Christian von Albrichsfeld, Continental Romania: “Making the car clever will be a trend that we need to follow”

The main directions in automotive development remain digitalization, assisted automated driving, electrification, according to Christian von Albrichsfeld, Head of Country, Continental Romania.

“Electrification now becomes more visible than, for example, the ADAS. An electric car which is charged using coal-based energy is not environmentally friendly. A modern diesel or a modern combustion engine is better in the overall energy balance and also regarding the pollution,” he said during the “Automotive R&D Power Breakfast”, powered by Automotive Today and The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“In April, the European market had a 75 percent drop in sales. We were not hit only by the local shutdown, but also by our customers which did not produce any cars. Analysts estimate the global market will reach sales of 70 million cars this year, instead of 90 million cars the year before.”

Currently 80 percent of Continental’s employees are working from home. “We never stopped. We have big testing machines, sometimes people need to come to work, but we don’t have delayed projects,” von Albrichsfeld explained. “We need new competences of the people, we need to work together with the universities to develop this. Things like AI, connected cars need to have big knowledge of people working in cloud technology, big data technology. Making the car clever will be a trend that we need to follow.”