In the face of constantly changing trade and tariff policies from the Trump administration the head of auto supplier Bosch’s North American operations repeatedly called for stability in order make key decisions regarding production and investments.
President of Bosch in North America and president of Bosch Mobility Americas Paul Thomas also made a revealing statement about the complexion of electric vehicle adoption during an online media briefing on the company’s business, Wednesday.
On the tariff and trade issues, Thomas invoked the term “stability” five times in his formal remarks and in response to a reporter’s question.
“I would emphasize the importance of stability, which is considered a holistic view that creates a winning scenario for the country and for the business,” said Thomas in his presentation.
He later expanded on the concept explaining as a global company Bosch has long adopted the strategy of minimizing imports by manufacturing the parts and components it sells to its customers closer to where they ultimately build their products—a practice Thomas termed “local-for-local,” adhere as much as possible to the U.S. Mexico Canada Trade Agreement, or USMCA.
Even as some of the tariff rhetoric has tempered in recent days, Thomas is looking for an even more stable environment.
“So I think that the environment now is starting, I don’t want to say, starting to calm down, but at least the dramatic discussions are starting to point in a direction that we can start to take action from that, and that’s why I’m looking just for stability,” he said in an interview following his presentation. “At the end of the day, it’s business. We’ll manage it the right way. We will find a way to mitigate or to take advantage of tariffs on the competitive standpoint, if we need to, but it’s always, I mean, tariffs and trade have always been a part of our business.”
To paint a picture of Bosch’s commitment to North America, and the U.S., in particular, Thomas pointed out the company invested more than $2 billion in capital expenditures in the U.S., representing more than 75% of its total North American cap ex.
“We have an ambition for North America to represent 20% of the Bosch global sales by 2030,” said Thomas. The U.S. will represent the majority of the North American contribution.
The company employs more than 20,000 people in the U.S. at 15-plus manufacturing sites, he said. That will grow once a deal to purchase the HVAC business for residential and light commercial buildings from Johnson Controls closes later this year.
In expressing the importance of the region, the reference to stability came up again in a statement from Bosch chairman Stefan Hartung.
“We recognize the economic importance of the U.S. market, including its resilience and innovation leadership,” Hartung said in a release. “While our goal is to increase regional balance through investment and growth, we also need a favorable and stable trade environment.”
Along with serving as president of Bosch’s North American operations, Thomas also leads the unit’s mobility portfolio, the company’s biggest business sector.
Indeed, the company announced it landed a “major award” with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to install its tram-forward collision warning system in the agency’s entire fleet, including retrofitting existing trams.
While continuing to invest and support technologies related to software-defined vehicles and advanced driver assistance capabilities, the company is deftly balancing its portfolio between support for internal combustion engine, or ICE, hybrid and battery electric vehicles.
Indeed, where many industry analysts and insiders have termed hybrids as a “bridge technology” for consumers not quite ready to make the full jump to full battery-electric vehicles, that’s a bridge Thomas isn’t crossing, based on the slower-than-expected adoption of EVs.
“Our ICE and system-level leadership also applies to hybrids, which we no longer see as a bridge technology, but a road on what we call a multi-lane highway of mobility options.”
When asked during our interview for some deeper context to that statement, Thomas offered, I think we know that our consumers in the region want the choice, and they want the ability to have one vehicle, two vehicles or three vehicles based upon their needs. We’ve never thought one direction was the only direction, and the move from ICE to BEVs with hybrids was a bridge because we thought people would become very comfortable, but we never knew how long that bridge was going to be.”
As a privately-held corporation Bosch does not publicly release quarterly financial statements, but the company did provide these highlights of its 2024 performance:
- Nearly 5% year-over-year North American sales growth
- Consolidated sales of $17.3 billion
- Total net sales of $18.6 billion
- North America mobility business increased to $10.7 billion n sales to third
- North American region posted an increase to $3.4 billion in sales in consumer goods
- Energy and building technology sales in North America increased to $1.9 billion.
- For the Industrial Technology business sector, the North American region decreased to $1.3 billion.
