- Continental spends around 28 million BRL (more than €11 million) in the Salto Industrial Park and creates 50 new jobs
- State-of-the-art complex offers the full spectrum of tests and application developments for gasoline and diesel engines
Only around ten months after construction work began, the international automotive supplier Continental was yesterday, in the presence of local government officials, cutting the ribbon on its new tech center in the Salto Industrial Park, 120 km west of São Paulo, Brazil. This move sees Continental's Powertrain division expand its capacity to offer vehicle manufacturers in Brazil the full spectrum of tests and application developments for gasoline and diesel engines right through to homologation. Around 28 million BRL (more than €11 million) has been spent on the new tech center, which is staffed by 50 people recruited mainly from the local area.
"Brazil plays a central part in our global growth strategy. Through this investment, we are expanding our involvement in this very important market, thereby ensuring that we will continue to grow in Brazil," said José Avila, member of the Continental Executive Board and head of the Powertrain Division.
The international automotive supplier's new tech center is also catering to the growing demand for development capacities, partly as a result of increasingly stringent global standards for fuel consumption and emissions. "By adapting to the new requirements of the market, we are able to give our customers the optimum level of support. We have already signed agreements to this effect with several vehicle manufacturers," said Mauricio Muramoto, head of the Continental Group in Brazil.
All technologies and resources from the Powertrain portfolio are available at the state-of-the-art complex, which allows Continental, as an international automotive supplier, to offer its services locally as a full-service provider of engine management systems. Covering a total area of 2,400 square meters, the new complex features cutting-edge sensor and actuator technology, a chemical laboratory, all types of fuel, pre-conditioning areas and chassis and engine bench dynamometers in climatic chambers at temperatures of minus 35 to 50 degrees centigrade. "We are now perfectly equipped to rapidly apply new Powertrain technologies to the specific requirements of our local customers. The innovative cold-start system currently in development for flex-fuel engines is a great example of this," said Anderson Citron, head of Continental Powertrain in Brazil. The facilities will operate on a two-shift basis that can be expanded to three shifts if necessary.
All Continental test centers follow the same standards in regard of test equipment, test measurement capability and furthermore centralized processes, methods and automation footprint for best efficiency and comparable measurement results worldwide.
Continental currently has 13 sites in Brazil, covering all five of its divisions and employing more than 6,000 people. Since 2007 the international automotive supplier invested more than €400 million in Brazil.
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Source: conti-online.com
