Bosch spark plugs as original equipment – a success story

The Bosch portfolio contains more than 1,000 types of spark plugs for a wide range of vehicles and engines. Many vehicles around the world when they are launched already have Bosch spark plugs under their bonnets.

In a recent short interview supplied by Bosch, Dr.-Ing. Simone Tenschert, head of development and marketing for spark plugs at Bosch, explained the importance of original equipment for the company.

Q: How important is the business with the car manufacturers for Bosch?

A: This partnership certainly plays a very important role. Bosch currently supplies spark plugs as original equipment to over 50 vehicle brands worldwide. During the last 10 years this added up to over half a billion spark plugs.

Because of changes to legislation and the ongoing development of combustion technologies the demands on original equipment spark plugs are constantly newly defined. This is why the product development and the internal exchange of knowledge with Bosch specialists for the development of combustion processes gained great importance.

In these areas, measures to meet new emission specifications are evaluated at an early stage and may lead to new requirements for the spark plugs later on.

Q: How extensive is the current Bosch spark plug portfolio?

A: About 1,000 different types of spark plugs are manufactured in the Bosch factories. In the original equipment, a very wide range of applications is covered: from chainsaws to tuktuks, gas-powered stationary engines and buses to the well-known European and North American volume vehicles.

Also a large number of modern mild and plug-in hybrid cars leave the assembly lines equipped with Bosch spark plugs.