Dolby bets big on Indian automobile sector to replicate China success story

Dolby Global Vice President for Commercial Partnerships Javier Foncillas says that this is the first time they are entering India car market and it offers huge opportunity.

Having successfully penetrated into the Chinese automobile sector within a short duration, Dolby is betting big on the Indian market to replicate its success story, said a top executive.

Till date, about 16 well known car makers have integrated Dolby Atmos into their ICE and EV cars and Mahindra & Mahindra happens to be the 17^th partner. Though Dolby has scripted success in many countries globally, it is yet to set its foot in Japan.

“Today our biggest market is China because of number of brands we sell. In China, we are associated with around 10 carmakers. This is the first time, we are entering India car market and it offers huge opportunity,” said Dolby Global Vice President for Commercial Partnerships Javier Foncillas during an interaction.

On Tuesday, Dolby Laboratories announced its maiden foray into the Indian auto sector by forging alliance with M&M. Thus M&M became the first Indian car maker to integrate Dolby immersive audio technology (Dolby Atmos) into its Electric Sport Utility Vehicles BE 6e and XEV 9e.

The EVs will have 16 hi-performance speakers. The centre and rear surround speakers are designed with a tweeter and mid-woofer driver. There is also a subwoofer and four speaker drivers in the ceiling. They are all powered by 1,400 watt across 15 channel amplifiers.

Asserting that they have touched one million installations recently and hope to double it with the help of Indian OEMs, he said: “We are in talks with other Indian car manufacturers too and the announcement will be made soon. We are also trying to fit Dolby into other Mahindra models.” However, we not willing to provide details.

For years, Dolby Laboratories have been providing cutting edge audio experiences in movies, high end home theatres, headphones, earphones, PCs and tablets. Now, it is being extended to premium and high end cars. “Our ambition is to bring to all the car brands,” he said.

“We wanted to have the world’s best speaker system and that why we chose Dolby Atmos,” said an M&M official.