Mihai Boldijar, head of Bosch in Romania, a company with a factory and engineering center in Cluj, about the car market: “We will not witness an explosion of optimism at the moment/ We will all have to proceed very, very carefully”

The Romanian market delivers products that are highly demanded on the international market, through the manufacturers Dacia and Ford, so we can expect “good things”, despite the turbulence that the automotive industry is going through worldwide, believes Mihai Boldijar, general director of Robert Bosch and the representative of the German group in Romania, quoted by Economedia. On the other hand, the future of the industry also depends on the future policies that will take shape in Europe after the summer elections. If the subsidy schemes for electric vehicles will not be extended, the appetite of the final buyer for electric cars will disappear, believes the representative of one of the largest companies in the field in Romania. The company has a factory in Cluj, in the Tetarom III industrial park from Jucu, but also an engineering center with a second building recently inaugurated.

At the global level, the industry is currently facing a series of problems: the semiconductor crisis, the war in Ukraine, syncopes in supply chains, the transition to electric vehicles. Many companies are making layoffs.

In Romania, ithe automotive industry is one of the most important industrial branches – at the production level, in terms of the production of components, but also for the little research and development that is done in our country.

“The Romanian car industry delivers 14% of the gross domestic product, employs 400,000 people, maybe even better. So it is of paramount importance for the local economy”, summarizes Boldijar.

What should we expect? “I think we expect good things. Why? Because we have some products that are really in high demand. I mean Dacia and Ford models. So they are practically very much in demand in all markets, if you see the exports and the forecasts that the people from Ford and Dacia make for this year, they are really gratifying. That is, they want to increase production, we are talking about a new record, after last year they exceeded 500,000 pieces. So I think that from this point of view we are still good”, says Boldijar.

Vehicle production in Romania reached the volume of 513,050 units in 2023, which represents a new record for vehicle production in Romania, according to data published by the Association of Automobile Manufacturers in Romania (ACAROM). Details HERE

Despite the good news for manufacturing so far, the future of the industry is uncertain.

“Of course, I cannot exclude the fact that in the future some effects of the transition to hybridization, to electrification in particular, could appear. If government subsidy schemes for automobiles – and they started to cease to exist, Germany stopped them on January 1, Romania reduced them – if these subsidy schemes for electric vehicles do not come or will not be extended , this will be a theme, because the appetite of the end buyer for electric cars will disappear. For a few reasons: the price of the car, the charging network and a second-hand market that doesn’t exist for electric cars or is very, very small. So here we will really have a theme and we will have to follow very carefully what decisions will be taken at the level of the new European Commission and the European Parliament, to follow what happens after the elections in the country, because it could be that certain projects to be extended in time. We may probably see a reorientation towards internal combustion engines, but with other types of fuels or with other types of propulsion systems than electric, but on the other hand, we will also see the entry into the markets of to Chinese manufacturers more and more, because cars made in China still enjoy government subsidies,” Bosch boss noted.

China is a significant market for manufacturers and suppliers in the field.

“We have an exposure and we have significant investments in China, but also in India and in the Asian area. We work very actively and supply Chinese car manufacturers with products and services, that is, basically, a very large part of the cars produced in China have solutions and products from us. That’s why I’m saying that balancing with maybe growth in North America, growth in China and participation in Chinese auto production could balance things out nicely and help us basically get through this complicated period as smoothly as possible. maybe”, predicts Boldijar.

Should we expect news of restructuring and layoffs from companies working in the automotive sector?

“I don’t think we will witness an explosion of optimism at the moment, not even in the second half of the year. I think we’re all going to have to be very, very careful. It’s hard to say and hard to predict. It also depends a lot on the legislative framework and the financial-fiscal framework and how banks, governments can provide support for companies, it depends on what the strategic directions and industries will be practically for different countries. You see that paradigms are changing, budget allocations are changing,” Boldijar noted.

So, the industry is waiting for the decisions after this year’s elections and the directions decided at the political level.

“What is happening now, considering the rectification and these barriers or these norms that should be fulfilled in 10 years from now, also come from the political environment. So here we should practically think pragmatically and see what effects the decisions so far have produced and what effects they can produce in the future and if not the whole industrial strategy should be rethought at least at European level, including those eight objectives that must reached”, concluded Boldijar.

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