It’s not just automakers scrambling to get ready to produce a new round of electric motors in preparation for the new wave of battery-electrics coming to the U.S., its top suppliers are too.
Bosch is launching of production of electric motors at its Charleston, South Carolina manufacturing facilities, and plans to invest more than $260 million to expand production of electrification products at the site, which is expected to create at least 350 net new jobs by 2025.
“We have grown our electrification business globally and here in the North American region,” said Mike Mansuetti, president of Bosch in North America.
“We’ve invested more than $6 billion dollars in electromobility development and in 2021 our global orders for electromobility surpassed $10 billion dollars for the first time,” he said.
Local production helps advance EV revolution
Mansuetti said local production helps to advance our customers’ regional electrification strategies, and further supports the market demand for electrification for companies such as Rivian, which uses the electric motors.
Production of motors at the Charleston site began this month with the opening of 200,000 square feet in an existing building on the Bosch Charleston campus. The new assembly area includes the production of rotors and stators, and the final assembly of the electric motor, officials said.
The company secured additional electromobility business that requires further expansion at the plant.
An additional approximately 75,000 square feet will be added onto the existing building to make room for future production. The total investment for the expansion will be more than $260 million for the expansion and new high-tech manufacturing equipment.
The additional space will be operational by the end of 2023.
To move ahead the vision of sustainable mobility, Bosch also announced its fuel cell stack production lately in August in Anderson, South Carolina, as part of a more than $200 million investment also expected to create at least 350 new jobs by the start of production in 2026.
The Bosch Charleston facility, which opened in 1974, is the largest manufacturing site in the United States for Bosch from an employment perspective with around 1,500 associates. It covers more than 900,000 square feet of floor space located on 118 acres.
The newly launched production of electric motors is located in a building formerly occupied by production of diesel components. Bosch announced in January 2020 that production of diesel powertrain components would be slowly ramped down. The site indicated it would secure electrification business.
Latest technology moving to South Carolina
“This launch delivers on a commitment to our associates and to the local community in Charleston,” said Mansuetti, who started his Bosch career as a manufacturing engineer at the Charleston facility.
“We are in the midst of major shifts in mobility, and the story of reinvention in Charleston is a model for how electrification production can evolve from within an existing facility. We are building on the long-standing expertise and commitment of the Charleston team with this new production.”
As part of the site transformation, Bosch is offering retraining and new training opportunities to employees to prepare for the production of electric motors, including some workers traveling to other sites for training and best practice sharing.
Bosch is also enlisting the help of artificial intelligence and new design methods to continue to optimize development, efficiency, performance and use of materials. Electric motors from Bosch can deliver anywhere from 50 kilowatts to up to 500 kilowatts with torque ranging from 150 Nm to 1000 Nm.
