Bosch: the company behind a century of automotive engineering

History

The company was founded by Robert Bosch on 15 November 1886 in Stuttgart under the name Werkstätte für Feinmechanik und Elektrotechnik (Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering). It adopted its current name, Robert Bosch GmbH, in 1937. Its link to the automobile began in 1897, when Bosch started fitting magneto ignition devices to cars — one of the first practical solutions of its kind, which quickly established the company as a serious ignition-systems supplier.

Over the following decades Bosch developed fuel-injection technology. It had been building mechanical injection systems since 1951 (for cars such as the Gutbrod Superior 600 and Goliath GP 700), but the real breakthrough came on 14 September 1967, when Bosch unveiled the electronically controlled Jetronic gasoline injection system at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Bosch had filed a patent for an anti-lock braking concept as early as 1936, but it took until the electronics of the 1970s matured for the idea to become commercially viable — the first four-wheel, electronically controlled ABS reached production in the 1978 Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W116). The company's headquarters are today in Gerlingen, Baden-Württemberg.

What Bosch makes

Bosch's automotive portfolio spans ignition systems and spark plugs, fuel-injection systems (both gasoline and diesel), engine sensors, control electronics (including ABS/ESP systems), alternators and starters, filters, wiper blades, batteries, and brake-system components. The company supplies these parts both directly to vehicle manufacturers (OE) and to the aftermarket under its own brand.

Buying Bosch parts

Bosch is one of the few suppliers that effectively invented entire categories of parts it still makes today — spark ignition, electronic fuel injection, ABS. That means that in many cases the Bosch part sold on the aftermarket is the same component, or a direct equivalent, that Bosch supplies to carmakers as original equipment. For spark plugs, sensors, injection components and control electronics, Bosch is generally a safe bet for OE-comparable quality, usually at a lower price than the part sold under the vehicle manufacturer's own badge.