Continental has notched a new milestone in India — production and sales of one million instrument clusters in India in 2018, the highest annual milestone for the product achieved by its Central Electronics Plant in Bangalore. Since start of production of instrument clusters from the Bangalore plant in 2008, the company has crossed production of 8 million instrument clusters.
According to Dr Frank Rabe, executive vice-president and head of BU Instrumentation & Driver HMI, Continental AG, “This milestone for Continental India underscore our strength in the market, considering the total production volume of passenger cars in India in 2018 was approximately 4 million. In addition to serving the Indian market, our instrument clusters are also fitted in cars sold in Asia, North America, Europe and Africa.”
He added, “Drivers should see what they need, and where they need. As a technology company, our focus is to offer flexible platform solutions and state-of-the-art technology that enable this. A portfolio as broad and in-depth as ours can deliver a suitable display solution for virtually any requirement, including classic analog or fully digital instrument clusters, head-up displays, and automotive-compatible display solutions.”
According to Prasad C Basappa, Head of Instrumentation & Driver HMI business for India, “Our instrument clusters continue to be in high demand. With the growth of the Indian market, we are expanding the range of models we serve. We have continuously developed the technology, and thanks to our close collaboration with customers, we have been able to harmonize our products to customer requirements at optimal cost. We crossed the production and sales of one million clusters in one year. This translates into approximately three clusters produced every minute at our plant – therefore, in a minute there are 3 cars sold somewhere in the world, with an instrument cluster produced by Continental in Bangalore.
Following the global technology trends and the demands from young and digital-friendly vehicle buyers, we expect the Indian vehicle market to move from analog instrument clusters to fully digital clusters. This technological shift will not only make driving safer and more comfortable, it also presents a new opportunity for our development and production teams here in India,” he added.
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