Free trade vital for affordable mobility globally: Continental CEO

Free trade instead of trade wars. This was the appeal aimed at policy makers made yesterday by Continental CEO, Dr. Elmar Degenhart, at the technology company’s Annual Shareholders' Meeting.

“Protectionism and trade wars make our products more expensive. For example, unequal tariffs are hurting the free trade of cars between the U.S.A. and Europe. The best solution is to abolish them completely or bring them into line at the lowest level. We are calling for policy makers to enter into negotiations. We expect them to work hard for fair, free trade. Artificially inflating prices reduces national income and in doing so puts jobs and prosperity at risk,” warned Dr Degenhart in Hanover at the company Shareholders’ Meeting in front of more than 1,000 participants.

He underlined the importance of the free flow of goods for his own company. For example, the Automotive divisions of the technology company work with more than 17,000 suppliers and partners across the world. “They handle over 140 billion components a year. On average, they cross national borders four times because they do not reach our customers until they are finished products. Protectionism and trade wars make our products more expensive.”

Continental sales have grown sixfold since 1998
The Continental CEO pointed out that sales have increased more than sixfold over the past 20 years and operating income is now even twelve times higher. “Our run of success will continue. We are heading for sales of more than €50 billion for 2020. In 2025, we should surpass the threshold of significantly more than €65 billion. And we will do so through organic growth,” emphasised Dr Degenhart.

According to Dr Degenhart, one challenge that remains is to make power transmission technology even cleaner and more efficient – “Electric drive systems are the future of vehicle propulsion. We are convinced of this. But electric does not automatically mean clean. The ecobalance of electric mobility is not looking too good at the moment. We have also calculated an extremely aggressive growth model that is theoretically possible for us from 2020. It indicates that, in 2050 at the earliest, nine out of ten vehicles could roll off the production line fitted with an all-electric drive system. A quarter of all vehicles on the roads would then still be using internal combustion engines,” he explained.

“This leads to one clear and conclusive conclusion – we will need various kinds of drive systems side-by-side well beyond 2030. By this I mean a combination of gasoline, diesel and natural gas. In addition, we need hybrid systems, all-electric vehicles and hydrogen.  This is why we are appealing to policy makers to set sensible exhaust-gas limits for effective climate protection. But let the industry choose the best technologies for this. Do not use regulations to force the use of solutions that are not economically viable,” says Degenhart.

Degenhart sees the battery as the biggest hurdle on the way to fully electrical driving. He does not anticipate a competitive technology until after 2025. The CEO is still open to entering the production of solid-state battery cells: “We can imagine producing solid-state battery cells in the future. Here, we have in mind batteries that use solid materials. This would require an attractive business model. We do not expect to make a decision on this until after 2020.”

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

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