FRANKFURT -- The cost of electric vehicles can be brought down by simplifying the drivetrains to allow components to be built at scale, Bosch Mobility’s chief technical officer said.
Chinese EV makers are already using this strategy to bring down the cost of building their cars, which experts say is 30 percent or more below Western automakers.
“Let's stop engineering all the tiny bits and pieces on an e-powertrain and look at getting something really cost effective on your vehicles instead,” said Mathias Pillin, the CTO at Bosch Mobility, the supplier’s largest business unit.
Pillin spoke with Automotive News Europe on the sidelines of the Automotive News Europe Congress in Frankfurt about how Bosch is managing diverse drivetrain needs from its customers.
He said that Bosch was committed to “technology openness” when it came to balancing electric and combustion portfolios.
“Whatever the market requires, we are going to ship,” he said, adding that Bosch continued to be strong in “classical combustion engines” but is also investing heavily in electric components such as motors, power semiconductors and gearboxes; as well as hydrogen propulsion.
The speed of the transition to electrification differs by region, Pillin said. Chinese brands are willing to move quickly into mass production of EVs in a “highly standardized” way, he said. “That is something we can serve very well as a supplier,” he said, adding that Western automakers are more likely to require specialized parts.
Kerrigan Advisors’ proprietary annual OEM Survey of over 100 executives reveals that the majority of respondents are worried about the financial impact of Chinese automakers’ growing global market share, and most expect that the EV transition to be slower than expected. The survey also queried executives on their outlooks for dealership valuations and profitability, as well as their expectations for the future of dealer networks and facility requirements.
He said Bosch was the leader in its addressable market in China, which he defined as “what automakers aren’t making themselves in-house.”
Pillin acknowledged that EV sales had slowed but said that Bosch has already factored that into its forecasts.
He said that EV sales could regain momentum with a focus on the major cost drivers, mostly the battery.
“The key question is how much battery do you bake into your vehicle, because that will put the price sticker on it,” he said. “We can't influence that one, because we don't make batteries but what we can do is work on making our components as efficient as possible.”
He cited silicon carbide semiconductors as an example of that. “If you use them, you need less battery to drive the same distance,” Pillin said. Bosch has heavily invested in SiC technology, notably acquiring California-based TSI Semiconductors in 2023.
In addition to technology, scale will bring down the costs associated with EVs, he said, again citing China as an example.
“The decisive factor why e-powertrains sell well in China is because we as suppliers can run our classical business model of scaling up stuff at attractive costs,” he said.
We can “sell standardized products to many, many customers. This brings costs down dramatically,” he said.
