September 30, 2025 - World's Biggest Automotive Supplier to Make Major Cuts

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for September 30, 2025, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry.  

Bosch is the world's largest automotive supplier and thus it has significant exposure to the changing landscape of the transportation industry. With the electric vehicle transition taking much longer than projected, hydrogen gaining very little traction, and automated driving still very nascent, Bosch Mobility has yet to see any real return on the billions of euros it has invested in next-generation technologies. Like other automakers and suppliers, Bosch made a significant transition in its product investments over the past decade, scaling back on traditional technologies related to internal-combustion engines. Bosch is by no means alone in this, with most of its main competitors, including Aumovio, ZF, and Schaeffler, facing the same issues as they now retreat and continue to invest in current technologies along with those of the future. 

Bosch's challenges are further exacerbated by trade conflicts and the dramatic turn in the Chinese automotive market. Until about 2019, foreign automotive brands such as GM, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and the VW Group accounted for nearly two-thirds of market share in China, with the rest going to domestic brands. However, that market dynamic has flipped, and those European brands that relied heavily on components and systems from Bosch have seen a major decline in sales. Chinese OEMs now have two-thirds of the market and growing. 

The result, according to Bosch, is a 2.5 billion euro annual cost gap in its mobility business. Bosch plans major cost reductions and hopes to incorporate AI into manufacturing and engineering, as well as cutting up to 13,000 staff through 2030. Most of those job cuts will be in Bosch's German operations. This is almost certainly not the last round of major job cuts we'll be hearing about from suppliers and automakers in the next few years. 

Thanks for listening.