Left: Situche, CEO of Continental Group; Right: Dunn, CEO of Continental Group.
(Source: Continental Group)
Strengthen the "soft" power by changing the strain.
"In the past few years, the travel industry has undergone tsunami-like changes, smart electric vehicles have made rapid progress, and the supply chain has also undergone major changes. Shanghai Auto Show is the epitome. In the face of tremendous changes in the industry, Continental Group quickly followed up and adjusted in time, becoming the only company in the industry that can provide all-round solutions from road to cloud, from tires to software technology, and redefining cars with customers and partners. " Situche said.
According to the data, Continental Group was founded in 187 1 and has a history of more than 50 years. Today, three out of every four cars in the world are equipped with Continental's technology. In order to better adapt to the market trend of future technology development, Continental Group has carried out the largest organizational restructuring in history in recent years, and divided the group into three subgroups: automobile, tire and Conditek. At the same time, the reorganization of automobile sub-group is divided into five business groups: safety and dynamic control, automatic driving and travel, smart travel, user experience, car networking and architecture, which respectively correspond to the core technology direction in the future travel field.
2023 Shanghai Auto Show Continental Group booth (Source: Continental Group)
According to the financial report data, in 2022, Continental Group achieved its adjusted sales and profit targets, with sales reaching 39.4 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 65,438+06.7%. It is worth mentioning that in 2022, the order volume of automobile sub-group increased by 26%, reaching more than 23 billion euros, which was mainly due to the forward-looking technical reserves of Continental Group. The order amount of leading-edge display solutions put into production after 2022 has exceeded 7 billion euros.
Behind the bright performance, in addition to the improvement of product hard power, a large amount of investment in software also played a vital role. Situche pointed out that Continental has about 26,5438+0,000 software and IT experts around the world, and has been running its own software institute since the end of 2065,438+08. At present, more than 654.38 billion vehicles have been installed with software functions developed by Continental Group and IT experts.
China market is an important growth engine, and three strategic fulcrums are helpful for deep cultivation.
In China, Continental has gone through more than 30 years of development and invested more than 3 billion euros in the past 65,438+00 years. "The China market is an important' growth engine' of Continental, and we will continue to deepen this technology-oriented market in the future." Situche said.
In this regard, Towne added that in recent years, China's new energy vehicles have developed rapidly, and China's overseas exports have grown strongly. The accelerated market transformation has brought new opportunities and challenges to Continental Group. In order to continuously promote its development in China, Continental will strengthen the implementation of three localization strategic fulcrums:
First, expand the layout of localized production. At the end of last year, Continental's first 5G digital super factory officially opened in Changsha. With the speed, reliability and scalability of 5G, Changsha Factory uses the Internet of Things to support the efficient operation of the factory. In addition, Qufu, Changchun, Hefei and other factories have also expanded, further enhancing the local production capacity of Continental Group.
Continental Group's 5G digital super factory production line (Source: Continental Group)
Second, strengthen the local R&D team. In September 2022, the new R&D office building of Changchun Technology Center in mainland China was officially opened, which will continue to enhance the R&D strength of the mainland in the field of automobile safety. At the same time, Continental China Software and Systems R&D Center, established in 20021,has also made further efforts. It is understood that there are currently about 200 technical experts working in the R&D center.
Exterior Map of Changchun Technology Center in Mainland China (Source: Mainland China)
Third, embrace local ecological cooperation. In recent years, Continental Group has continuously strengthened the construction of local ecological chain and reached strategic cooperation with Horizon, Infineon Technology and Vision Intelligence. Among them, Continental Core Smart Drive, a joint venture with Horizon, mass-produced 8 megapixel smart HD cameras in the first half of this year. At the same time, in terms of cooperation between local car companies, Continental Group is also further expanding its circle of friends. During the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, Continental signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Zero Run.
Continental Group signed a strategic cooperation with Zero Run Automobile (Source: Continental Group)
"Despite many challenges, Chinese mainland will surpass the market in 2022. In the future, Continental will continue to keep up with market demand and industry development trends and deepen its localization strategy. Through rich system knowledge and product portfolio, we are committed to promoting China's bright future travel and building China's future travel ecosystem. " Tony said.
Travel for the future and showcase the latest smart, safe and sustainable solutions.
As a technology company with an early industry transformation, Continental regards "future travel" as an important focus of product development. During the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, the company demonstrated the latest intelligent, safe and sustainable solutions with the theme of "Travel in the future, start immediately". Here are some technical demonstrations:
The cross-domain vehicle control high-performance computing unit ushered in the world premiere at this auto show. The solution of high performance computing unit for vehicle control is the first step of cross-domain integration of vehicle dynamic control functions. This product not only integrates the original body control and vehicle gateway functions, such as access to internal/external lighting and wireless software update management and diagnosis functions, but also integrates chassis control applications, such as damping control, adaptive air suspension and chassis adjustment.
By 2024, Continental's high-performance computing units will be installed on more than 30 different models of many automobile manufacturers. According to Mr. Towne, in China, Continental has won two local orders, and the first high-performance computing unit will be installed on the high-end brand Haobo Hyper GT of Ai 'an. ?
Global launch of cross-domain vehicle control high-performance computing unit (source: Continental Group)
In terms of software, mainland China focuses on central dynamic control software. As a command center, the software can coordinate all vehicle motion actuators for longitudinal, lateral and vertical control. It is modular and extensible. As a unified interface, it can decouple the drive function from the specific actuator and vehicle configuration.
Rendering of the Central Dynamic Control Software in Mainland China (Source: Mainland China)
HRL 13 1 is the first software-defined lidar in the automotive industry, which was jointly developed by Continental and AEye * * *(AEye * * *). It has remote detection, configurability, robustness and reliability, and provides strong support for customers' high-level automatic driving scheme. This radar can detect vehicles with a distance of more than 300 meters and pedestrians with a distance of more than 200 meters.
HRL 13 1 Lidar (Source: Continental Group)
The intelligent glare-free high-definition light projection system based on Micro LED technology can realize a variety of intelligent functions: for example, with the assistance of far and near light, it can realize high-precision intelligent glare-free (ADB) function; In addition, the system also supports high-definition projection function, which projects a series of safety warning information such as zebra crossing, speed limit sign and warning sign on the road to increase the interaction between vehicles and drivers and laymen.
Intelligent glare-free high-definition lighting projection system based on Micro LED technology (Image source: Continental Group)
AmbienC3 concept car is based on the old Volkswagen T2 van, which mainly presents Continental Group's imagination of the future car life scene. AmbienC3 uses natural and renewable raw materials in the car, which has the characteristics of low emission, and passengers in the car can breathe with peace of mind. In addition, it also has functional surface materials, such as self-heating materials or translucent materials.
AMBIENC3 Concept Car (Source: Continental Group)
EContact tire is a new energy automobile tire built by Continental Group according to the local market demand, and the whole system comes standard with ContiSeal self-repair technology. E-eContact tire not only has strong driving and braking performance, but also improves the mute performance and rolling resistance performance to a higher level. In addition, the innovative aerodynamic sidewall design will also reduce the air resistance during tire rolling and help to extend battery life.
EContact tire (source: Geshi Automobile)
Because there are many products, I won't talk about it here.
"Whether it is products or technology, all innovative R&D of Continental Group always focuses on the needs of customers and consumers. In China, tourism is a very important economic pillar. Intelligent driving, intelligent vehicle infrastructure cooperation system, and interface and screen display related to user experience are all concerned and valued by consumers in China. These contents are fully in line with our strategic areas of action. In addition, China consumers have a high degree of acceptance of new technologies, which also encourages more new technologies to be released first here in the future. " Stuart concluded.
This article comes from the author of Che Yi Geshi Automobile, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprint. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.