Greater China region performance shrinks, refrigerator and washing machine revenue declines, BSH Home Appliances urgently needs a revival

Ask AI · How Bosch Home Appliances’ AI Strategy Should Respond to China’s Intelligentization Competition?

Recently, Bosch Home Appliances released its FY2025 financial report. The company’s situation in the Chinese market is far from optimistic. As noted by DingKeJi, when looking by region, while it was performing strongly across North America, Europe, and emerging markets, revenue in the Greater China region—measured in local currency—declined 3.2% year over year. If measured in euros, the decline is even more pronounced at 7.1%. Looking further back on the timeline, this is already the fourth consecutive year that Bosch Home Appliances’ revenue in Greater China has fallen since 2022.

From the perspective of product-category structure, Bosch Home Appliances’ growth dilemma is especially striking. The FY2025 report shows that refrigerator sales revenue declined 4% year over year, and sales revenue for laundry products fell 1%. These two major categories are also in decline in the Greater China region.

By contrast, the cooking-appliances segment is showing signs of a rebound. Oven sales revenue grew 2%, cooktops and range hoods increased 2.6%, and dishwashers rose 2.1%. As for the Chinese market, the market sizes for these growth categories are relatively limited. For example, China’s dishwasher market penetration rate is still below 4%, and remains in the growth stage. The incremental gains Bosch achieves in these areas are far from enough to offset the losses in its core categories.

In addition, even for some emerging categories, domestic brands such as Midea, Haier, Fotile, and Robam are growing rapidly. In some subcategories—for instance, sink dishwashers—Fotile has even topped the market for three consecutive years.

Bosch Home Appliances attributes its decline to a downturn in the real-estate market and intense competition, and that is indeed true. According to data from GfK, in 2025, the scale of refined property units was 517.5k sets, down 22.1% year over year. Consumer demand for major appliances and kitchen appliances driven by real-estate supporting purchases fell 18.4% and 14.6%, respectively. Clearly, the pull from newly built homes is not providing sufficient momentum for appliance consumption.

Beyond that, foreign brands also have room to improve in terms of technology iteration and local response speed. DingKeJi notes that Tang Shanda, Chief Marketing Officer of Bosch Home Appliances Group, said during an earnings call that the company hopes to drive deeper AI applications in the home-appliance sector and continue to increase R&D investment in AI and related new technologies. This is certainly a prevailing trend. However, judging from some news, it remains to be seen how to implement this idea in a practical, tangible way.

Not long ago, media reported that Bosch announced it would shut down the built-in camera functionality of its smart refrigerators on March 31, 2026. Meanwhile, domestic manufacturers such as Haier and Midea have deeply integrated camera functionality of smart refrigerators into scenario-based applications including ingredient recognition, precise storage, expiration reminders, and recipe recommendations, and are continuously iterating the user experience. As can be seen, the rhythm of foreign brands versus domestic brands in the intelligentization race is not the same. The focus of the competition is shifting—from “whether it has it” to “whether it works well.”

In terms of intelligentization, Bosch Home Appliances also recognizes the problem and is adjusting its approach to the Chinese market. In 2025, Bosch Home Appliances reached a cooperation with Xiaomi Mijia, so that Bosch and Siemens products under its brands connect to the Mijia ecosystem. It also plans to integrate into Huawei’s HarmonyOS ecosystem, attempting to make up for the shortcomings of building its own intelligent ecosystem through open collaboration.

At the earnings call, Tang Shanda said, “In the past eight months, our data performance in online channels has been solid. We are also looking at innovative categories, such as drawer steam ovens and oxygen-activated refrigerators, and hope to launch products with better value for money to increase our market share in China.” However, value for money has never been a traditional advantage label for foreign premium brands. How to find a balance between lowering prices without damaging the brand—and innovating without losing touch with the local market—is a challenge Bosch must face.

The Chinese home-appliance market is undergoing a profound transition from incremental expansion to a battle for a limited stock. The dual forces of upgrading consumer demand and the rise of homegrown brands are reshaping the competitive landscape of the entire industry. For foreign home-appliance giants, truly understanding the cooking logic of Chinese kitchens, the smart interaction habits of Chinese households, and the aesthetic preferences of younger Chinese consumers is the key to whether they can reverse their sluggish situation.