Vitesco Technologies, the powertrain business of Continental, will build a R&D center in Tianjin, China, to develop solutions for hybrid and electric powertrains.
The center, which is scheduled to be completed in 2021, will be added to a campus where Vitesco has been making electric axle drive systems for PSA Group and Hyundai since 2019, the company said Tuesday.
“The new center in Tianjin further expands our development capacities right in the center of where we expect the biggest electrification growth over the next years,” said Thomas Stierle, who is head of Vitesco's electrification technology business unit.
The 9,000-square-meter (96,875-square-foot) complex will include a lab where electric drive technologies can be tested and validated.
"The new R&D center in Tianjin is another milestone for Vitesco," said Yanfei Cao, head of the company's electrification technology business unit in Asia. “It will help us to forge even closer links to local customers in the world’s largest automotive market and enable us to optimally support our customers in the development of vehicles with electrification technologies.”
Vitesco said the new R&D center will also closely work with its R&D center in Shanghai. Separately, Vitesco said that its production network in China, which includes plants in Wuhu, Tianjin and Changchun, is running at 80 percent capacity after falling sharply during the coronavirus outbreak in the country earlier this year.
Last year, Germany-based Vitesco had sales of 7.8 billion euros. The company, which Continental plans to spin off into a stand-alone supplier, employs more than 40,000 people at about 50 locations worldwide.
Conti's Vitesco to add China R&D center for hybrid, EV powertrain parts
