Continental begins Indian ABS/ESC production

Continental has announced plans to start production of ABS and ESC units in India in 2016. A new assembly line for ABS and ESC for passenger cars and later ABS for two-wheelers will be located in the existing Continental Automotive Brake Systems plant in Gurgaon, Haryana. Local production of the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) is planned for 2018 in Bangalore.

“The Indian market is one of the world’s largest markets for compact cars and two-wheelers. By producing these systems in the market, for the market, we are matching our portfolio to the requirements of our local customers, while keeping our technologies affordable”, said Felix Bietenbeck, Head of Continental’s business unit Vehicle Dynamics.

“India tops the list of nations in total number of road fatalities. The widespread use of ABS, airbags and ESC in vehicles can contribute considerably to reducing the number of serious injuries and fatalities on Indian roads”, said Claude d’Gama Rose, managing director, Continental Automotive Components India. “With decades of experience in this area, Continental offers a portfolio of high performance and advanced products which can contribute to greater road safety,” he added.

Electronic Stability Control (ESC) supports the prevention of critical vehicle states. The system constantly evaluates the data from the wheel speed sensors, the steering angle sensor, the yaw rate and lateral acceleration sensor and compares the driver’s input with the vehicle’s actual behaviou. If an unstable state is detected, for instance as the result of a sudden direction change, ESC responds in milliseconds and stabilizes the vehicle through wheel-specific brake intervention and adjustment of the engine torque. At the same time ESC is a prerequisite for further safety technologies like Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. Based on ESC, surrounding sensors like radar, camera and lidar technology are required for new predictive driver assistance systems which can further enhance road safety.

In India, 32,524 lives were lost, and over 127,000 people were injured in two wheeler accidents in 2014.

Recent draft notification from the Indian Ministry of Road Transport and Highways mandates that two wheelers with an engine capacity exceeding 125cc manufactured from April 1, 2017 need to be fitted with anti-lock braking systems. All existing two wheelers exceeding 125cc need to be fitted with anti-lock braking systems from April 1, 2018. With this, the first solid steps have been taken towards achieving the goal of “Vision Zero”, the vision of accident-free driving, on Indian roads.