Continental is celebrating its 150th year in business in 2021.
The company was founded in Hannover, Germany, in 1871. Over the next 15 decades, Continental transformed from a local manufacturer of tires and soft rubber products to an international technology company.
Today, Continental has nearly 15,000 employees in the United States. Worldwide, three out of every four vehicles on the road are equipped with the company’s tires or automotive technologies, the company says. An estimated one billion people use Continental products every day.
Throughout this year, Continental says it will celebrate the company’s history with stories on how it has evolved. Before cars were even invented, the company began by manufacturing horse “hoof buffers,” along with solid tires for carriages and bicycles. In 1904, Continental says it was the first company in the world to develop automobile tires with a patterned tread, and four years later invented the detachable rim. On the year of its 50th anniversary, in 1921, Continental produced its first commercial truck tires and says it became the first German company to produce tires reinforced with pliable cords rather than linen fabric. Six years later, it launched the very first pneumatic tractor tire in Europe, Continental says.
In 1955, Continental says it was the first company to develop air springs for trucks and buses, and the first German company to start manufacturing tubeless car tires, which it had patented after World War II. By the 1960s, widespread production of radial tires had begun, and Continental employed 26,800 people. Continental says its ContiSuperElastic solid tires, which are used on forklift trucks, airport vehicles and other heavy-duty industrial applications helped lead the industry toward the abbreviation for the category: CSE. In 1967, the company opened the Contidrom test track in tandem with the Uvalde Proving Grounds in Texas, where tires have been tested since 1959.
By 1988, the company had almost doubled in size, employing 45,900 people around the world. It had acquired Uniroyal and Semperit in Europe, and General Tire in the United States. Within the next 10 years, added sites in Central and South America, Africa and Eastern Europe. After a 10-year hiatus, Continental re-entered the OTR construction and mining tires segment in 2015, and shortly thereafter restarted production of radial agricultural tires.
In 2019, Continental was one of the two most recognized brands in U.S. Consumer Reports’ top tire picks, tying for first place in the all-season light truck category and taking second place in three others, the company says.
