Bernd Bohr, head of the automotive division of Robert Bosch, asks a joint effort to get automakers to standardize parts to limit growing research and developmentcosts.
Bosch is pushing for greater industry standardization because suppliers and automakers face unprecedented investment demands.
He said that agreeing on common standards for parts would allow suppliers to offer cost reductions of 5 to 10 percent and a «savings potential of 20 percent to 30 percent” for some kinds of software.
Bosch invests 10 percent of its global automotive sales revenue in innovation Bohr also called for joint marketing of new technologies to consumers to win more economies of scale. The alternative is just letting the technologies proliferate on a gradually increasing number of vehicles.
“We need teamwork” he said, across the industry — the automakers and the suppliers working together.”
Bosch, based in Stuttgart, Germany, ranks n° 1 supplier with worldwide OE automotive parts sales of $30 billion in 2006.