Zexel

Zexel is a Japanese auto-components manufacturer. It was founded in 1939 as Diesel Kiki Co., Ltd., under a Bosch license, for domestic production of fuel-injection pumps for diesel engines. Originally established with an investment from Isuzu Motors Ltd., (a major Japanese manufacturer of engines for heavy-duty vehicles), this company was renamed ZEXEL Corp. in 1990. Diesel-Kiki entered into a joint venture in the United States with Wynns Climate Systems to begin manufacturing automotive HVAC systems in approximately 1987. The company was called Wynn-Kiki at the time and was the predecessor to ZEXEL USA. The ZEXEL rebranding was a two-year project involving a world-wide name search and complete marketing strategy analysis. The company logo featured red, white and blue colors picked to represent precision, technology and excellence. A CD was even distributed to employees featuring a new company theme song. The name itself was compiled of the "Z" from zenith, because the company reached the zenith of its performance under its old name of Diesel-Kiki, and the word "excel" because the company wanted to excel at customer satisfaction. Somehow in their translation though, it came out ZEXEL instead of ZEXCEL.

The company was reorganized as Bosch Automotive Systems Corp. in 2000 after Robert Bosch GmbH of Germany bought majority shares in Zexel Corporation. Zexel is now a Bosch brand name.

Since its inception as Diesel Kiki Ltd., the company has developed a number of products that exemplify Japanese automotive engineering quality. Because of the firm's sizeable research and development capacity, it is also involved in international environmental protection projects such as the reduction of ozone depleting substances, mitigation of smoke emissions, and so on.

Following the Bosch takeover, there was a series of ownership changes that resulted in the division of the major business groups: fuel injection pumps, automotive airconditioners, bus airconditioners and mobile refrigeration units, and the differential and airbag product lines. For example, M.C. Bernardo Inc. (the exclusive representative of Diesel Kiki/Zexel in the Philippines) had to turn over business to Robert Bosch Philippines, like other Zexel partners in other countries and regions.

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