National Instruments sees huge potential in auto biz in India

National Instruments (NI), the US-based global test and measurement solution provider, expects its business in the Indian automotive industry to grow on various positive factors including a fast-growing interest in obtaining and using the latest technologies.

The company has its 100 percent Indian subsidiary headquartered in Bangalore catering to various industries with its software and hardware solutions to test, measurement, control, design and simulation in multiple sectors including of automotive.

Alex Davern, Chief Operating Officer of NI, who addressed a media conference in Bangalore today, said the company achieved a global revenue of $ 1.2 billion in 2013, of which 7 to 8 percent came from the automotive industry. A similar range of automotive business share has been maintained in the company’s revenue recorded in India too.

However, Davern did not reveal the size of the Indian turnover as he said the company has a policy of not disclosing region-wise revenue figures. But he said that India is very important market for their global growth, primarily in the automotive business.

Asia and India key markets
In the global revenue, he said Asia contributes around 35 percent with India being one of the important regions for NI’s business activities in emerging markets.

Davern was here to deliver the keynote address at NIDays 2014, an annual conference organised by NI for its customer companies, alliance partnering firms across a range of industries like automotive, aerospace, robotics and telecommunication.

According to Victor Mieres, vice-president, Emerging Markets & Asia/RoW, the company’s Indian operations has more than 300 personnel with around 120 members of them catering to its Research and Development (R&D) activities.

Found at nearly every automotive OEM and supplier, he said that National Instruments tools accelerate the entire development process by providing a platform that allows for maximum reuse and unifies design, validation, and automated test. With these flexible hardware and software tools, you can efficiently test throughout development – from concept to production.

Backed with its software and hardware products, it has various solutions to undertake test and measurement in the automotive areas like Engine Management System, Infotainment, Electronic Control Units (ECUs) and various other compartments in the vehicles.

In an expo organised as part of NIDays 2014, the company had separate stalls to demonstrate their various solutions in the technical platforms related to auto industry like Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL), and Infotainment among others. The company also showcased its recent software upgrades LabVIEW and other emerging hardware platforms and industry applications in multiple sectors including in the automotive segment.  

The daylong conference also included several technical sessions in various sectors while automotive sector session held under the tag ‘Automotive Application Ares and Case Studies attracted huge interest from the visiting engineers and scientists. The event was attended by more than 800 engineers, academicians and researchers.

Headquartered in Texas, the company has more than 6,200 employees worldwide with 14 R&D centres across the world. It invests 16 percent of its total revenue into R&D activities.