Continental recently completed 10 years of local production in India although the company’s association with the local market dates back to almost 50 years. having invested nearly Rs 2,100 crore in India since 2008, Continental India announced a new round of investment in the high-three digit crore sum but declined to reveal the exact amount. On the sidelines of the press conference for the celebration event, Express Drives caught up with Frank Jourdan, Member of the Executive Board, Continental AG & President, Chassis & Safety Division, Continental. We talked to him on numerous topics including upcoming safety products for India, automated driving, electric cars and data sharing and security. Jourdan gave us a detailed insight into all these areas and more and the most important bits from the conversation have been listed below in this story.
Frank Jourdan was born in 1960 in Groß-Gerau, Germany and initially trained as a power electronics technician before studying electrical engineering at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. He majored in control systems engineering and graduated in 1987. He joined ITT Teves, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in 1988 as an anti-lock braking system (ABS) software development engineer and moved to ITT Automotive North America, Auburn Hills, USA in 1990. Jourdan returned to Frankfurt am Main in 1992 to take up the role of electronics quality assurance manager with responsibility for quality across all electronic control units. In 1994, he also took over the management of the electronic stability control (ESC) project for Ford on behalf of ITT Automotive North America.
His second, longer posting abroad, between 2000 and 2003, was with Continental Automotive Mexicana in Silao (Mexico) where he established a plant for manufacturing wheel speed sensors for electronic brake systems. In 2006, he became president and COO at Keiper GmbH & Co. KG in Kaiserslautern, Germany, where he was responsible for production at twelve sites, industrial engineering, quality, logistics and the South America region.
Since the end of September 2013, Jourdan is responsible as President for the Chassis & Safety Division of Continental. At the same time, he was appointed as a member of the Executive Board of Continental AG. Frank Jourdan has four children. He plays pétanque and chess, goes fishing and collects pinball machines.
Express Drives – First of all congratulations, 10 years in India, I am sure it has been a great journey. From Continental’s perspective, what have been the most important developments in these 10 years?
Frank Jourdan: I would not like to focus on those 10 years only as our history dates back to about 50 years in India. For the last 10 years, we slowly stepped into the Indian market and we have completed the portfolio for all the divisions of Continental in India. There were two main areas in the development for us. First was the market itself and while there have been ups and downs, later the trend became better and with that, we carried out localization and brought some of our products like ABS and that was a very important milestone for us. When it comes to engineering we started with 70 engineers and now employ over 3,000 so in that way we see ourselves making a great contribution in serving the market with our braking systems and technologies and these have played a major role in our stepping into the market.
What are the most important products or product ideas for you in terms of growth?
One of the most important trends in the automotive industry today is safety. In the Indian market, we have got legislations for safety-related products and that will further grow and I want to see how those systems expand. For example, electronic stability control (ESC) and other systems will see enhancements. These will be in addition to the assistance systems like radar-based safety systems so that the car will stop automatically when it senses a child running across the street. Those systems will definitely benefit the Indian market and I definitely see that growing. Anti Lock Braking System and electronic stability control will be enhanced into assist systems and we see those systems definitely growing. Also, the in-car communication systems are becoming more intense and different units in the car will have to communicate more and so all the electronics and communication systems will only grow further in the future. Also, we are already in sync with the trends as we look at the future automated driving.
Interesting, you mentioned automated driving and Continental has a strong focus on automated driving. In terms of Indian market perspective, what assist systems do you see a potential for you say by 2025 or 2030?
India is not very far behind from Europe when it comes to automated driving and there are some applications with the help of which you can keep your hands off the steering wheel on the highway for a few seconds. However, that’s not really automated driving. What I see is a prime example of such process systems and those assist systems form the base of automated driving systems. For example, the emergency Braking System, which is a relatively simplest system and another one would be the blind spot warning system and I see these systems as the first coming to the Indian market. I believe that automated driving system will prove beneficial in cities not just in India but in other parts of the world and the infrastructure is currently lagging and developing it could take a long time
What will be the scope of these systems in commercial vehicles?
I see commercial vehicles having the same potential as the passenger cars but the commercial vehicle is more price sensitive as large-scale operators would want to save every penny on the truck in order to maximise profits. We have seen that with the help of these assist systems you can actually make the whole transportation process a lot more efficient because in case of a sudden accident it costs a lot of money to the operator. Not only in terms of money but there are so many other things like wastage of time so these assist systems pay well and make sense eventually.
Last year there Continental acquired Argus, which operates in the area of cybersecurity. Can you tell us what work is being done in that area and if any of that is coming to India in the future cars?
It is possible today to hack cars with the help of some diagnostic tools so the first thing required is the right software to prevent such cases. As cars get more and more connected the number of people getting into the cars is increasing and the systems are getting increasingly connected as is the case with systems such as power steering and emergency braking systems. So with this increase in connectivity, we are increasing the safety and security of the car. To a certain extent, you will see this in almost every car in the Indian market so I don’t see any reason why it won’t be here?
In terms of data ownership and the company making cybersecurity products there are thousands of users using the cars and a lot of data is being shared. Who will own the data and be responsible for it?
There have been a lot of interesting discussions when it comes to data ownership. First of all, if you buy a phone there is a lot of data and your data is shared with the company and Google and you have somewhere signed the contract that your data will be used. If the OEM wants to give features to the customer then he needs to have his or her data on the backend but the data will stay anonymous and this will be used to enhance his/her experience. If the car companies sold the car to him it is the car companies that own that data. So, it’s not us or a tier-1 supplier but it is the car company. But since we work together with the car company to offer services, we at some point take some data and give it back.
We are working on a new initiative called e- Horizon where we collect data jointly with the OEMs In the backend and then make the map dynamic so you can have your own version of the map. The system constantly updates all the information on the maps and hence the maps are always updated and accurate. This shows how data collection can prove to be beneficial for users.
What are the new concepts or technologies for development that Continental is working on in the area of electric mobility?
Given the division I represent, I can talk about Continental and the safety perspective but not directly as we make braking systems that are able to regenerate the energy of the drive motor during braking. We have developed brake systems which are called brake by wire so the driver actually thinks that s/he is using vehicle brakes but it is the motor that brakes and when the motor cannot brake any further, the driver input takes over and the hydraulic brakes get activated. This allows you to recharge your battery while you brake, making the system good for electric vehicles. Continental also does a lot of work in the battery management system, in electric motors and in high power electronics. But I think the key to making electric mobility really spread is the battery. However, one problem with the battery is that the cost is tremendously high and not many states are not giving any incentives. They don’t really want to pay 10,000 euros extra to make the car an electric car. But in countries like Norway, there is a huge adoption of EVS due to major subsidies. One has to take the size and the cost of the battery down to make the EVs spread and that is the only way to keep the hope going. We are carefully monitoring what is going on In the battery market and will make a decision if we want to participate in the future.
Now coming to the Indian market, especially your division what are the key areas and products you are working on?
For my division, it is mainly in the electronics brake systems area and the ABS has already been localised and now we have localised ESC electronics here in the Bangalore plant, where we have the electronics production. We have more than 3000 people and the knowledge of these people is being applied in all the areas of automated driving.
So is the center working in sync the Global tech development?
Yes, they are working in sync with the Global Tech development and certain competencies exist where they support them but they also develop full functions on their own. It is not like a support centre and we work together with several universities as well. So this is not really a support function and is more of a research and development function in Bangalore. A very important portion of the automated driving development takes place here, making it clear how important this centre is for Continental.
You said over three thousand people work there presently so any expansion plans in the coming years?
The growth that we have seen in the last few years will continue but I cannot give any detailed numbers to you right now. There is no plan right now to stop the expansion of our activities in Bangalore. I speak to our colleagues regularly and we are all very happy right now with the pace at which we have grown in the past.
If I talk about all the divisions of Continental India what would the contribution of the chassis and safety division be to the overall Sales of Continental India?
We don’t disclose division-wise numbers globally but the trends we aim to follow is clean safe and connected mobility when it comes to safety and chassis
A few years back there was a talk on Ultra low-cost airbags Especially for the markets such as India, is Continental working on any such Technology?
Most of the technologies are being continuously scaled so that you can use them in different categories of vehicles. We are definitely working on the low-end but what you mentioned is the Ultra low and that is currently not in the development for Continental.
What could be the next new big product that we can see from Continental’s Chassis and Safety Divisions?
I’ll come back to safety and connected mobility When you talk about connected mobility those are driven by consumer trends and what we can do as a company is that we can influence these trends to some extent in the market but ultimately it has to come from the OEMs. As the BS 6 is coming into effect from April 2018, it has given us a lot of opportunities from systems like two-wheeler EFI systems and GDA pumps, Gasoline direct injection Systems or NOx sensors along with high-temperature sensors are some of the products that will grow in the market in the coming years with new regulations coming in .
Anything that you would like to add from your division’s perspective?
We are making a very steady progress on the Concept Vision Zero, which is the vision of accident-free driving. The latest number is 1.3 million people that die on the road every year and we have already said that we want no more fatalities The driver assist systems will play an important role in this along with passive systems such as ABS, ESC etc. In India, the rate is relatively high for the people getting hurt on the road so it would be great if we can make a progress in India and emergency braking system is one of those systems that can help reduce accidents.
