During 2009, the Russian government decided to establish a country-wide emergency call service in order to improve the emergency response for road-related accidents. The service, called ERA GLONASS (Emergency Road Assistance based on Global Navigation Satellite System), will be launched in 2013 and will enable cars to send their location following an accident to the emergency services. Russia's parliament is expected to introduce a mandate that will force vehicle manufacturers to fit a compliant eCall TCU into all new Type-Approved models from January 2013.
Why is this legislation being introduced? The legislation is being introduced partly to respond to the growing number of road casualties, but also in order to help boost the take-up of GLONASS–based systems in cars. GLONASS is viewed by top officials within the Russian government as a key strategic and commercial asset, and there is consequently a strong political pressure to ensure GLONASS can compete against low-cost GPS solutions.
When will the legislation start? The Russian parliament will vote on the ERA GLONASS mandate during the 2nd quarter of 2011, and there is expected to be little opposition to the bill due to the dominance of the ruling party. Once approved by the parliament, the mandate is expected to begin in January 2013.
What will vehicle manufacturers have to do to comply? Vehicle manufacturers will be responsible for the installation and maintenance of ERA GLONASS systems on all new models that are Type-Approved after January 2013. Although many of the technologies specified are compatible with the EU's public eCall initiative, vehicle manufacturers will need to develop certain Russian-specific solutions that may add significant cost to their systems. Due to the tight schedule, all vehicle manufacturers are expected to initially only provide dealer-fit solutions, which is permissible under the current draft of the law.
How will it affect the automotive and telematics industries? Although the short-term market will be focused on dealer-fit eCall solutions, within a few years of the mandate commencing SBD expects a growing proportion of systems to be factory-fit. Additionally, the ability of the ERA GLONASS systems to support additional services (such as stolen vehicle recovery or pay-as-you-drive insurance) is expected to lead to a fast uptake of private telematics services.Russia is adopting a unique approach to telematics by developing a centralised telematics service provider that will provide both public eCall and additional value- added services. Although in the short-term the eCall mandate will lead to significant pain for vehicle manufacturers due to the expensive hardware and tight schedules, in the longer-term there are opportunities to recover the cost of the system by offering other private telematics services.
To learn more about telematics in Russia or eCall in Russia - The impact & requirements of ERA GLONASS, please contact kkuppuswamy@sbd.co.uk.