Continental appoints Alexander Klotz as its new head for India R&D Center

Technology company Continental has appointed Alexander Klotz as the new head of its Technical Center India (TCI). Klotz will be instrumental in taking TCI to its next level of growth, augmenting Continental’s global R&D competence.

Alexander Klotz has more than 15 years of automotive industry experience, having held leadership positions focused in R&D and business functions. Most recently, Klotz was the Head of Advanced Development within Systems & Technology, Division Interior, Continental. A major highlight of Klotz’s career is successfully setting up Continental’s first location in Silicon Valley in 2013. In this role, he was instrumental in connecting traditional automotive business with consumer electronics compa-nies and start-ups, to explore new technologies and business models. The Silicon Valley center launched by Klotz, is today a part of Continental’s innovation center in San Jose.

“Currently the center supports Continental’s automotive divisions globally and employees approximately 3000 engineers,” said Continental’s Corporate Technology Officer, Kurt Lehmann. “The TCI is a key contributor to the corporation’s R&D competence and global network,” added Lehmann, who is responsible for corporation-wide technology development at Continental.

Speaking on the appointment, Prashanth Doreswamy, market head of Continental India and managing director, Continental Automotive, India, said, “As a technology company, Continental is continuing to invest heavily in the technologies of tomorrow. Continental TCI plays an important role as an R&D Center, and Alexander’s leadership competence and experiences will ensure the center continues to grow in terms of competence, innovation potential and capacity.”

According to Alexander Klotz, “The vehicle of the future will be a sensing, planning and acting computer on wheels, and we need to continuously scale up our R&D competence to spur innovation. As a technology company we endeavor to address the changing face of the automotive world in the key areas of safe, clean and intelligent mobility.”

“Continental TCI has set an ambitious growth target year-on-year, and I’m keen to be part of this growth wave. The center will also provide lots of opportunities for engineers aspiring to work on technologies of tomorrow – ranging from automated driving to artificial intelligence that define mobil-ity of the future.” Klotz added.

Continental TCI, set up in 2009 as an in-house development center focused primarily on software development, has today advanced in the value chain, supporting end-to-end product development from requirement engineering to vehicle build up and testing in specific areas encompassing soft-ware, electronics and mechanics. Adding value with its understanding of the emerging markets and customers, TCI is also emerging as a Center of Competence for two-wheeler markets and for customised products for the BRIC countries. Today the R&D center is one of Continental’s three Systems and Technology (S&T) hubs worldwide, and provides high quality, cost effective, engineering solutions for Continental’s three automotive divisions, Chassis & Safety, Interior and Powertrain.