Bosch extends CEO Hartung’s contract
A Bosch spokesperson at the company’s headquarters in Gerlingen near Stuttgart has confirmed that Hartung’s employment contract has already been extended. Unlike other companies of similar size, the conglomerate, with its important automotive supply division, is not a stock corporation but a limited liability company (GmbH) that is predominantly owned by the Robert Bosch Foundation. As a result, Bosch is not subject to the usual disclosure requirements of an AG or SE and was therefore not required to announce the contract extension.
This is also consistent with the fact that the spokesperson did not provide any further details about the contract extension, but only confirmed the fact itself. The term of the contract is not known. According to Handelsblatt, the contract is said to have been extended by five years until 2031.
Hartung took over as chairman of the Bosch board of management in January 2022. If his new contract does indeed run until the end of 2031, he will have led the conglomerate for around ten years – just like his three predecessors. In total, Robert Bosch GmbH, which is over 139 years old, has only had seven bosses since its foundation.
Hartung himself has been with the company for much longer: he joined Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH in 2004 and was appointed to the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH in 2013, where he was responsible for energy and building technology as well as industrial technology. From 2019 to 2022, he was responsible for Mobility Solutions, i.e., the supplier business, on the board of management.
Like many other suppliers, Bosch is also struggling at present. Vehicle production is stagnating worldwide, and growth in key future areas in which Bosch has invested heavily is not coming as quickly as expected. These include autonomous driving, but also electromobility and, in particular, fuel cells, which Bosch has strongly favored.
In September, the world’s largest automotive supplier tightened its austerity measures and announced the elimination of a further 13,000 jobs (in addition to the 9,000 job cuts already announced) – many of them in Germany. In view of these cost-cutting measures, Hartung’s contract extension is seen as a sign of confidence.
Under Hartung and Mobility Managing Director Markus Heyn, Bosch has initiated a change in strategy. Vehicles are currently being rethought from the ground up, which is why both manufacturers and suppliers need to “think much more holistically,” as Heyn recently said in a video interview with electrive. Simply delineating responsibilities no longer makes sense.
In 2024, sales in the supplier division fell by 0.7 percent to 55.8 billion euros. At the IAA, however, Bosch stated that it expects sales to increase by just under two percent for the current year. Mobility Solutions is Bosch’s largest business sector, accounting for more than 60 percent of the group’s sales.
This article was originally published by Sebastian Schaal for electrive’s German edition
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