Automotive Industry Translation and Localization

The automotive industry is one of the most complex industries in the world in terms of infrastructure. Research and development, production, assembly, and sales and marketing usually occur in many different countries. For example, a car can be designed in Italy, different parts can be manufactured in China, Turkey, Germany, and assembled in Canada, and sold to the United States and many other countries. The latest trend, supported by numerous forecasts, is that there will even be further diversification of all these activities to shift towards the emerging markets of China, Russia, India, and other countries. In this very competitive industry, automakers need to make sure that all content created in every step of the process, whether it is maintenance manuals, parts catalogs, warranty documents, or even marketing and sales catalogs, brochures, and website content need to be translated and localized into specific markets for success. To gain more market share, automakers need to work with one or more automotive translation company to get all this content translated extremely fast, with the highest quality possible, without breaking the bank. MotaWord's AI-powered, fully automated translation solutions for the automotive industry provide this much-needed solution to meet the quickly changing international customer demands. In the following section, we will discuss the specifics of the automotive industry translation requirements and how it is possible to achieve translation cost savings while getting translations done fast and efficiently.

Sections of Automotive Translation

The automotive industry in the United States began in the late 19th century; as a result of the domestic market size and the use of mass production, it rapidly evolved into the largest in the whole world. While it is safe to say that the industry was born in the US, Germany, with its swift advancements in mass production, became a leading force in the automotive industry. Therefore, nowadays, when we talk about automotive industry translation, technical guidelines translation, or automotive technical translation, there are lots of widely used technical terms that have their roots in the German language.

The automotive document translation process is complex and requires many guides to be translated such as maintenance manuals, motor vehicle service manuals, engine repair guidelines, electronic instrumentation diagrams, parts catalogs, warranty documents, transmission user guides, etc. If you’re an automotive company that is operating on multiple continents, it is crucial to have these documents translated to help your employees understand the process and to help your customers understand your product. Automotive translation requires expertise in the field of automotive. Translators who are willing to translate these highly technical documents must have the knowledge of the technical language of the automotive industry. Any mistranslated document can cause costly mistakes in the production or maintenance of the product. Any automotive translation company should make sure that the translation is systematic, accurate, and consistent.

So, let’s say you are an automotive company and you already have all your documents translated. What happens when the car goes through a body style change or a facelift? Let’s first take a look at what body style change and facelift means.

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Vehicles go through two main procedures during their lifetime: body style change and facelift. Then another body style change and a facelift again after some time. It goes on and on like this.

A body style change means a vehicle gets a total makeover. Almost every inch of it changes. This means the user manual gets rewritten as well. As you can see in the images below, the design changes entirely. New engine options and gearbox types are developed, and even the model name might change.

A facelift is an updated version of the same vehicle taking into account the user experiences and a sprinkle of “I wish we added this too”. It mainly consists of the little cosmetic changes and optimizations of the engine.

When we check the user manuals of a car and its rebranded version, we see slight differences but are mainly the same. The differences are even less when you compare it to the version that received a facelift. Despite different brands having different styles on their manuals, the main points are consistent throughout every model. This is where an automotive translation memory comes in handy.

Not every automotive translation agency provides you with a dedicated translation memory or a discount on your TM matches. When you choose MotaWord as your automotive translation company, you’re not charged for the repetitions throughout the same text; you don’t spend a dime on a sentence that has been translated before either.

Another point that affects the automotive industry translation services is that some brands like to adapt their vehicles' features to the economic situations and consuming habits of the countries in terms of visual aspects and engine specifications. For example, Toyota Corolla, the vehicle that we mentioned earlier, has two variations for the US and EU markets. These two variations differ from each other by both engine performance and appearance. This example can be applied to different brands and different models. But the main point is the same: The user manuals still have slight differences.

Automotive technical translation is the area that we encounter the highest ratio of repetitions. Some parts are kept the same throughout every manual that is published. Besides the obvious reason specific features not being changed, another factor brings us manuals of encyclopedia thickness. Chances are you might already know how to locate the car mats or how to pop the trunk -you have a license after all-, but the regulations make it mandatory to include all this information in the manuals. Yes, all of them.

Thanks to our Translation Memory, you receive coherent translation and don’t have to worry about the translation matching the prior documents, even if the first one was translated years ago.

MotaWord automotive translation services are provided by professionals experienced in the field and are cost-effective while maintaining the quality. If you want to lower your translation costs by up to 60%, MotaWord is the first translation platform to look for your automotive translation solution. Make sure to check our technical translation services page for more details.