Robert Bosch is on target to open a new £125m automotive development and engineering centre near Heilbronn, Germany, next summer.

The Asbatt site will house 2000 staff, mostly engineers and technicians working on active driving safety and braking systems for the company's chassis systems division.

Subsidiary firm Asset, which provides engineering and integration services for manufacturers of vehicles and components, will also be moving on to the campus.

Pictured after an official topping out ceremony at the complex are Bosch chairman Herman Scholl (second left) with Christoph Palmer, Baden-Wuerttemberg's minister of state, Ruediger Braun, mayor of Asbatt, and Bosch board members Franz Fehrenbach, Bernd Bohr and Wolfgang Drees.