The magneto ignition device for motorized carriages that was first delivered to a customer in 1898 marks the first major milestone as an automotive supplier. There were numerous other important milestones on the Bosch way of becoming a global automotive supplier with a wide range of automotive systems, components, and services. Examples include the diesel injection pump, the Jetronic electronic gasoline-injection system, the ABS antilock braking system, the ESP® electronic stability program, and common rail.

Today, Bosch products help a lot to cut fuel consumption and emissions, and to make driving safer and more comfortable. Bosch technology can be found in virtually every vehicle on the road, whether helping to stabilize vehicle dynamics in critical situations, automatically maintaining a safe distance from the vehicle in front, finding the most economical way to reach a destination, or improving visibility at night.
 
With his finely honed entrepreneurial instinct, Robert Bosch was quick to latch on to good ideas. He then used his technical flair and commercial expertise to turn them into high-quality products that represented excellent value for money. The principles that he formulated and lived by still shape the company, the values, and the actions of Bosch today. They help us turn challenges into opportunities. Examples in automotive engineering include recognizing the potential for growth in Asia, realizing the potential of the electric car, supporting the associated emergence of new concepts of mobility, as well as participating in the trend toward smaller vehicles.

Although Bosch is now a technology and services company that is active in many other areas, the automotive business sector has always been at the heart of what Bosch does. No other business sector can look back on such a long or multifaceted history.