Quick Take: China Market Remains Bosch’s Largest Growth Sector

(Beijing) — German automotive technology giant Bosch Group saw China remain its largest overseas market, accounting for 17% of its global sales last year.

Sales in China rose by 19% to 91.5 billion yuan ($13.3 billion) last year, Bosch China said in a statement on Thursday.

The strong growth in China has been driven mainly by the automobile business, said Chen Yudong, president of Bosch (China) Investment Ltd., at a news conference on Thursday.

About 70% of its revenue in China came from the automobile business, with the rest made up by the emerging home-appliance and industrial automation segments, Bosch told Caixin.

With the entire technology industry focusing on burgeoning sectors such as the internet of things and artificial intelligence (AI), Bosch has also joined the parade.

This year, Chen said Bosch’s main target was shifting toward supplying industrial internet-of-things solutions. Electronics rivals including Siemens AG, General Electric and Schneider Electric SE have all showed off their industrial internet-of-things platforms at the Hannover Messe trade fair in April.

Bosch has also developed its own industrial internet-of-things cloud platform at its German headquarters, but hasn’t launched it in China as they are waiting government approval, Chen told Caixin.

The group has also launched three AI research centers at its Gerlingen headquarters near Stuttgart, Germany; the Silicon Valley in the U.S.; and Bangalore, India.

“The next step is to start AI research in China,” Chen told Caixin.

Contact reporter Coco Feng (renkefeng@caixin.com)