going to have totally different calls for.