Continental North America recently announced it will build a 215,000-square-foot manufacturing and research facility focused on technology for autonomous driving in New Braunfels, Texas.
Construction on the $110 million plant is scheduled to begin later this year with production starting in 2021. The plant will employ around 575 workers and produce products for Continental’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
The plant will be located on a 48-acre site in New Braunfels just off Interstate 35, midway between San Antonio and Austin.
“ADAS technologies are becoming more widely adopted and help drivers become more comfortable and efficient behind the wheel,” Samir Salman, CEO of Continental North America, said in a release. “Having a facility specifically dedicated to the development and production of these technologies is a major step in helping us achieve our vision of a world with zero fatalities, injuries and crashes.”
Officials from Continental and the city of New Braunfels negotiated for more than a year to create an incentive package to attract Continental Automotive Systems Inc. to Texas.
“This project has been a long time in the making,” said New Braunfels assistant city manager Jordan Matney during a Dec. 9 city council meeting. “Continental Automotive Systems is an international company with $40 billion in assets.”
Matney said the New Braunfels facility will immediately employ 130 employees by the end of the year, and will retain nearly 450 jobs that are already working on the technology inside a nearby plant in Seguin, Texas.
Once at full production, the New Braunfels plant will have an annual payroll of $28 million.
Continental’s new manufacturing facility will be located around 15 miles from Seguin, where Continental’s powertrain division, now operating under the new name Vitesco Technologies, has a 320,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and employs more than 1,500 people.
Vitesco Technologies focuses on electric mobility, producing electronics, sensors and actuators – high-voltage components and hybridization solutions.