Continental celebrated the opening of its new Advanced Indoor Evaluation Center, an approximate $10 million investment in tire testing, on June 5 with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The ceremony was attended by Continental Director of Global Evaluation and Tire Additional Performance Thomas Neddenriep along with local dignitaries.

“The new Advanced Indoor Evaluation Center offers the latest technology in tire testing, allowing Continental to offer industry-leading products and services to our Original Equipment customers,” said Neddenriep. “Continental is committed to being a preferred technology partner and our new center allows us to increase the speed in which we develop new technologies and offer them to our partners.”

The Advanced Indoor Evaluation Center, located on Continental’s proving grounds for tires in Uvalde, Texas, is optimized to provide indoor testing capacity for all passenger and light truck tires. Testing in the facility began in April.

Investments such as the new testing center are in response to Continental Tire’s long-term Vision 2025 strategy. Since the beginning of 2011, the division has invested $2 billion toward balancing its global manufacturing and sales footprint.

In addition to the investment in Uvalde, Continental invested in various facility expansions and technology offerings which include the recent Clinton, Mississippi, Commercial Vehicle Tire Plant; capacity extensions in existing tire plants, such as Sumter, South Carolina, and projects like the Automated Indoor Braking Analyzer at the company’s Contidrom Proving Grounds near Hanover, Germany, and the High Performance Technology Center in Korbach, Germany.