Continental CEO Elmar Degenhart is stepping down amid a push by the supplier to overhaul management and speed up structural changes.
Degenhart, 61, is resigning his post "for reasons of immediately necessary preventive health care," Continental said in a statement on Thursday.
The company did not name Degenhart's successor. It said its supervisory board will meet shortly to decide on the appointment of a new CEO.
Degenhart will be succeeded by the head of the supplier's core automotive operations, Nikolai Setzer, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Degenhart, who has been Continental's CEO since 2009, has a contract through 2024. He has faced criticism for several missteps including communication around the closure of a German tire plant in Aachen as well as an unusually harsh letter to employees in September 2018.
Those actions have undermined some supervisory board members' confidence that he is the right executive at a time when the automotive industry is facing massive challenges in its shift to electric and autonomous vehicles, some of the people said.