Company History | Milestones

Continental Company History — Continental-Caoutchouc- und Gutta-Percha Compagnie is founded in Hanover on October 8 as a joint stock company. Manufacturing at the main factory in Vahrenwalder Street includes soft rubber products, rubberized fabrics and solid tires for carriages and bicycles.

1882 — The rampant horse is adopted as trademark.

1892 — Continental is the first German company to manufacture pneumatic tires for bicycles.
Continental AG

Continental workers — Production of automobile pneumatic tires without tread pattern starts in Hanover-Vahrenwald.

Continental airship — The first German airship LZ 1 uses Continental balloon material to seal the gas bags.

1901 — The first Daimler-produced car to be called Mercedes achieves a sensational victory on Continental pneumatics in the Nice-Salon-Nice car race.

1904
Continental presents the world’s first automobile tire with a patterned tread.
1905
Continental produces riveted anti-skid tires, a forerunner of steel-studded tires.
1908
Continental invents the detachable rim for sedans - a remarkable innovation to help save time and effort when changing a tire.
1909
Louis Blériot, the pioneer aviator, makes history with the first flight across the English Channel. Continental Aeroplan material covers the fuselage and wings of his plane. Specimens of synthetic rubber developed at the Bayer laboratories are successfully vulcanized at Continental and processed to make the first test tires.
1913
The first edition of the customer magazine “Echo Continental” is published featuring contributions from young authors such as Erich Maria Remarque and artists like Paul Kaufmann (alias Caspari).
1914
Triple victory for Daimlers fitted with Continental tires at the French Grand Prix. Continental has a workforce of 12,000 in the parent plant.

Continental Cord Tires — The company’s 50th anniversary sees Continental become the first German company to launch the cord tire on the market. The stiff linen square-woven fabric is thus replaced by the more pliable cord fiber fabric. The first giant pneumatic tires are made by Continental and replace the solid tires used until that time on commercial vehicles.

1926 — Carbon black is used as a reinforcing filler to give the tire more resistance to wear and aging, as well as its characteristic color.

1928 — Merger with major companies of the German rubber industry to form Continental Gummi-Werke AG. Takeover of plants in Hanover-Limmer and Korbach/Hesse.

Milestone 1932 — Continental markets a rubber-metal bonding under the registered trade name of Continental Schwingmetall. It is used to absorb shocks and reduce noise in the engine mounting.

From 1933 to 1945, Continental is becoming an important supplier of the Nazi armaments and war industries. The corporate culture is shifting from a liberal company to a model Nazi enterprise.

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Continental steel cord — Production of steel cable conveyor belts starts.

1951-55 — In close collaboration with Daimler-Benz and Porsche, Continental repeats its prewar successes on the race track. Racing in cars fitted with Continental tires, drivers such as Karl Kling, Stirling Moss, and Juan Manuel Fangio win the 1952 Carrera Panamericana and the French, British, Dutch and Italian Grand Prix.

1952 — Continental adds M+S tires for winter driving to its range of conventional tires.

1955 2 — Continental is the first company to develop air springs for trucks and buses. Continental is the first German company to start manufacturing tubeless tires.

1960 — Mass production of radial tires begins.

Continental now employs around 26,800 employees.
Annual sales amount to 1.1 billion Deutsche marks, which corresponds to around €562 million.

dat1967 — Opening of the Contidrom tire testing facility on the edge of the Lüneburg Heath.

On September 11, 1968, Continental’s first electronically controlled driverless car took to the Contidrom test track in the Lüneburg Heath, to the amazement of the public in attendance. “The Future Is Here” and “Around the Banked Turn with a Ghost at the Wheel” were among the headlines. More than 400 newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television channels reported on the event. The actual purpose of this visionary project was to determine how tires could be tested precisely using scientific methods under programmed conditions. However, the Continental engineers were pushing the limits of what was technically possible at the time and, in a sense, were paving the way for the future of driving.

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1971
Europe’s largest hose manufacturing facilities are set up at the Korbach plant. The entire hose production is transferred from Hanover to Korbach.
1972
Continental launches the studless Conti-Contact winter tire.
1974
Continental is the first manufacturer to supply the European automotive industry with extrusion-blow-molded polyurethane gaiters.
1976
In Northeim, one of Europe’s largest conveyor belt production lines is put into operation.
1979
Takeover of the European tire operations of Uniroyal, Inc., USA, gives Continental a wider base in Europe (photo: Aachen plant).
1983
Continental hydromounts special bearing elements used in engine design for damping vibrations and noise are mass-produced for the automotive industry.
1985
Takeover of the tire operations of the Austrian company Semperit.
1987
Acquisition of the North American tire manufacturer General Tire, Inc. The company has operated under the name of Continental Tire North America, Inc. since 2001.

1989 — A joint venture is set up together with the Portuguese company Mabor for the production of tires in Lousado. Complete takeover in 1993.

1991 — With its ContiEcoContact tire, Continental is the first manufacturer to launch an environmentally friendly passenger tire. The industrial products operations are reorganized under the ContiTech umbrella brand.

1993 — The majority holding in the Czech company Barum comprises a passenger and commercial vehicle tire plant in Otrokovice as well as a dealer organization with about 50 outlets.

1994 — Benecke-Kaliko AG is integrated into the ContiTech Division. Key products are leatherette and foils.

1995 — The Automotive Systems division is established to intensify the systems business with the automotive industry.

1997 — Continental presents ISAD (Integrated Starter Alternator Damper). ISAD combines the vehicle’s starter and generator in a single unit. This key technology is a necessary precondition for hybrid propulsion systems that help to substantially reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

1998 — Acquisition of the Automotive Brake and Chassis unit of a globally active U.S. company, the core of which is Alfred Teves GmbH in Frankfurt am Main.

1998-99 — Continental reinforces its position as global tire manufacturer by adding sites in Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, and Slovakia. Further steps on the way towards internationalizing ContiTech’s operations are taken in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Hungary.

2000 — A new plant for the manufacture of passenger tires is opened in Timişoara, Romania. Continental and Nisshinbo set up a new joint venture (Continental Teves Corporation) in the field of brake and chassis systems for the Japanese and Korean markets.

2001 — Continental reinforces its activities within the growing automotive electronics market by acquiring Temic, an international electronics specialist (photo: Continental reinforces its position as global Nuremberg plant).

2003 — Unveiling of ContiSportContact 2 Vmax, the world’s first road tire approved for speeds of up to 360 km/h. Continental strengthens its position as tire manufacturer in the ASEAN region and Australia by establishing the Malaysian Continental Sime Tyre joint venture.

2004 — Takeover of Phoenix AG. With the merger of ContiTech and Phoenix, the world’s largest specialist for rubber and plastics technology evolves (photo: plant in Hungary).

2006 — Continental acquires the automotive electronics business of the U.S. company Motorola, Inc., expanding its activities in telematics, among other fields.

2007 — Continental acquires Siemens VDO Automotive AG and becomes one of the top five suppliers in the automotive industry worldwide, at the same time boosting its market position in Europe, North America, and Asia. With the acquisition of a majority interest in the Slovak company Continental Matador Rubber s.r.o., Continental expands its market position in Central and Eastern Europe.

2009 — The new Asian headquarters and a research and development center are opened in Shanghai. The center represents another major milestone of the company’s growth in China and Asia. Schaeffler KG becomes the major shareholder of Continental AG following the conclusion of the takeover offer published in the summer of 2008.

2010 — The ContiSportContact™ 5 P is launched on the market. The new high-performance summer tire is specially designed for sports cars and custom vehicles.

2011 — The first tire plant in China is opened in Hefei (Anhui province). Acquisition of the tire operations of the Indian-based Modi Tyres Company Ltd. with production facilities in Modipuram and Partapur. Production of electric motors starts at the Gifhorn plant in Lower Saxony, Germany.

2012 — Comprehensive testing of automated driving starts in the U.S. state of Nevada. A highly automated Continental test vehicle has covered 15,000 miles of public roads so far - without any accidents.

2013 — The ContiLifeCycle comprises the lifecycle of Continental truck tires. Using a globally unique combination of rubber recycling and truck tire retreading, Continental has developed a sustainable solution that extends the service life of tires and considerably lowers costs.

Veyance Technologies product line — Acquisition of Veyance Technologies, a company from the rubber and plastics technology sector. It specializes in the production of conveyor belts, hoses, and drive belts in 27 plants worldwide. Purchase of Elektrobit Automotive GmbH, a specialist in innovative software solutions. Development focuses on powerful solutions for complex vehicle functions, such as advanced driver assistance systems and infotainment systems.

CUbE (Continental Urban mobility Experience) — Continental built a driverless test vehicle called CUbE – Continental Urban Mobility Experience – which it trialed in Frankfurt, Germany.

Taraxa Gum — Opening of the research and experimental laboratory “Taraxagum Lab Anklam” in Anklam, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It provides a base for research into the cultivation and processing of Russian dandelion as an alternative source of raw material to the rubber tree.

Anniversary: 150 Years of Continental

Continental celebrated its 150th anniversary on October 8, 2021. The small Hanover-based rubber factory in 1871 has evolved into a global technology company with around 200,000 employees today.

150 Years of Continental

On February 1, 2023, Continental officially opened the AI Lab in Berlin and celebrates another milestone for AI development. With its new location in the capital, the technology company is reaffirming its goal of exploiting the enormous opportunities offered by artificial intelligence for the mobility of the future and meeting the requirements of megatrends such as automated driving, connectivity, electrification and shared mobility.

The campus on Hans-Böckler-Allee marks a further milestone for the technology company in its more than 150-year history. “We have created a place where our vision, values and culture can come alive in an open, connected and sustainable working environment. It is an expression of our sense of togetherness and a symbol of our long-term aspirations,” said Continental CEO Nikolai Setzer at the opening ceremony in Hanover.

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