Bosch CEO: "Performed better than expected, but 2024 is challenging"

Bosch can look back on a successful year and is currently facing major challenges - especially in Europe. This is where the company generated almost half of its sales of 91.6 billion euros in 2023. 27.9 billion already comes from Asia-Pacific, primarily from China and India. The clocks run differently there: while Europe focuses primarily on battery-electric drive systems for cars and trucks, China and India have a broader base.

The Stuttgart-based company therefore wants to become involved in all three areas - combustion engines, fuel cells and battery-electric drives. The mobility division accounts for 56.2 billion euros of sales, which grew by 6.9 percent last year after adjusting for currency effects. Bosch thus remains number one worldwide. The second largest area is consumer goods such as washing machines (129.9 billion euros), followed by energy and building technology (7.7 billion euros) and industrial technology (7.4 billion euros).

In 2023, Bosch and its 429,416 associates achieved an operating result of 4.8 billion euros, one billion euros more than in 2022. However, the number of associates is unlikely to be maintained: "In order to remain competitive, we also have to change structures and cut jobs," says Bosch CEO Hartung. How many jobs will be lost also depends on political decisions. Hartung: "We cannot replace the jobs that will be lost, for example with the imminent phase-out of combustion engines in new European vehicles, with new technologies on a one-to-one basis." Bosch must not only take care of the ecological climate, but also the social climate. Hartung: "It is good news that we did better than expected in 2023. But 2024 is once again challenging." (aum/gr)