Continental boss: "We are in top form financially, are pioneering technologically, and remain fully focused on the future."

Technology company Continental has announced robust results and profitability for fiscal year 2017. The company increased its sales by 8.5 percent to €44 billion, with an adjusted EBIT margin of 10.9 percent, thus surpassing its targets for the year.

Presenting the preliminary business figures in Hanover, Dr. Elmar Degenhart, chairman of the Executive Board, thanked the company’s more than 235,000 employees worldwide for this outstanding achievement: “You have all proven once again that our values create value. We are in top form financially, are pioneering technologically, and remain fully focused on the future. This enables us to shape technological change in our industries as a pioneer and from a position of strength.”

Continental's net income climbed to €3 billion in 2017, which equates to an increase of 6.5 percent year-on-year and earnings of €14.92 per share.

Dr Degenhart expects this profitable growth to continue in 2018: “The start we have made to fiscal 2018 has confirmed our expectations. We are therefore reaffirming our outlook from early January. We intend to continue our successful course of growth and profitability. For the current year, we are still anticipating a significant rise in sales of just under 7 percent to approximately €47 billion before exchange-rate effects, with an adjusted EBIT margin of around 10.5 percent. This is based on growth in the global production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles of more than 1 percent to 96.5 million vehicles.”

VIDEO: Dr. Elmar Degenhart on autonomous driving, electric mobility, why the EV industry will hit big volumes only after 2024, the opportunities beyond electric mobility , about India possibly becoming the next growth engine for the automotive industry, and Continental's technical centre in Bengaluru becoming Continental's global Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence. 

Safe, clean and intelligent mobility
Continental's boss believes the technology company to be ideally equipped for the mobility of the future: “Continental is a pioneer when it comes to technology. We are continuing to invest heavily in the technologies of tomorrow, and this strategy is paying off. Take for example our incoming orders in the Automotive Group: We achieved a new record high of nearly €40 billion in 2017,” he said, adding: “Our innovative technologies and the intelligent use of software, electronics and sensor technology are allowing us to make automated and autonomous driving, along with connectivity and electrification, a reality. We are also developing new business areas and customer groups in innovative mobility services. More than any other company in the world, Continental is synonymous with safe, clean and intelligent mobility.”

A 42,000-strong global network of developers and experts of 146 different nationalities is conducting research on how to make Continental’s products and services even more intelligent. “Enhanced with software and intelligent sensors, our products and services keep traffic and goods flowing worldwide – from industrial systems, robots, drones, to cars,” commented Degenhart, adding: “In 2017 alone, our customers from a wide range of industries installed more than 600 million Continental sensors. Today, three out of four cars worldwide feature our solutions, products and systems.”

This is is particularly relevant for automated and autonomous driving. Cameras, radar and lidar sensors record data at a rate that can exceed 10 gigabytes per second already at present in the early stages of this technology, and that will increase even more in the fully automated driving stage in the future. Since 1999, Continental has produced around 60 million sensors for advanced driver assistance systems in total for this purpose – and this number is rising fast.

When it comes to the combination of drive systems in the future, electric mobility will play a key role. Continental says it is one of the few system suppliers that can offer full electrification of the powertrain from a single source – from the electric motor to power electronics to energy and thermal management, through to charging technology.

An increasing number of trucks are being equipped with electronic horizon (eHorizon), a highly accurate digital road map as a sensor that ensures drivers drive more efficiently. Since it was brought to market in 2012, this Continental technology has reduced diesel consumption by over 760,000,000 liters. Altogether, more than 33 million cars and trucks have already been connected with Continental’s intelligent technology.

The technology company is also making tyres intelligent. They increasingly come fitted with a few grams of lightweight sensors, which measure air pressure inside the tyre itself, ensuring greater safety, less rolling resistance and enhanced efficiency. In 2017 alone, Continental produced some 155 million passenger and truck tires. The latest conveyor belts and hoses likewise live up to this technological trend, with integrated sensor technology that autonomously detects the transported weight and reports any required maintenance and repair work in advance. This means that transportation can keep flowing until an optimum repair time presents itself, thereby minimizing operating costs.