In Toulouse, Continental Automotive wants to diversify
Posted Jan 28, 2023, 4:03 PM
The German automotive supplier Continental Automotive Diversifies into small series of electronic modules and seeks to invest in rail and aeronautical transport. He created the Continental Engineering Services (CES) entity in 2006 to reuse the group’s engineering skills in niche markets. It has 2,200 employees, including 146 in Toulouse. Around 90% work in niche markets for Continental; the rest working on diversification. It has designed and manufactures equipment for electric and sports cars, trucks, planes, trains, etc., for Siemens, Liebherr, Ferrari, Renault, Mercedes or Piaggio . Its turnover reached 328 million euros in 2021.
CES also provides engineering to Vitesco Technologies, Continental’s former engine equipment division outsourced in 2021. After the split, Continental Automotive employs 1,700 people in Toulouse, mainly in R&D, and Vitesco, 1,200, in including the factories of Boussens (Haute-Garonne) and Foix (Ariège).
Pilot vigilance
In small series, CES began by manufacturing in 2012 an interface with the trailer for Renault utility vehicles at the rate of 30,000 units per year, when the large automobile series exceeds one million units. The arrival of new products led him to build in 2019 a line of small series of up to 50,000 pieces per year.
“Before, we manufactured these modules on mass production lines, but that didn’t work well because the machines are often single-product,” explains Marc Lumia, head of the small series department.
The new line manufactures, for example, a fast charging interface for the Renault Zoe, a sunroof control for Ferrari or a voltage converter for the hybrid Aston Martin, for a turnover of 10.5 million in 2021. “It experienced 20% growth in 2022”, says Eric Vincelot, director of CES France.
CES has manufactured helicopter electronic boards between 2015 to 2019 and is preparing diversification products. He sold a head-up data display for Liebherr cranes, a camera vision system for tractors John Deere . It has signed competency contracts with railway equipment for systems for monitoring driver vigilance and detecting pedestrians in trains.
In aeronautics, CES is carrying out two proofs of concept of a system preventing the pilot from falling asleep, tested on a Toulouse-Bangkok flight. The objective is to avoid having three pilots in long-haul.