A new 50/50 joint venture between Continental and Osram is expected to commence work in the second half of 2018. The aim is to pool expertise in lighting, light control and electronics to advance the field. The company will be led by CEO Dirk Linzmeier, from Osram, and CFO Harald Renner, from Continental.
“We want to actively drive forward technological change in the lighting market within the automotive industry and develop even more innovative and intelligent lighting solutions,” said Andreas Wolf, head of Continental’s Body & Security business unit.
“The joint venture will help us to establish the conditions for this since it combines our expertise in software and electronics with Osram’s automotive lighting expertise. As such, we will be able to offer our customers an unrivalled portfolio in the lighting market.”
“Digitalization is creating new potential applications in automotive lighting and, in turn, tremendous opportunities that we want to leverage with Continental,” said Hans-Joachim Schwabe, CEO of Osram’s Specialty Lighting division.
“By joining forces, we will be in an even better position to drive forward innovations by working closely with the automotive industry to integrate lighting, sensor technology and electronics seamlessly in a single application. This will allow us to advance new intelligent light functions such as the combination of lighting and sensor technology in a module or light-based communication between the driver, other road users and the vehicle’s surroundings.”
The joint venture will be based in the Munich region of Germany, but will operate globally to ensure rapid development cycles with customers in their local areas. The product portfolio will feature semiconductor-based lighting modules such as LED modules for front and rear headlights, laser modules and light control units.