Conti announces US tyre price increase
Continental Tire the Americas has announced plans to increase prices on select Continental and General passenger and light truck tyres in the US market.
Hannover-based Continental AG is a leading automotive supplier and – according to the company – is “the choice of leading car manufacturers, offering award-winning tyres that deliver responsive braking in all weather conditions.”
Continental Tire the Americas has announced plans to increase prices on select Continental and General passenger and light truck tyres in the US market.
China’s automotive production will have to overcome a shortage of European-produced automotive-related chips well into 2021, which could potentially set back industry recovery amid the pandemic, a report from the Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS) said in mid-December 2020.
Continental Tyres has been awarded Superbrands status for 2020/21, recognised for “establishing an exceptional reputation in its field”. The Superbrands organisation identifies and pays tribute to exceptional brands throughout the world in over 85 countries. This year’s survey evaluated a shortlist of 1,600 consumer facing business brands across 74 categories from Automotive Products to Watches.
The Tires business may have been an area of strength for Continental in 2020, but this doesn’t exempt it from the company’s recently-expanded restructuring plans. Upcoming changes include the closure of the tyre factory in Aachen, Germany, a facility Continental calls its “most cost-intensive” site in Europe. Continental covers these changes, and indeed its overall roadmap for the tyre segment, in its new Vision 2030 strategic programme.
During the next 18 months, Continental plans to “significantly expand” truck tyre production at its Modipuram, Uttar Pradesh factory in India. The expansion is designed to enable increased export volumes to the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, local news sources reported, citing a Continental statement.
Continental has demonstrated real-time tyre tread depth monitoring during a pilot project with Danish carsharing provider Share Now and telemetry specialist Traffilog. The project confirmed Continental’s ability to predict tyre tread depth in real-time to an accuracy within one millimetre.
The German Sustainability Award project is hailed as “Europe’s premier award for environmental and social engagement.” Held annually since 2008 and oriented towards the goals of Agenda 2030, the multi-stakeholder, government-supported awards honour those working towards a more sustainable future. Awardees for 2021 include Continental, whose Urban Taraxagum bicycle tyre caught the judging panel’s attention. The tyre is an award-winner in the Responsible Design category.
Following the news that three tyre manufacturers are listed on the 2020 CDP A list, three brake makers can also be found on the ranking – Brembo, Bosch and Continental. Brembo achieved the best result with As in both climate change and water security. Bosch scored an A in the climate change category.
Strong words from one of the unions representing workers at the Continental tyre factory in Aachen, Germany. Speaking with Munich-based newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, IG BCE trade union chairman Michael Vassiliadis stressed that the planned job cuts “will be expensive”. He also claimed that Continental has turned away potential investors.
Continental AG is aiming to be completely carbon-neutral by 2050. One of the earliest landmarks in the plans sees Continental move to being carbon-neutral in some areas within two years. Specifically, from 2022 Continental will make its global business for emission-free cars, buses, trains and other vehicles carbon-neutral. The programme covers the company’s production processes as well as their upstream stages and recycling at the end of use. In this way, the technology company is helping the industry make emission-free mobility completely carbon-neutral.
Continental is launching ContiConnect Live, a digital tyre pressure monitoring solution designed to complement ContiPressureCheck and ContiConnect Yard. With ContiConnect Live, the collected data on tyre pressure and temperature are sent in real time to the cloud using a central telematics unit. In addition, the unit transmits the vehicle’s location using GPS and records the operating hours of the tyres. Fleet managers have a quicker and more comfortable overview of the condition of the vehicles regardless of their location. By evaluating the information, the fleet benefits from reduced downtime, lower maintenance costs and an extended operating time.
In addition to taking the honours in the Auto Express all-season tyre test here in the UK, the Continental AllSeasonContact is the top-performing all-season tyre in the latest tyre test from Slovakian car magazine Autozurnal. The publication rated the AllSeasonContact ‘very good’ in its joint test of winter and all-season tyres. The Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 gave the strongest winter tyre performance and Autozurnal also rewarded it with a ‘very good’ rating.
With sales of all-season tyres being one of the good news stories of an otherwise challenging year, at the end of November Auto Express published its latest test comparing the performance of leading year-round tyres. Continental’s AllSeasonContact was the outright winner, but Goodyear’s Vector 4Seasons Gen-3 and Hankook Kinergy 4S2 were not far behind it in second and third place respectively.
September’s new van registrations represented a bright spot in a dire year for new vehicles in Europe. While European Union van registrations have declined 22.8 per cent over the course of 2020, September figures registered double-digit growth. In the UK, the figures are even more polarised, with the light commercial vehicle market down 27.4 per cent for the first three quarters, September growth was nearly the opposite, over 25 per cent up. Though it should also be noted that the UK figures reflect a weak month in September 2019. While the new vehicle picture is clearly complex, the demand for new vans to replace less efficient older models, and to expand fleets, is present even amid this pandemic year. And with the demand – even legislative requirement – to downgrade emissions, OE tyre suppliers will be required to develop increasingly more efficient tyre solutions. And there are more reasons for tyre suppliers to the replacement markets in mature North American and European markets to feel optimistic about their prospects, both for the reasons laid out in the previous analysis of the market, and thanks to some startling statistics relating to the growth in e-commerce laid out by Continental.
In the USA, General Motors has issued a safety recall for certain 2020 and 2021 model-year Chevy, Cadillac, Buick and GMC pickup trucks and crossovers. According to GM, the affected vehicles were delivered with Continental brand tyres that were overcured during the manufacturing process. The news follows Continental’s recall of 12,000 Continental and General Tire branded products earlier in November. The GM recall affects over 7000 vehicles in the US market.
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