EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Investments, Lithuania, Markets and Companies, Transport

Continental plans to create around 1,000 new jobs in the new electronic components plant, governmental foreign investment promotion agency Invest Lithuania said on Monday.

In the new facility in the Kaunas district, Continental will produce passenger safety and smart driver assistance systems, including door and seat control units, gateways and intelligent glass control units as well as radar sensors for comfort functions such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and safety functions such as Emergency Brake Assist (EBA)

"Building the first Continental plant in Lithuania is an important part of our growth strategy in Europe," said Hans-Jurgen Braun, head of 28 Central Electronic Plants worldwide at Continental.

"Continental's decision to set up in Lithuania may be the key breakthrough that will cause not only car manufacturers but also other major participants of the supply chain to pay close attention to Lithuania," Mantas Katinas, managing director at Invest Lithuania, said in a press release 

Shayan Ali, future CEO of Continental in Lithuania, said production was expected to start by mid-2019.

Founded in 1871, the technology company generated sales of 40.5 billion euros in 2016 and currently employs more than 227,000 people in 56 countries.

Another German automotive giant Hella started building a 30-million-euro plant in the Kaunas free economic zone (FEZ) in mid-October.