On 5 August 2024, Continental’s Executive Board announced that it would consider spinning off its automotive division into a separate company. The following day, Continental took what could be an initial step in that direction by suspending a previous carve-out plan for its User Experience for Vehicle Display Solutions segment, which had been announced in December 2023.
Continental’s automotive segment employed 100,000 people and generated €23bn (US$25bn) in sales during fiscal year 2023. This makes it the company’s most profitable individual business area—the second, tyres, generated €14bn. Nonetheless, the transition from mechanical to electric vehicles (EVs) has clearly had a destabilising effect on Continental’s core business. In November 2023, the company announced the necessity of four-figure layoffs from automotive to stay in the black through to 2025.
