Continental AG, commonly known as Continental and colloquially as Conti,[3] is a German multinational manufacturing company. Headquartered in Hanover, Lower Saxony, it is one of the world's leading tire manufacturers. Following the spin-off of its automotive technology division as Aumovio in 2025, Continental now focuses on two core businesses: Tires and ContiTech (rubber and thermoplastic products for industrial customers).
The divisions Chassis and Safety, Powertrain, Interior and ADAS belonged to the Automotive segment, which was spun off as Vitesco (2021) and Aumovio (2025). ContiTech is earmarked for sale in 2026. It sells tires for automobiles, motorcycles, and bicycles worldwide under the Continental brand. It also produces and sells other brands with more select distribution, such as Viking (limited global presence),[4] General Tire (U.S./Canada), Gislaved Tires (Canada, Spain, Nordic Markets), Semperit Tyres, Barum to serve EU and Russia. Other brands are Uniroyal (Europe), Sportiva, Mabor and Matador[5] and formerly Sime/Simex tyres (now Dunlop Tyres Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei).[6] Continental's customers include all major automobile, truck and bus producers, such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz Group, BharatBenz, Ford, Volvo, Iveco, Schmitz, Koegel, Freightliner Trucks, BMW, General Motors, Toyota, Honda, Renault
History
Continental was founded in 1871 as a rubber manufacturer, Continental-Caoutchouc und Gutta-Percha Compagnie.[8] In 1892, Continental began development and production of pneumatic bicycle tires, which was a major success for the brand. In 1904, Continental became the first company in the world to manufacture grooved vehicle tires.[9] Another major product Continental invented was a detachable wheel tire that was made for touring vehicles (1905). From about 1910, synthetic rubber started to play a major role in car tire production, and one of its earliest proponents was chemist Albert Gerlach (1858–1918), member of the executive board.[10] In the late 1920s, Continental merged with several other major rubber industry companies to form the largest rubber company in Germany called Continental Gummi-Werke AG.
Nazi era
When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, all members of the board of management as well as the authorized signatories and directors of the second management level were obliged to join the Nazi party, the works council was purged of "opponents of the regime," and all Jewish members of the supervisory board were forced to resign.
Schaeffler takeover
When Continental decided to purchase ITT Industries' brake and chassis business for US$1.93billion in 1998,[30] the head of ITT's brake division, Juergen M. Geissinger, was hired as the CEO of the family-owned bearing and auto parts manufacturer Schaeffler Group.[31]
Ten years later, Geissinger returned to Continental with mother-and-son owners Maria-Elisabeth and Georg Schaeffler and a consortium of banks, to buy control of the company.[32] Continental appeared to have overextended itself with the acquisition of Siemens' VDO automotive unit in 2007 for €11.4billion[33] and had lost almost half of its
Continental Tire the Americas, LLC
Continental Tire entered the North American tire industry with its 1987 purchase of General Tire from GenCorp, Inc., forming Continental General Tire Corp.[39] At the time, Continental was following other tire manufacturers, such as Bridgestone and Michelin, into the American tire market.
The headquarters for North and South American tire divisions is located in the Charlotte metropolitan area at Lancaster County, South Carolina, United States (with a Fort Mill, South Carolina mailing address). The North American headquarters of the CAS division is located in Auburn Hills, Michigan, directly east of the Great Lakes Crossing Mall. Continental also has a research and development arm in the tech-heavy Silicon Valley, where, among other things, the company focuses on developing technologies supporting autonomous driving vehicles.
From 2002 through 2005, the subsidiary sponsored a new college football bowl game in Charlotte, North Carolina, known for three playings as the Continental Tire Bowl at Bank of America Stadium
Automotive PACE Awards
In April 2016, Continental AG together with Honda's U.S. subsidiary, were honored with the 2016 Automotive News PACE Innovation Partnership Award[44] for the Bidirectional Long Range Communications (BLRC) System, developed by the Body and Security Team in the Interior Division.[45] The Radio Frequency Device, helps the car user to operate a remote control key fob from more than half a kilometer away, to start the engine and climate control function, while receiving feedback from the vehicle (such as locked/unlocked). The Radio Frequency System, powered by a single standard coin cell, and an innovative vehicle-mounted RF transceiver, was developed together by Honda and Continental, and was debuted on the Acura MDX in 2013 and was quickly followed by the Acura TLX and Acura RLX in 2014.
In 2015, Continental AG was honored with two PACE Awards for its Bare Die High-Density-Interconnect (BD-HDI) Printed Circuit Board Substrate Technology for Transmission Electronics[46]
Executive management
Chief Executive Officer
Chairman of the Board
Supervisory board
Note: * denotes labor representative.[53]
- Werner Bischoff*
- Michael Deister
- Gunter Dunkel
- Hans Fischl*
- Juergen M. Geissinger
- Hans-Olaf Henkel
- Michael Iglhaut*
Acquisition of Veyance Technologies, Inc.
Continental AG has acquired the American rubber company Veyance Technologies, Inc. based in Fairlawn, Ohio. Veyance will be integrated into the company's ContiTech division, and will serve as the regional home office for ContiTech in North America.
The Brazilian antitrust authority Council for Economic Defence (CADE) made it official on 29 January 2015, described in a press release on the 30th, from the company. The total transition was US$1.6billion. The company will divest Veyance's NAFTA air springs business in Mexico and its Brazilian steel-cord belting business in response to some of the concerns raised by antitrust authorities, the release said, employing about 600 people work in those operations.[54]
See also
- Continental Automotive Systems – one of the five divisions
- Hoosier Racing Tire – part of the racing tire division
- Vitesco Technologies
External links‡R59R‡
References
- Continental's Aumovio valued at $4.1 billion in Frankfurt market debut Continental Automotive, retrieved 2026-03-18^
- Annual Report 2023 Continental, retrieved 2024-06-03^
- Conti will mit neuer Strategie zurück in die Zukunft