As a result of everstricter international emissions standards, suppliers and automobile manufacturers alike are faced with extremely demanding technical challenges. These challenges can be met most quickly and most cost-effectively by enhancements to the internal-combustion engine, which we believe offers potential savings of around 30 percent in terms of consumption and CO₂ emissions over the next few years.

Savings of this magnitude can be achieved for both gasoline and diesel engines by combining a series of measures. New combustion processes, optimized auxiliary systems, the utilization of braking energy, a more efficient thermal management system, the start-stop system, and other innovative ideas are helping to deliver ever lower emissions from combustion engines. This is an area Bosch excels in thanks to the expertise it has built up in vehicle systems over the years.

At the same time, we are also pushing ahead with vehicle electrification in a dedicated business unit. The first series-produced vehicles equipped with Bosch hybrid technology, which we see as a stepping stone to the electric car, will roll off the production lines at the start of 2010. These promise fuel savings of some 25 percent. Subsequently, lithium-ion battery technology – which we are developing in our joint venture SB LiMotive Co. Ltd. – will be launched in 2011. This represents a further milestone on the journey toward clean mobility of the future that is entirely free of local emissions.