Continental delivered a solid operational performance in the third quarter of 2019 despite markets continuing to decline. As the technology company stated today at the presentation of its quarterly figures in Hanover, reported sales rose in the third quarter by nearly 3 percent to €11.1 billion. In the same period of the previous year, they totaled €10.8 billion. Adjusted for changes in the scope of consolidation and exchange rates, sales growth was down 0.3 percent, nearly on par with the prior-year level. By contrast, global production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles fell by about 3 percent in the same period. Thanks to its forward-looking product portfolio, the technology company was thus able to almost entirely escape the effects of the sharp decline in demand worldwide. The adjusted operating result (adjusted EBIT) was €615 million (margin: 5.6 percent).
“Thanks to the global demand for our systems and solutions, we were able to keep our sales at a stable level in the third quarter despite the continuing decline in the market environment. The current situation requires us to enhance our long-term competitiveness. With our global Transformation 2019–2029 structural program we are taking the necessary steps to achieve this. It is a challenging but essential process to ensure our viability. We are thus responding proactively to the crisis in the automotive industry and, like 10 years ago, we will emerge stronger,” said Dr. Elmar Degenhart, CEO of Continental.
Degenhart also confirmed the annual targets for the current fiscal year, which had been adjusted in July 2019. “We are maintaining our outlook for the current fiscal year. We anticipate that full-year sales will be about €44 to €45 billion and the adjusted EBIT margin will be about 7 to 7.5 percent.”
Strategy 2030: focus on five core areas for future growth
In view of the current transformation of the automotive industry, Degenhart commented: “We see a wide variety of opportunities in the mobility of tomorrow. With our Strategy 2030 we are focusing fully on our growth areas.” For Continental, these areas include assisted and automated driving, connected driving, mobility services, the tire business, as well as the industrial and end-customer business. Continental is also gearing its Vitesco Technologies powertrain business to achieve profitable growth with electric mobility.
Continental supplies electronic architecture for highly connected Volkswagen ID.
One example of Continental’s strong expertise in software and electronics is the In-Car Application Server (ICAS1), which condenses a large number of today’s control units into a small number of high-performance computers. With this new vehicle architecture, Continental is paving the way for a seamless connection between vehicles and the digital world of mobile services and data, making over-the-air updates the norm in the future. ICAS1 enables the seamless integration of data-based apps and functions – such as planning routes optimized for vehicle range and locating charging stations for electric cars. “With ICAS1, we are supplying the heart of a new electronic server architecture. We are delighted to have gained Volkswagen and its ID. series as our first customer,” said Degenhart. Volkswagen, which is Europe’s largest automotive manufacturer, will thus be using ICAS1 technology for its future ID. electric vehicles, including the Volkswagen ID.3, which recently went into production.
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SOURCE: Continental
