Budapest – The foundation stone laying ceremony today marks the start of a new expansion to the Bosch Engineering Center Budapest campus. Planned for completion by 2021, the first phase of building has a budget of 37 billion forints. The event was attended by Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Dr. Klaus-Peter Fouquet, Chairman of Supervisory Board of Robert Bosch Kft., Daniel Korioth, Representative of the Bosch Group in Hungary, and Oliver Schatz, Head of Engineering Center Budapest.
The Engineering Center Budapest has a constantly-rising profile in Bosch's world-scale developments and plays an important role in the development of automated and electrified mobility. It is also one of the foremost research, development and test facilities for automotive electronics in the Bosch Group. Its rapid development and the launch of new-generation development projects have prompted the purchase of a new site beside the present Bosch campus. "The constant expansion of the Engineering Center Budapest and respect it has earned in the industry are down to the expertise and commitment of engineers working in Hungary," Daniel Koroth said at the ceremony. "Our company intends to keep out in front in the creation of future-shaping technologies, and essential to this is the innovative work of my colleagues," Korioth added.
The new section of the Bosch campus will be completed in two phases, on an area of 90,000 square meters. The first phase will result in the main building with two towers. It will accommodate creative spaces, a conference hall, a large vehicle workshop and a canteen. Laboratories to be built in the first phase will include a special chamber for testing whole vehicles, with state-of-the-art, highly specialized measurement capabilities. The first section of a staff car park and a technical support building will also feature in the first phase. Another key element will be a 10,000 square meter proving ground for testing ultrasonic-, radar- and camera-based driver assistance systems. On top of its technical sophistication and inspiring working conditions, it will have eye-catching modern architecture, with a green roof and a pedestrian bridge to the campus building that went up five years ago.
The first-phase complex will have space for 1800 associates. "We have a declared intention to continuously increase the number of large scale projects based on our outstanding technical competence," said Oliver Schatz. "To support creativity and innovation and to enable cross functional cooperation, our new building and office concept incorporates creative spaces, innovation zones and as well quiet and relaxing zones. Besides that we will enhance the technical possibilities in the complex to a new and outstanding level," Schatz added.
Robert Bosch Kft., founded in 1991, is a commercial operation involved in sales and customer service for vehicle parts, vehicle diagnostic equipment, power tools, thermotechnology equipment and security systems. The Bosch European Transport Management Center also operates here. The company has been involved in development since 2000, and following an expansion to the portfolio of the automatic transmission software development division, the Engineering Center Budapest (ECB) was founded in 2005 and now has more than twenty-four departments and more than 2400 employees, making Hungary Bosch's largest R&D location in Europe after Germany. A wide range of electronic vehicle control systems and mechanical components are under development in the ECB. These include ABS, ESP, air bags, engine management and automated parking systems, electric drive systems and electric motors. Among its areas of development are dashboards and driver assistance systems, which are paving the way towards automated cars. All phases of the work are conducted in the ECB, including system and algorithm development, electrical and mechanical design, simulation, and reliability checks and tests.