AM MAGAZINE SHELL - Australian Automotive Aftermarket Magazine

NEWSHOT STAFFEXIDE RESTRUCTURESExide Technologies has moved to restructureits operations to now totally reflect the company’snew direction to build on its respected position.And to ensure the strategy is given everystrength, the restructure includes a new GeneralManager.Grant Bolitho has been appointed VicePresident and General Manager Australasia.He is responsible for all of Exide’s operationsin Australia and New Zealand and he reports tothe group’s Asia Pacific President in China.Mr Bolitho has been with Exide for nearly 19years with the latter part as the Finance DirectorAsia Pacific.JOINT TURBO VENTUREBOSCH AND MAHLE JOIN FORCES TO DEVELOP ANDMANUFACTURE EXHAUST GAS TURBOCHARGERS.Bosch and Mahle have established a fifty-fifty joint venture to develop,manufacture, and market exhaust gas turbochargers.Grant Bolitho, who has almost 19 years experienceworking at Exide Technologies, has become thecompany’s new General Manager.Prior to that he had a number of roles invarious areas of the group’s activities.“This appointment has been made in keepingwith the company’s new emphasis of building onthe strong position we have built in this part ofthe world,” Mr Bolitho said.“We have excellent manufacturing facility inSouth Australia with experienced and dedicatedsales teams in both our transportation andindustrial divisions.“But we’re also part of a global organizationwhich has world-leading R and D to deliver ahuge range of technically advanced batteries,putting us at the leading edge of many diversifiedmarkets.”Mr Bolitho said the company has the abilityto deliver all of those very competitively.“Exide has the expertise, capacity and rangeto build on our position.And that is exactly the message we’ll be takingto our partners in industry,” he said.The company is called BoschMahle Turbo Systems and isheadquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.The joint venture partners plan towork together to develop andmanufacture turbochargers forgasoline and diesel engines for theworldwide market.Series production is due to start in2011 at existing locations in StMichael ob Bleiburg, Austria, andBlaichach/Immenstadt, Germany.As part of the downsizing conceptfor the engines of the future, exhaustgas turbochargers are one of the keytechnologies for achieving a sustainedcut in fuel consumption and CO2emissions.The use of exhaust gasturbochargers is already common inmodern diesel engines, and they areexpected to become more prevalent ingasoline engines as well.This also calls for more widespreaduse of advanced injectiontechnologies, which is an area inwhich Bosch already occupies aglobally leading position, both withgasoline direct injection and withcommon-rail technology for dieselengines.Mahle has many years ofexperience in the development andmanufacture of high temperatureresistantturbocharger components.In addition, its subsidiary MahlePowertrain specialises in thedevelopment, design, and applicationof turbocharged engines.Both partners in the new jointventure can therefore draw onextensive engine systems know-how,as well as competence in large-scaleseries production of ultra-precisioncomponents in and around theengine.“This joint venture will now allowus to offer our customers from asingle source a complete productportfolio for reducing fuelconsumption and emissions,” BoschAutomotive Group Chairman BerndBohr said.Mahle Group Chief ExecutiveOfficer Heinz Junker said with thesystems and components know-how,Mahle and Bosch complement eachother as partners for the developmentof new exhaust gas turbochargers.“Moreover, the two companies arenames to be reckoned within theautomotive powertrain field,” he said.10 AU T O M O T I V E A F T E R M A R K E T M AG A Z I N E AU G U ST 2 0 0 8 www.aaaa.com.au