Bosch Sees Scant Europe Demand for Hybrid Vehicles
Date: 23-Oct-07
Country: GERMANY
"For 2015, Bosch forecasts that hybrid vehicles will account for 4 percent of production in the NAFTA countries and 9 percent in Japan," it said in a statement.
The comparative figure for Europe is relatively low, according to the company, with mild and full hybrids accounting for just 1 percent of production.
Hybrids combine an internal combustion engine with an electric motor and generally work on the principle of recovering energy lost during the braking process.
Whereas full hybrids such as Toyota Motor Corp's Prius can drive short distances purely on electrical power, cars using mild hybrids require the internal combustion engine to drive the vehicle at all times.
Bosch said it has been working on hybrid technologies for over 30 years and has its first orders for both gasoline as well as diesel hybrids.
(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)