Robert Bosch is in the midst of transforming a portion of a factory in South Carolina to build electric motors and other components for electrification as part of a $260 million investment.
The project will require Bosch to build flexible lines that can support e-motor configurations that vary from customer to customer. Doing that requires the use of artificial intelligence — along with a healthy dose of good, old-fashioned trust between Bosch and the automakers it sells to, said Li Jiang, Bosch's head of engineering for eMotor & eAxle, North America.
Jiang, 40, a 2015 Automotive News Rising Star, spoke with Staff Reporter John Irwin at the Bosch Charleston plant in late October about the company's thinking. Here are edited excerpts.