NNG’s mantra is that navigation and infotainment “should be available for everyone around the world,” and as such is present in almost 200 countries, with software installed in more than 20 million devices with over 30 global OEMs.
Peter Bolesza, Vice President of Emerging Markets at NNG, made the move from Hungary to India in 2010 to oversee growing business in Russia, the Middle East and India among other developing markets. Since his time in New Delhi, he has observed that rolling out mapping services in an emerging market presents new challenges.
Prior to his presentation at Automotive Megatrends India 2015 in December, Automotive World spoke to Bolesza to understand more.
What are the regional differences you have seen since relocating to India?
The navigation industry in India has been in place for a few years now, but is yet to penetrate the market fully. In the past, market expectations were usually higher than the reality, but we now see an increasing number of opportunities coming up.
OEMs are now focussing more and more on navigation solutions. The reason why this demand was delayed is partially technical, and partially due to cultural and historical issues. In India, consumers do not have a history of using even paper maps, while in Europe or the US, it was a fairly easy switch for the customer to change from a paper map to an electronic map. In India, this link is missing.
OEMs and even software providers used to struggle, but OEMs have realised that mapping is a good value-add to their cars. In the premium segment and for SUVs, it helps them sell the car, and is pretty much the main focus for them. This demand is starting to generate some really nice products for the future.
Are the foreign OEMs making a greater push for advanced navigation than the domestic brands?
You would be surprised – even Tata has had an OEM solution for the last few years – and in fact, one of the local OEMs has the greatest plans for the near future.
NNG expects to realise a 40% increase in revenues in India in FY2015. From your point of view, what has spurred this growth?
This is the company average, which is good news. I think the main reason is the flexibility of our technology; we can answer pretty much any consumer demand and any OEM requirement.
We develop one single flexible navigation engine and then add advanced features or stream down the engine to an entry-level solution. This makes us extremely competitive on the cost side. As such, our efficiencies are usually higher than anyone else in this industry.
In addition, we invented the ultra low-cost navigation segment. The advantage is that you can provide an entry-level solution for a cheap car. Also, studies show that navigation is the most desired solution in an infotainment system, so it is usually a deciding factor when the consumer comes to buying a car.
Intelligent navigation systems will be vital to the success of autonomous drive technology. How is NNG working with OEMs and suppliers on this?
We are becoming increasingly integrated into new car systems; we are developing features for advanced driver assistant systems (ADAS) and are focussing on driver safety. We are also integrating with telematics solutions (in certain markets) to provide a complete user experience.
Freddie Holmes
