Continuing on its growth path in India, technology company Continental has inaugurated 2 new lines for Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) and Electronic Stability Control (ESC) assembly at its plant in Gurgaon. This capacity increase is to address the market requirements stemming from the Government of India legislations for ABS entry in April 2019 for passenger cars and 2-Wheelers. This takes the company another step closer to its “Vision Zero” – a future with zero accidents.
Continental has been steadily investing in India to localize ABS/ESC. In 2016, Continental set up a line for ABS assembly, in addition to ESC systems, in Gurgaon, followed in 2018 by a new line in its Bengaluru plant, for production and assembly of Electronic Control Units (ECU) for 2-Wheeler and passenger car ABS and ESC.
“We at Continental continue to drive safety technology toward our vision of zero accidents and therefore support making safety available to everyone. The good news about the India market is the increase in consumer awareness about vehicle safety, the seriousness with which the Government is approaching this topic, and the commitment of manufacturers. As a technology company, we will fully support this positive movement, and will continue to make investments where necessary,” explained Prashanth Doreswamy, Head of Continental India.
According to Krishan Kohli, Head of Continental’s Vehicle Dynamics business unit in India, “Continental’s safety systems are among the most advanced worldwide, catering to all categories of vehicles. The pace of adoption of safety technologies has increased in India, and we will continue to localise our products to meet our customer requirements. A few months back we completed 1 million units of Electronic Brake Systems (EBS) production from the Gurgaon Plant.”
“In addition to manufacturing, we have a growing R&D footprint in India, based out of the Technical Center India (TCI) in Bengaluru and the R&D labs in Gurgaon,” he said. With steady investments, commitment to technological innovation and localisation of the value chain, Continental has been growing at a quick pace in India. On the occasion of its tenth anniversary celebration recently, the technology company had announced investments on a high 3 digit crore rupees level within the next 2 years in India, and a plan to increase headcount to 10,000 in the same period.
