Bosch booms

The world's leading technology and parts supplier to the car industry is trying to reduce its reliance on people buying cars.

The technical lynchpin of Germany's car industry, Robert Bosch, posted nine percent growth from its automotive division in 2014, it said in a statement.

Bosch also reiterated its hope to reduce its exposure to the automotive sector, which, with 33.3 billion euros in sales last year, accounted for 68 per cent of the company's €48.9 billion turnover.

It plans to increase its focus on consumer appliances to reduce the role the car industry plays in its future, with plans to bump up its water heater, power tool and building management technology sectors.

It spent three billion euros last year to take control of its home-appliance joint venture with Siemens and also bought the US$190 million-a-year air conditioning and security systems management company, Climatec, off Pegasus Capital Advisors.

Bosch doesn't want its car business to stop growing, though, because in 2014 it grew at twice the rate of the automotive sector itself.

Bosch said a lot of the growth in automotive was fueled by technology to save fuel, like direct-fuel injection, high-pressure diesel injection systems, or deliver greater infotainment options to passengers.

It has also announced plans to continue acquiring new automotive-related businesses after buying out joint-venture partner, ZF Friedrichshafen, in 2014 to gain outright ownership of a car steering systems operation.

Expecting global car production to grow by about three percent this year, Bosch has long-term plans to bump its margins up to eight percent and expects to grow on the back of its research and investments in autonomous cars.

Bosch supplies many of the key parts for Google's highly publicised autonomous car and is also a supplier to Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW's self-driving prototypes.

Bosch was also recently named as the world's number two in automotive patent applications.

A global patent applications report by Thomson Reuters IP & Science showed Toyota headed the field with around 7000 patent applications over the last three years, followed by Bosch (with around 6000 patents) and Hyundai in third place with around 4500.

Bosch filed more patent applications for driver assistance systems over the report's three-year window than any other company, including Toyota, and was second only to Toyota in propulsion-system patents.

It filed three times as many patents as Stuttgart neighbour, Daimler.