Continental, currently the most prominent global auto components supplier, declared extension of its production and quality assurance capabilities in India. The engine manufacturing section of Continental established a new validation lab for testing of fuel supply systems at its Bangalore research and development centre. Along with that, it installed two lines for in-tank Fuel Pumps and Fuel Rail Assembly at its Pune facility. The developments by Continental will help it to achieve its projected goal of attaining localisation to the highest possible extent in its business circle and fulfilling the increasing demand of clients.
New lines of the Pune facility will have the potential to manufacture an additional one million units of Fuel Pumps and Fuel Rail Injectors of varied ranges. The testing and quality assurance laboratory installed for measuring Fuel Supply Systems makes sure that the local testing facilities and capabilities are up to the mark. Continental follows globally uniform testing procedures and validation process, through which the results of Indian centre can be easily shared and evaluated against those of other overseas centres.
As per Joerg Laatsch, Head, Business Unit Engines Systems India, “The localisation of the Fuel Rail Assembly is a further milestone in coming closer to complete localised Gasoline Engine Management systems and support our strategy to serve our customers directly here in India.”
Talking about the new developments, Dr. Markus Distelhoff, Executive Vice President, Business Unit, Fuel Supply at Continental AG, said, “We are witnessing a huge traction for our Powertrain systems and technologies in India and we have been working on the Indianisation of these solutions tailor made for Indian OEMs over the past few years. The current investments will definitely help us in meeting the increased customer demand and also to leverage our global expertise in the Powertrain domain for Indian OEMs.”
Speaking about the success of the company in the Indian market, Claude d’Gama Rose, Managing Director, Continental India, commented, “We have yet again proved our commitment to the India market. We have had series of investments and corporate announcements in 2011 including the acquisition of Modi Tyres, buying back remaining shares at a JV with Rico Auto, the entry of Benecke-Kaliko (a part of the ContiTech division) into the Indian market, Phase III expansion of our Technical Centre India, etc. With the backing of these investments, we are quite confident of reaching the projected growth in India.”
Presently, Continental is working on its localisation approach and considers it as the main strategy for attaining success and growth in developing markets across the world. Owing to higher localisation, the company is engaged in offering advanced technology with bespoke standards for Indian market at economical prices. The company blends its global exposure and technical expertise with the professionalism of Indian specialists and engineers. In 2011, the company revealed its plan to register twofold growth in the domestic market and infused huge sums in different divisions and business units to further increase the growth rate.
