The company is structured into six divisions named Chassis and Safety, Powertrain, Interior, Tires, ContiTech, and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).

From about 1910, synthetic rubber started to play a major role in car tire production, and one of its earliest proponents was chemist Albert Gerlach (1858–1918), member of the executive board.

[13][14] As with many other German companies during World War II, Continental used slave labor provided by the Nazi Party in their factories in the 1940s at Hannover-Stöcken,[15] Hannover-Limmer,[16] Hannover-Ahlem,[17] and others, all offshoots of the Neuengamme concentration camp.

[9] In 2008, Continental appeared overextended with its integration of VDO and had since lost almost half of its market capitalisation when it found itself to be the hostile takeover target of the family-owned Schaeffler AG.

[32][33] In April 2022, Continental resumed production of tires in Russia despite International sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War due to 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[40] Ten years later, Geissinger returned to Continental with mother-and-son owners Maria-Elisabeth and Georg Schaeffler and a consortium of banks, to buy control of the company.

[41] Continental appeared to have overextended itself with the acquisition of Siemens' VDO automotive unit in 2007 for €11.4 billion[22] and had lost almost half of its market capitalisation since.

The North American headquarters of the CAS division is located in Auburn Hills, Michigan, directly east of the Great Lakes Crossing Mall.

However, as financial woes set in at the division Meineke Car Care Center took over sponsorship of the Charlotte bowl game from Continental.

Continental was one of the companies bidding to work with General Motors to provide the battery pack for the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle (E-REV).

[53] In April 2016, Continental AG together with Honda's U.S. subsidiary, were honored with the 2016 Automotive News PACE Innovation Partnership Award[54] for the Bidirectional Long Range Communications (BLRC) System, developed by the Body and Security Team in the Interior Division.

In 2015, Continental AG was honored with two PACE Awards for its Bare Die High-Density-Interconnect (BD-HDI) Printed Circuit Board Substrate Technology for Transmission Electronics[56] and its Multi-application Unified Sensor Element (MUSE).

[57] In 2018, Continental won a PACE (Premier Automotive Suppliers' Contribution to Excellence) Award for its Digital Micromirror Head-Up Display technology.

[58] In 2020, Continental won an inaugural PACEpilot award for its Virtual A-Pillar technology that helps to eliminate forward blind spots.

PACEpilot is an offshoot of the long-standing PACE awards, and the programmes seeks to recognise innovations in automative technology that have moved to the working model phase of testing.

[59] '*' Denotes labor representative[61] Continental AG has acquired the American rubber company Veyance Technologies, Inc. based in Fairlawn, Ohio.