Continental building new R&D centre in China
On June 10, Continental announced plans to invest 600 million yuan ($91.4 million) building new production and research facilities in in Chongqing, China.
The investments will include a state-of-the-art brake factory, which the company aims to start up in the first half of 2017. It will produce brake parts as well as electronics for parking-assist systems and other uses. Plans call for an initial payroll of 600 workers going up to several thousand within a decade.
The research and development centre, which is supposed to begin work in the first half of 2018, will be tasked with designing components for electric vehicles and other environmentally sound autos. Continental intends to have about 1,000 people working there in 2025, making it one of the biggest of the company’s 16 Chinese R&D centres.
Continental sees great potential for growth in western China’s automotive industry. With car ownership booming in the interior, the company is looking to supply the foreign and domestic automakers expanding inland.
Chongqing also has rail and other transportation links to Europe stretching across Central Asia, adding to the location’s appeal as a production base.
Attachments
In: CLEPA News, Connectivity & Automation, Growth & Competitiveness