Preface
Three years ago, Telematics was rarely known in China, but now it has become a hot topic in the industry. GM OnStar and Toyota G-Book will launch Telematics services in China next year. Just like other mainstream auto brands, the two players can do well in auto manufacturing and sales. However, when it comes to provide Telematics services in China, it is a different case. Just like boxing champion Muhammad Ali bolding to come to China for martial arts competition – the  game rules and play tactics are totally different. To promote the services in a new market, automakers have to seek  local partners, and they often face a lot of challenges about new business models and new service demands derived from different state conditions. While the world is watching the two players’Telematics move in China, BMW launches NGTP – an open Telematics protocol and Telematics framework – to try to handle tough problems and has aroused an industry wide interest. Axel Möring from BMW who leads NGTP has confirmed the NaviForum invitation to give a speech at the fifth NaviForum Shanghai. He also made time to accept the interview from NaviForum and talked over NGTP of industry attention. The contents of the interview will be issued on NaviForum Newsletter in twice and here is the first part.

Axel Möring is Senior Engineering Project Manager for Telematics Business Development at BMW AG, the leading innovative automotive company. Mr. Moering leads the NGTP project for BMW, Connexis and WirelessCar.
Mr. Möring, German graduate electrotechnical engineer has a 10 years experience in Telematics development. He is steering the Telematics engineering development at BMW and manages the international roll-out of BMW ConnectedDrive Telematics services. In parallel to his managing functions Mr. Moering is also deeply involved in university projects for Telematics studies.

NaviForum: Why does BMW take the initiative to launch NGTP? Will NGTP become a future trend for automakers to develop Telematics? 
Axel Möring: BMW ConnectedDrive has a wide range of more than 10 years Telematics experience in 10 countries all over the world. The philosophy of BMW ConnectedDrive is to connect the driver with his car and the environment. We are offering different Telematics product bundles in different markets, e.g. BMW Assist, BMW Online and BMW TeleServices; along with that we have strong partnerships to serve Telematics with global TSPs (Telematics Service Providers) and global Content Providers, e.g. Google, AFP. The customer gets the services while travelling through foreign countries the same way as in his home country. While globalizing the services in the last 10 years we have been faced with challenges to maintain our Telematics technology leadership, like:
1)  offering global solutions and local tailoring,
2)  reducing the barriers to collaboration and implementation,
3)  enabling adoption of new technologies as they come online,
4)  developing leading-edge products in an increasingly fast and agile market and - last but not least,
5)  supporting legacy systems for connectivity throughout the service life of a vehicle.
A paradigm shift was needed to move away from proprietary systems to a flexible platform: A new approach was required.Therefore we collaborated with two strong industry players, Connexis and WirelessCar, to develop and prototype both a new Telematics infrastructure and a new Telematics protocol - NGTP.
The main requirements to NGTP were:
1)  to separate the components of the Telematics services delivery chain by using consistent and open interfaces,
2)  to make Telematics service providers interchangeable,
3)  to have an open instead of an proprietary system,
4)  to adopt new and legacy cars.
NGTP therefore offers new players and new services a faster time-to-market for Telematics services towards the customers and lowers the prices by allowing a competition between the different providers in the Telematics delivery chain.
This is a significant change of the Telematics business compared with the one we know today. Therefore we strongly believe that NGTP will become the future technology - not only for automakers but also for Telematics, Content and CallCenter providers.

NaviForum: Many international auto brands are popular in China, and more and more Chinese domestic auto brands have seen interest and acceptance from Chinese consumers. What’s the meaning of NGTP for these Chinese automakers, like SAIC and Chery?
Axel Möring: BMW as well has been pushed to offer Telematics in China. We have seen a huge interest in Telematics services from the Chinese market, which is quite special due to the geographical and cultural constraints. BMW loves to take the great challenges of the Chinese market, not only in term of Telematics services, because the Chinese people are great customers for BMW.
With the NGTP infrastructure we could share the efforts in implementing Telematics services in China. The USP to the customer has to be the quality of the service, less the infrastructure. BMW takes the high expectations to their premium Telematics services in China and will deliver premium Telematics services in China in the future. BMW believes in new strong partnerships in China with local companies providing Telematics services, content and call centers.

NaviForum: Some international automakers such as Toyota, Nissan and GM already have their own Telematics solutions and protocols in their home countries, respectively G-Book, Carwings, and OnStar. What is the implication of NGTP for those OEMs? Will they be interested in NGTP or even adopt it? 
Axel Möring: The issue in proprietary solutions as we have it today is the inflexibility in changes at any place in the Telematics delivery chain. You have to bring new providers into your proprietary solution all the time you need to attach new services and / or countries. For the TSP that means a wide range of parallel proprietary solutions for different OEMS or - even worse - an exclusive one-2-one bounding to one particular OEM. For the OEM the main disadvantage is that he has to bring every new service which is required for the customer satisfaction in his proprietary solution software in the car.
Globalizing Telematics means both globalizing hardware in the car and globalizing the provider scenery. The global hardware is - of course - the responsibility of every single OEM, but globalizing the Telematics infrastructure could be a common effort between OEMs to maximize the results and minimize the effort at the same time. As an addition - as already explained - you get the advantage out of NGTP to cover legacy fleet anyway without loosing flexibility for the future.