Continental expanding HMI business in India

Technology firm Continental on Monday said it is expanding its Human Machine Interface (HMI) business in India to cater to the local demand and also on the back of a new order from Korean auto major Hyundai. The company said it has increased its production and development capabilities to meet the growing local demand and has recently commenced Instrument Cluster supplies to Hyundai for its Verna and Venue models.

HMI business unit is part of the 'Vehicle Networking and Information' (VNI) within automotive technologies at Continental and is focused on developing systems and solutions for a holistic human-machine interface, such as instrument clusters, display solutions, head-up displays, multimedia systems and cockpit high-performance computers, the company said in a release.

In India, the business unit has been successfully partnering with automotive OEMs to deliver user-experience rich information systems and solutions, it said, adding in 2018, it reached a production milestone of one million instrument clusters a year and cumulative over eight million since the beginning of clusters' production in India.

"We are upbeat about the growth potential of products, software and services that enrich the user experience (UX) of vehicle drivers and passengers in India. The user experience is becoming the key product differentiator for vehicle manufacturers and buying decisions by consumers are influenced by UX more than ever.

"The global market is growing significantly, and the value share is also increasing in India. As a global market leader in this field, we have received some significant orders in 2020 to continue our growth journey here," said Prasad C Basappa, Head of Business Unit Human Machine Interface in India.

For this reason, the recent capacity augmentation in Bangalore for HMI supports Continental's philosophy of 'In the market, for the market', the company said.

"In addition to supporting the local market, our products manufactured in India continue to be used on cars that some vehicle manufacturers export to different markets in Asia, North America, Europe and Africa", Prasad C Basappa concludes.

Continental said it also continues to ramp up the HMI R&D capability in India, seeing the immense potential for growth in HMI related software, it said adding the company is also on the lookout for appropriate opportunities to utilize this competence for the Indian market, by partnering with local OEMs which are looking to increase the interior electronic content.