From 1 September 2023, Boris Mergell will take over as head of the User Experience (UX) business area within Continental’s Automotive group sector and will also become a member of the Automotive Board. He succeeds Philipp von Hirschheydt in this role and will also report to von Hirschheydt, who is now chairman and Executive Board member for Automotive.
At its meeting yesterday, the Continental AG Supervisory Board extended the appointment of Nikolai Setzer, the company’s chief executive officer and Executive Board chairman. It also appointed Philipp von Hirschheydt as a new Executive Board member for the Continental Automotive group sector, effective 1 May 2023.
Continental has announced new heads for its passenger car and truck tyre replacement business in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) and APAC (Asia-Pacific) regions. Ferdinand Hoyos (45) will manage Continental’s EMEA replacement tyre business, while Dalibor Kalina (47) will take over Hoyos’s former role as APAC head. The appointees will take up their new positions on 1 January, 2022. Hoyos has been heading Continental’s replacement tyre business in the APAC region since 2018. He succeeds Philipp v. Hirschheydt (47), who is moving to Continental’s Automotive group sector.
Nico Rosberg has signed his name on the Continental dotted line and will henceforth act as a brand manager for the tyre maker. Announcing the arrangement, the former Formula One World Champion tweeted that he’s “proud to work with partners who put sustainability, technology and safety at the heart of what they do.”
Continental has merged its passenger and truck tyres replacement businesses in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Philipp von Hirschheydt, former head of the passenger tyres replacement business in the EMEA region, leads the new business unit. This transformation started on 1 January, 2020, becoming effective on 1 July, 2020. Conti states that it has merged the businesses to “increase customer centricity while increasing the overall efficiency of the organisations.” In making this organisational change, Conti has shifted its structure to align with customer groups rather than product categories.
A reshuffle of upper management within Continental’s Tire division took effect yesterday. The new line-up sees Christian Kötz leading the division’s Commercial Vehicle Tires business unit and his previous role of head of the Passenger and Light Truck Replacement Tires EMEA taken over by Philipp von Hirschheydt. The latter’s previous position, head of Passenger and Light Truck Replacement Tires APAC, is now the responsibility of Ferdinand Hoyos.
An agreement was reached last week on the fourth phase of expansion at the Continental passenger car tyre factory in Hefei, China. In a Chinese-language statement, the Hefei Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone reports that a signing ceremony was held on 5 July to mark the start of a project that will see capacity at the Hefei plant rise by 2 million tyres a year over the next half-decade, from a current capacity of 8 million tyres per annum to 20 million passenger car tyres a year by 2022.
Original equipment tyre approvals are standard practice in the automotive industry, however vehicle manufacturers’ influence on later replacement tyre choice is generally restricted to passive recommendation via OE tyre selection. Mercedes-Benz is taking a more hands-on approach in India, and has teamed up with Continental to offer a range of approved products for replacement tyre customers.
Thailand has been selected as the location for the new passenger car and light truck tyre factory that Continental AG has planned for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Groundbreaking at the 750,000 square metre site in Rayong Province later this year will mark the start of work on phase one of a project that will require an investment of approximately €250 million by 2022 and give the factory a planned production of around 4 million tyres per annum within the same timeframe. Operations are expected to begin in 2019.
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