German automotive supplier Bosch has received permission to start building the second phase of a $1bn research, development and production centre on the western outskirts of Shanghai.
Bosch said in January that it was building the centre in the Suzhou industrial park to supply electronic components for EVs and automated driving.
The company aims to start producing components as early as September.
The 30ha centre will add to the four factories the company already has in Suzhou, employing about 10,000 workers.
Bosch is one of the largest suppliers of autoparts, with global sales of $49bn in 2021. It was an early experimenter with autonomous driving systems, beginning tests on driverless buses in the 1970s.
The company has 34 manufacturing sites and 26 technical centres in China, with more than 58,000 employees, including some 10,000 working on research and development.
Markus Heyn, chairman of Bosch Mobility, told China Daily last year that the company was in China for “the long term”.
“We are rather confident that China will stay one of the most important markets in the future, driven by a lot of technological innovations,” he said.
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