Webasto SE is a company based in

Stockdorf Stockdorf is the largest district in the municipality of Gauting in the District of Starnberg in upper Bavaria, Germany. It is inhabited by approximately 4,000 citizens. Geography The village is situated at the Würm River, directly bordered ...

, Germany which makes sunroofs, electric-car chargers and air-conditioning systems. Holger Engelmann is the CEO of the company.

History

Coronavirus outbreak

Webasto owns 11 locations in China, including in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city a ...

. In late January 2020, the company disclosed that five of its workers had tested positive to

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a No ...

. This was reportedly one of the first cases of person-to-person transmission of the virus outside China. The outbreak was handled internally within the company. The story was initially reported in the

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

as a case of successful containment of the outbreak. By March 2020, genome studies tracking mutations of the virus suggested that the Webasto outbreak had not been successfully contained, and was linked to a 'decent part' of the overall coronavirus outbreak in Europe. Genetic sequencing also linked the cluster of cases at Webasto's headquarters to the virus outbreak in northern Italy. In May 2020 some medical disprove this assumptions and confirm that the Webasto case remained isolated, while in July other studies identified the most common Italian strain as coming from Germany.

Autonomous driving

In 2022, Webasto has joined forces with

Bosch Bosch may refer to: People * Bosch (surname) * Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450 – 1516), painter * Van den Bosch, a Dutch toponymic surname * Carl Bosch, a German chemical engineer and nephew of Robert Bosch * Robert Bosch, founder of Robert Bosch Gm ...

to develop a

self-driving car A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car, driver-less car, or robotic car (robo-car), is a car that is capable of traveling without human input.Xie, S.; Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Ding, Z.; Arvin, F.,Distributed Motion Planning for S ...

that will enable autonomous driving at Level 4. The company has integrated 25 sensors from Bosch into the roof of a prototype vehicle for this purpose.

Charging Division

Webasto currently have offices in

Monrovia, California Monrovia is a city in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 37,931 at the 2020 census. Monrovia has been used for filming TV shows, movies and c ...

for EV charging division. Some of the notable cordsets are SAE J1337 AC chargers for popular Ford MachE and GM vehicles.

Current production of roof modules

* BMW 4 Series (F33) (2013–present) *

BMW Z4 (G29) The BMW Z4 (G29) is a two-door roadster produced by German automobile manufacturer BMW. It was introduced in 2018 as a successor to the E89 Z4. As a fifth model in the lineage, the Z4 (G29) marks the return of the soft-top roof to the Z Serie ...

(2018–present) * Mazda MX-5 RF (2016–present)

Past production of roof modules

* BMW 3 Series Cabriolet (E93) (2007-2013) *

Daihatsu Copen The is a 2-door convertible kei car built by the Japanese car company Daihatsu. It debuted at the 1999 Tokyo Motor Show, as the Daihatsu Copen concept. The second generation model debuted as the Kopen (Future Included) at the 2013 Tokyo Motor S ...

(2002-2012) *

Ferrari California The Ferrari California (Type F149) is a grand touring, high performance sports car created by the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari. It is a two-door 2+2 hard top convertible. When originally unveiled in 2008, the California was powered b ...

(2008-2014) * Ford Focus Coupé-Cabriolet (2006-2010) * Mazda MX-5 Power Retractable Hard Top (2007-2015) * Mini Cabriolet (2004-2008) *

Mitsubishi Colt CZC The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

(2006-2012) *

Renault Wind The Renault Wind was a two-seater roadster by the French automobile manufacturer Renault. The Wind was originally a concept car unveiled in September 2004 at the Paris Motor Show as a 2+1 roadster. On February 2, 2010, Renault announced that t ...

(2010-2013) *

Volkswagen Eos The Volkswagen Eos was a sport compact cabriolet coupé produced by the German automaker Volkswagen from 2006 to 2015. Assembled at AutoEuropa in Portugal, it was a convertible only compact coupé introduced as the successor of the Volkswagen Gol ...

(2006-2015) *

Volvo C70 The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributi ...

(2006-2013) * Porsche Cayenne GTS

References

External links

* Convertible top suppliers Auto parts suppliers of Germany {{Germany-company-stub