How the world’s largest auto parts supplier is evolving its business for the EV era
I was invited to tour Bosch’s Charleston, South Carolina, facility to see firsthand the evolution of the world’s largest auto parts supplier as the industry transitions to electric vehicles.
Stepping into the facility is like entering Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, but instead of chocolate rivers and little orange people, it’s filled with highly trained, motivated workers and next-generation technology working together in sync.
The company uses industry 4.0 production methods featuring artificial intelligence, precision lasers, robotics, and more to build precise, reliable auto parts at scale.
Bosch’s Charleston facility makes critical components for the auto industry shipping them out to nearly every major automaker, including Tesla, Ford, GM, and one of its latest customers, Rivian.
However, as the President of Bosch in North America, Mike Mansuetti, explains, the auto industry is “rapidly evolving” toward electric vehicles. The auto parts supplier is investing in a sustainable future by introducing new EV products and parts for its customers, bringing the technology to market at scale.
Mr. Manuetti says:
We’ve invested more than $6 billion dollars in electromobility development and
in 2021 our global orders for electromobility surpassed $10 billion dollars for the
first time. Local production helps to advance our customers’ regional
electrification strategies, and further supports the market demand for
electrification.
Bosch announced in January 2020 that it would begin to slow production of its diesel powertrain components to focus on sustainable solutions. A prime example of the rapidly evolving industry, the building is now being used to build electric motors for the Rivian R1T.
Bosch is building its portfolio to power electric vehicles
Bosch began production of the electric motors in October for the Rivian R1T, marking a “new era of electrification” for the global auto parts leader. The manufacturing site covers around 200,000 square feet in the previously used diesel components area.
The electric motor consists of two primary parts – the rotor and the stator. The stator features winded copper bars for superior efficiency and power density. The coils receive energy from alternating current coming via power electronics from the battery.
Meanwhile, the rotor is filled with magnets by the process of transfer molding to promote fewer air pockets. As the current flows into the stator, the rotor’s magnetic field chases that of the stator, generating energy that powers the vehicle’s wheels. The casing then consists of an aluminum A-shed and B-shed that enclose the unit.
The company utilizes high-tech AI-powered machinery and other robotics to reduce its carbon footprint while producing faster, more accurate results.
According to Bosch, its electric motor features 98% efficiency. In addition, the process is scalable, allowing more freedom to customers, delivering anywhere from 50 kW up to 500 kW with a torque range from 150 Nm to 1000 Nm and up to 680 HP.
Since electric vehicle motors differ in size, scope, and material, the new production process came with challenges. Perhaps, more importantly, the shift to electric vehicles is creating a gap in workers to fill these high-tech manufacturing jobs.
Realizing this, Bosch is providing reskilling and upskilling opportunities for its employees while partnering with local schools to ensure there is the talent needed to propel the future of the auto industry.
Investing in electromobility training
As Bosch explained, the transition would not be possible without the workers. To accelerate the process, employees were sent to Bosch’s plants in Germany for training and to learn how they could make the manufacturing process more efficient with automation.
As a result, these are not your typical manufacturing jobs. These are high-tech jobs that involve skills such as software programming and working with automated machines.
If you think about it, when you bring your car in for a checkup, it’s not a toolbox the mechanic brings out anymore. It’s often a laptop designed to pinpoint the issue automatically. Electric vehicles are more sophisticated and therefore require a different skill set to work on.
Vehicle suppliers play an integral role in the US economy, contributing to around 2.5% of GDP. As electric vehicles continue gaining momentum, surpassing gas-powered vehicle sales, the workforce will need to be able to support the transition.
Bosch’s $260 million expansion is expected to create 350 net new jobs by 2025, and this is just the start. To position itself for the future in the auto industry, Bosch is partnering with local schools in Charleston, such as Trident Technical College, to integrate electric vehicle education into the curriculum.
The auto supplier’s corporate foundation, The Bosch Community Fund, has provided $2.5 million in STEM education efforts in the Charleston area since 2013.
Electrek’s Take
With electric vehicles on track to claim 13% of global new car sales in 2022, the rapidly evolving auto industry is establishing a new stream of jobs. What Bosch is doing is taking employees that were previously working on parts for gas-powered cars and training them for the future of the industry.
However, the company is finding that there are major stigmatizations and built-in perceptions around manufacturing jobs that don’t apply anymore.
People will not be interested in what they don’t know. These manufacturing jobs utilize skills that some kids use essentially every day, like video games that require quick thinking and analytical skills.
The issue is that educators are unaware of what future manufacturing jobs will look like, thanks to the electric vehicle revolution. Teachers are not pushing for these jobs because they don’t associate them with the skills that they will be using. Same idea with parents.
To support the new EV era, what needs to happen is a change in perception that gets people interested in the auto industry’s future and putting the US back on track to become a manufacturing powerhouse.
Last year, new electric vehicle jobs soared 26.2%, establishing 21,961 new positions. And this year, the pace has accelerated even further with new climate initiatives and substantial investments from foreign automakers on US soil.
Since the beginning of 2021, companies have invested around $85 billion in manufacturing operations for electric vehicles, batteries, and chargers, all of which require a new set of skilled workers.
The opportunities electric vehicles are creating in the United States are already showing, and the EV market share is just reaching 6%. Imagine what will happen in another year.
Bosch, the largest auto supplier worldwide, will play a significant role in the transformation. During my visit, they seemed eager and up to the challenge of supporting the incoming wave of electric vehicles and the future of the industry.
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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