The technology company Continental has expanded production of Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) for passenger cars at its Bengaluru plant to cater to the growing market demand in India.
The newly launched TPMS line is an expansion of the existing one, with a capacity of 3.3 million wheel units per year. This state-of-the-art facility aligns with the company’s smart manufacturing goals, boasting fully automated processes with nominal manual intervention. Continental targets local OEMs and hopes to penetrate the export markets, primarily in Korea.
Ramnath Sivaraman, Head of Motion Technologies and Services within Continental Automotive India’s Business Area Safety and Motion, remarked, “Keeping in mind the growing demand and the evolving market needs, Continental has expanded the existing TPMS line. The launch of this second-generation TPMS will contribute to cleaner mobility and further advance vehicle safety by ensuring optimal tire pressure.”
The second generation TMPS offers greatly improved accuracy in monitoring tire pressure, temperature, and motion from inside the tire. Not just this, but it also transmits this information via radio frequency, wirelessly, through the vehicle communication network to display on the instrument cluster. Precise and timely information about tire conditions is vital to sustaining optimal air pressure, thereby ensuring vehicle safety and improving efficiency. The initial phase of the new TPMS line will begin by assembling the wheel units locally, and its future plans would focus on localising child parts.
Phanindra Karody, Head of Bangalore Plant, Continental Automotive India added, “Continental continues to focus on localization. The newly expanded TPMS line also features cutting-edge smart manufacturing processes, including collaborative robots (Cobots) and digital traceability systems. This expansion of the line emphasizes our commitment to scaling up production to meet both local and global demands. Over the ensuing three years, the plan is to further expand capacity of our TPMS line and double our production to back our growth.”
Continental’s TPMS has various attributes including optimized tire usage, enhanced driving safety, lower CO₂ emissions, reduced fuel consumption, and extended battery range for electric vehicles. Advanced functions like ‘problem tire’ localization and user-friendly applications like the Filling Assistant and Tire Data significantly enhance TPMS usability and add value for consumers.
