The introduction of new technologies is undoubtedly a big boost for the Chinese auto market, where the demand for electrification and intelligence is increasing. On August 1, Bosch's intelligent booster production base settled in Nanjing, and its product iBooster will be put into production in 2019.
The production base has a total investment of 770 million yuan (100 million euros) and covers an area of approximately 22,000 square meters. It is the first iBooster production base in the Asia-Pacific region.
As of 2016, the Asia-Pacific region has become Bosch's largest sales market in the world outside the European market, with a sales share of 35%. Among them, the Chinese market has contributed a lot. "In 2016, Bosch's sales in China reached 91.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19%." Dr. Xu Daquan, Executive Vice President of Bosch (China) Investment Co., Ltd., said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
"China is the world's largest automotive market. In order to meet China's growing demand for electrification and automated driving solutions, Bosch continues to invest and introduce our latest technology to China." said Dr. Dirk Hoheisel, a member of the Bosch Group Board of Directors.
The advent of iBooster will overturn the current situation that modern internal combustion engines and electric vehicles cannot provide sufficient vacuum for traditional vacuum brake boosters and can only be solved by carrying a vacuum pump.
"iBooster is an electromechanical brake booster that does not rely on a vacuum source. It is suitable for all powertrain solutions and can adapt to the future development trend of automotive electrification and automation." Bosch executives said to the car headline APP.
For new energy vehicles, when iBooster works in coordination with ESP® hev, almost 100% of the braking energy can be recovered and the cruising range can be increased by 20%.
In addition to being applied to new energy vehicles, iBooster is also applicable to autonomous vehicles above level three. In an emergency, iBooster can shorten the braking distance during emergency automatic braking; if a collision is unavoidable, iBooster can help reduce the impact speed and the risk of injury.
In the first year of iBooster production, the Nanjing plant will have a production capacity of 400,000 units. Bosch's plan for the production capacity of the Nanjing plant is to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 53% and the plant will reach a production capacity of 3.2 million units by 2024.