31/08/2016 05:16 AST
Dr. Uwe Thomas, chairman of the Automotive Aftermarket Divisional Board at Robert Bosch GmbH, and Sheikh Khaled Bin Ahmed Al Juffali managing partner and vice chairman at E.A. Juffali & Brothers Co., stressed on the growing partnership between the two companies especially with the expected changes in the transport sector.
“Especially connected mobility will change the Automotive Aftermarket, which is the Bosch division I am leading. For us, connected mobility is the future’ Dr. Uwe said during his presentation at a roundtable discussion tonight to discuss the Future of Mobility and the Development of the Automotive Aftermarket in Saudi Arabia here at the Intercontinental hotel.
“The Internet of Things and the increasing digitalization have impacted and changed the way we live permanently. Today, we use our phones for a variety of things without even thinking about it, it has become normal,” he added.
The roundtable was held to mark Bosch’s longstanding presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and 50 years of partnership with Juffali Auto Parts Co. (Japco), Bosch, a leading global supplier of technology and services, and the future trends.
Dr. Uwe Thomas, Sheikh Khaled, and Andreas Bodemer, vice president of Middle East and Africa region at Bosch Automotive Aftermarket, were at the discussion.
Sheikh Khaled in his introduction speech welcomed Dr. Uwe and his colleagues to the Kingdom and thanked him for his informative presentation.
He said “Bosch is a huge company on its own with 70 billion euro sales and 375,000 employees working worldwide. Saudi Arabia is the largest market in the Middle East and we are looking to expand our cooperation in workshops and outlets.
“On the other hand we are following Vision 2030 which has been announced by the government, and we are looking at localizing much more here in the Kingdom specifically by training Saudis and Saudi students, which we have been doing for 40 years or so. And basically the capacity of the student-training center on Makkah Road will take in about 800 students. We are starting small and hope to enroll more.”
During the discussion, the hosts were asked whether new and additional skill sets would be needed with connectivity being the way of future, and how the two would steer the partnership, to which Sheikh Khaled replied, “Basically what we are looking at and depending on is Bosch’s knowledge and entrepreneurial skills to assist in training. This is the real cooperation between us, in other words is transfer of technology. And Bosch is of course one of the highest skilled companies in the world in electronic science or mechanical science.”
This was complemented by Dr. Uwe, who said “we have training schools all over the world. As you know it is not only about skills and traditional techniques, which we have been offering, training for many years. But our training center in Germany is introducing new training for the new concepts. Here all the new techniques and activity is being introduced, and when we talk about the future the modern mechanic will not have grease on his hands as it is becoming more and more a software business, where he will be more IT savvy. This opens up space and opportunities for young people. We have to show the public of the new kind of future mobility by introducing to them these concepts, and we would cooperate with Juffali in this regard.”
While discussing the future of automotive, electric cars, Dr. Uwe was questioned that in the next 20 years there will be a big change ushering a new generation of companies, and will Bosch be one of them, he said “yes, new car and carmakers are coming up in US, and elsewhere. What we see is electrified cars has offered opportunities for us in research and development, for electrified cars will make up 15% of the cars by 2025.
Besides electrification, we sell 15 million sensors. Sensors are the fut
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