Continental’s new tech centre in Bangalore to boost its global R&D services

Continental, the global automotive supplier, tyre manufacturer and industry partner, today opened its all-new new technical centre to expand its R&D capabilities in Bangalore.

With a total investment of 12.4 million euros (Rs 94.78 crore) and current headcount of around 1,000 engineers, the new Technical Center India (TCI) facility will meet the increasing demand for engineering and software development skills to support global R&D projects as well as local customers. Eight state-of-the-art R&D labs will be housed in the new facility.

Speaking at the inauguration, Helmut Matschi, president of the Interior Division and Member of the Executive Board of Continental AG, said: “India’s talent pool is strategic to our growth, globally and in Asia. Continental has invested significantly in the Tech Center since its inception.”

He said almost 50 percent of the company’s engineering activities is related to software. Worldwide, 23,000 engineers including 11,000 software engineers and computer scientists work with Continental in 115 locations in 26 countries.

The company’s R&D outlay in 2013 stood at 1.9 billion euros, which is 5.6 percent of total sales. The new Technical centre in India will drive up its global R&D activities, he added.

“While our engineers in India are making valuable contributions to the development of advanced technology for developed markets, Continental is equally excited by the prospect of growing with the automotive market in the country,” said Matschi.

According to Frank Jourdan, president of the Chassis & Safety Division and Member of the Executive Board of Continental, the company hired 150 new engineers for Indian R&D activities initially in software and algorithm development for advanced driver assistance systems.

He said R&D in the areas like Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) is growing rapidly and the installation rate of ADAS in Europe is expected to grow to 50 percent by 2018. With the expansion of the two-wheeler and four-wheeler markets in India, the fatality rate is also increasing due to frequent road accidents. India recorded 135,000 deaths in road accidents in 2013. Jourdan said Continental is expecting that the government will take strict measures and make it mandatory for vehicles to fit in safety devices including ABS and airbags.

Christian Senger, senior vice-president, Automotive Systems & Technology (A S&T) at Continental AG, added: “Today, our engineers in India are developing one-channel ABS solutions for two-wheelers alongside highly sophisticated technologies for domains such as ADAS. Adding value with its understanding of the local market and customers, TCI is fast emerging as a ‘Center of Competence’ for two-wheeler markets and for customised products for the BRIC countries.”

“The company will increase its Technical Centre workforce soon to 1,300. We will continue to leverage our local expertise and collaborate with global teams to deliver solutions that address the needs of the automotive industry with affordable and safe mobility being two of our key focus areas,” said Raghav Gulur, head, TCI, Continental Automotive Components India.

TCI is one of Continental’s three Automotive Systems and Technology (A S&T) hubs worldwide, providing high quality, cost effective, engineering solutions to chassis and safety projects from the business units Vehicle Dynamics, Passive Safety & Sensorics and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Interior projects from business unit Commercial Vehicles and Aftermarket, Body & Security and Powertrain projects from Engine Systems, he added.

Earlier in his keynote address, Karnataka minister for Information Technology and Biotechnology, S R Patil said that Continental is providing significant support to the Indian R&D sector, primarily to Karnataka.

Of its total global workforce of 190,000, 5,000 working in various locations in India. In Bangalore, which is seen as the R&D hub of India (of the total 850 R&D units, 400 are in the garden city), he said the company has engaged 2,000 of its employees in various activities including R&D.

The central government has set a target to achieve $ 400 billion turnover in electronic goods by 2020, of which Karnataka aims to achieve 10 percent or $ 40 billion. With R&D and other electronics-related activities of companies like Continental, he said the state government will achieve this target.

S R Patil added that the state government has been encouraging the auto industry to set up R&D centres in Bangalore and Tier II cities as Karnataka has a huge talent pool in software. There are around 2,500 IT units in Bangalore, which account for one-third of software exports from India. Last year, IT exports totaled Rs 180,000 crore software including auto R&D.