Technology company Continental celebrated its tenth year producing systems and component for safe, clean and intelligent mobility locally in India. All together Continental has been serving the Indian market for almost 50 years. On this occasion, the international automotive supplier, tire manufacturer, and industrial partner announced its plan to invest on a high three-digit crore rupees level within the next two years in India. This sum entails the extension of capacity of all its divisions as well as greenfield investments, spanning across key automotive hubs. The company will also ramp up headcount in India, and plans to reach the 10,000 mark in two years.
“The global automotive industry is at the cusp of transformation; the largest it may have seen in its 130 year history. As a technology company we are at the forefront of innovation. This requires technological prowess, R&D focus, business agility, and adaptability”, explained Frank Jourdan, Member of the Executive Board of Continental AG and President of the Chassis & Safety Division, who is the Country Sponsor for the Indian market within the board of Continental. He added, “We are making investments where it matters. India is an important market and R&D hub for Continental, and it is in our strategy to bet big on this market.”
Prashanth Doreswamy, Head of Continental India, said, “We have been growing steadily in terms of business volumes, manufacturing & R&D footprint and technology achievements. With competent resources and proven Continental technologies, the timely investment will propel our localizations efforts for safe, clean and intelligent mobility, for both passenger cars and two wheeler segments”.
Additionally, Continental TCI, the Corporation’s in-house R&D center, is on the fast lane, ramping up headcount aggressively in several technology areas. The R&D center, which supports all automotive divisions of Continental globally, is well on its way to become a center of competence for different technologies, for example Artificial Intelligence and ADAS technologies.
TCI is also engaging actively with the ecosystem. Recently, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras for advanced research in Machine Learning, for Continental’s ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) business. The joint research is for the application of bio-inspired neural networks to expand the scope of what assisted driving functions can accomplish.
