RELEASED ON 04/03/13 (DD/MM/YY)

Robert Bosch GmbH pulled out of its venture  with Samsung SDI to develop and manufacture lithium  ion batteries last year. And Bosch Chairman Volkmar Denner is happy to be out of that segment  — for now.

The market for hybrid and  electric vehicles is saturated with too much capacity for lithium ion batteries,  Denner said at a media roundtable in Tokyo. So instead of focusing on mass  production today, Bosch will develop next-generation batteries, he  said.

Bosch expects electrified  vehicles to account for only 10 percent of the global market in 2020.  Bosch’s r&d efforts will concentrate on meeting demand after that,  Denner said.

“Since the market will be quite  low until 2020, we at the moment are very happy that we are not engaged in  high-volume battery production,” Denner said. “We will concentrate on r&d so  we can make progress regarding energy density and the cost of lithium ion  batteries.”

Bosch teamed with Samsung SDI , through a 50-50 venture called SB LiMotive , to develop and make batteries for  electrified cars. But Bosch sold its stake to Samsung SDI last year.

While Bosch will pursue  its own battery research, it will use cells from Samsung SDI in a Bosch battery pack that  will supplied to the Fiat 500e electric car starting next year.

Overall, Denner said, the  company’s automotive sales are expected to grow by 2 percent to 4 percent this  year, after growing 1.7 percent in 2012.

Sales to Japanese automakers will  grow by about 8 percent, accounting for a bigger share of global revenue.

Japanese automakers are turning  to Bosch when they expand overseas because Bosch often is  established in those markets.

That gives the German company an  advantage over Japanese suppliers that don’t have as great an international  reach.

Japan’s automakers have sought  links with foreign suppliers to diversify sourcing as a hedge against  foreign-exchange fluctuations and after the 2011 earthquake in Japan exposed the  perils of relying on suppliers in a limited geographic area.

“The share of Japanese OEMs in  the Bosch portfolio grew last year, and my expectation is that this will  also continue in the future,” Denner said. “Our main target is to grow with the  Japanese OEMs outside of Japan, in the emerging markets mainly.”

SOURCE Crain Communications