{"id":2622,"date":"2025-11-29T12:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T12:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tcap.blog\/?p=2622"},"modified":"2025-11-29T12:05:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T12:05:12","slug":"supplier-series-continental-ag-nazi-boots-diesel-cheats-and-cummins-favourite-kind-of-filth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tcap.blog\/2025\/11\/29\/supplier-series-continental-ag-nazi-boots-diesel-cheats-and-cummins-favourite-kind-of-filth\/","title":{"rendered":"Supplier Series : Continental AG \u2013 Nazi Boots, Diesel Cheats, And Cummins\u2019 Favourite Kind Of Filth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Continental AG is what you get when a tyre company spends a century marinating in war contracts, forced labour, cartel instincts, and emissions fraud, then wraps itself in ESG brochures and \u201cmobility solutions\u201d guff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the polite version of the auto industry, Conti is a \u201ctechnology partner\u201d. In the real version, it is one of those suppliers that always seems to be standing a bit too close to whatever scandal just exploded. Forced labour for the Nazis. Rigged emissions software for Volkswagen. Bid rigging. Mass job cuts. And now its electronics bolted onto Cummins engines, in the same dirty supply chain that just spat out a record-breaking $1.675 billion emissions penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So no, this is not a neutral \u201cstrategic supplier\u201d. This is a company with a past like a crime scene and a present that still reeks of the same instincts: cheat where you can, apologise when you must, sack workers when it gets tight, then pretend it is all just \u201ctransformation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cummins Connection: Brains Of The Beast<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First, the Cummins angle, because that is why this lands in Supplier Series at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out in the wild you can find Continental-made engine control modules marketed specifically for Cummins platforms \u2013 ISF, QSF, ISB, QSB and the rest \u2013 full OEM part numbers, Conti on the label, Cummins in the product title. Service shops do not invent that combination for fun, and you do not tool up that hardware if you are not part of the ecosystem that keeps those engines alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In plain English: Continental\u2019s electronics sit in the nervous system of engines running under Cummins\u2019 name. Not every engine, not every product line. But enough that \u201cContinental in the Cummins tent\u201d is more than just a theoretical link.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now park that next to Cummins\u2019 own recent party trick: the defeat-device scandal on Ram diesel pickups. US and California regulators nailed Cummins for software that behaved when it sensed a test, then let NOx spew in real-world use. End result – a record $1.675 billion civil penalty under the Clean Air Act, plus recall and fix costs pushing the total cure up towards $2 billion once you add the California side deals and remedial work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you have Cummins, the diesel cheat TCAP has been hammering for months, and Continental, the supplier whose whole Dieselgate chapter is about emissions software being bent out of shape. It is not hard to see why they belong in the same series. Filth recognises filth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dieselgate: Continental\u2019s Own Emissions Fraud Hangover<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

If the Cummins case is ugly, Continental\u2019s Dieselgate chapter is downright rancid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volkswagen\u2019s EA189 diesel engines \u2013 the ones that detonated the whole Dieselgate scandal \u2013 ran on control units and software that came from Continental, among others. Those engines did the now-famous trick: recognise lab test cycles, clean up for the clipboard, then dump NOx on the road like a rolling power station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

German prosecutors spent years crawling through Continental\u2019s role. Police raids. Seized emails. In April 2024 prosecutors in Hanover whacked Continental with a \u20ac100 million fine for \u201cnegligent breach of supervisory duties\u201d linked to those EA189 controls. The company accepted it, called it drawing a line under proceedings, and tried very hard to sound relieved rather than guilty as sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came the insurance money. In 2025, Continental reached a deal in which directors and officers insurers for ex-managers agreed to cough up tens of millions of euros to cover Dieselgate-related damage claims against former executives. Add fines, legal bills and internal costs and the overall hit runs into the hundreds of millions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this is abstract. Excess NOx from those \u201cclean\u201d diesels is linked to respiratory disease and premature deaths. Whole cities choked while Conti\u2019s gear helped keep the lie rolling. And the story is not done – in the UK, group lawsuits are still dragging Continental and the carmakers into court over alleged unlawful defeat devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what \u201cnegligent supervisory duties\u201d really means when you strip the legalese away: you let your people help cheat the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nazi-Era Pillar: Forced Labour And Death Marches For Rubber<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

And if you think this is just a modern management problem, you have not looked at their war record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020 an independent historical study, commissioned by Continental itself, finally laid out the full horror of the company\u2019s role in the Nazi economy. The findings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n