While carmakers are fighting a fierce battle for a share of the Indian passenger car market, another storm is brewing among firms providing in-car infotainment systems.
New players are entering this space with rich offerings and features hitherto seen only in high-end cars. So now, car entertainment is not just about radios and CD players any more with companies offering an entire multimedia experience in car with touch screens, DVD, 3G, navigation and Bluetooth. Car-to-car communication will also become a possibility in future.
The Indian market is considered to be one of the largest markets in the world for car infotainment and is valued at around R500 crore.
The Indian in-car entertainment market is dominated by lower end systems thanks to the large market for small, compact cars. Sony, Pioneer, Kenwood, JVC and Philips are some of the well-entrenched players in the business.
?People do not mind spending on adding extra features, especially those that are available in high-end cars,? said Neeraj Banka, director of Auto Trends, a car accessories company. Banka said a until few years ago they wondered if there would be a market for next-generation products in India. They soon realised that car owners did not mind spending R30,000 to R50,000 to add high-end systems, but wanted the products from organised and known brands.
Banka estimated that this market could be worth R300 crore and is slated to grow. Currently 80% of the market is for products in the R4,000 to R5,000 range.
Keen to tap the growing consumer interest, a leading car multimedia systems brand from China, Caska, has launched a new range of in-vehicle entertainment ?E-car Series? in India. Caska E-car Series based on 3G will take care of all multimedia needs of cars users ? be it using iPods, iPhones, browsing TV channels and helping read books digitally, all within the comfort of their vehicles. It will also provide a touchscreen navigation system and is quipped with tyre pressure monitoring system and intelligent parking assistants.
?The Indian market is our main overseas market,? said Kaiser Zheng, sales director of Coagent Enterprise that owns the Caska brand. Coagent Electronic S&T Co is a $5 billion company and makes three million units annually in China with 40% of its sales are outside China. They are talking to car OEMs in India to get their products on to the dashboard of cars. They are hopeful that global car manufacturers would approve their product as a genuine accessory.
?To design products specific to the cars made in India and for the Indian market, Caska is planning to set up an R&D centre in India and this will come up this year,? Zheng said. They are still scouting for a location to house the R&D centre, but have started research on Indian cars as they want a share of the small car market, too. They will be coming up with products priced lower that their existing range of R30,000 to R50,000 and add products in the R15,000 range.