Automotive Translation 101
The automotive sector is one of the world’s largest markets for a single product type, with the global market generating around $2.9 trillion per year. It’s also a highly globalised industry, established in almost every part of the world.
As such, automotive translations like those we offer at Andiamo, are critical to supporting the operations of organisations across the sector.
How effective automotive translations turn the wheels of the industry
The sector’s translation requirement is enormous, with a broad range of organisations, from manufacturers, to motor insurance companies, training academies, parts manufacturers and automotive software companies, all selling to motorists in a wide range of territories.
The benefits of high-quality translations for the automotive sector
At Andiamo, we support some of the market’s leading brands with high-quality automotive translations that help them to:
- Deliver the ultimate customer experience via high-quality, accurate translations of handbooks, on-screen text, website and marketing content.
- Communicate meaningfully with their international teams, and dealerships, in their native language.
- Make centralised content accessible to service engineers across the world.
- Train non-native speaking and international engineers in their favourite language.
- Meet regulatory compliance to facilitate access to international markets.
What does translation look like across the sector?
Automotive translation projects are largely technical in their nature, requiring the kind of technical translation expertise we’ve forged our reputation on, but are still varied in their scope.
Projects that call for automotive translations can be as varied as:
- Vehicle owner handbooks, repair manuals, workshop manuals, and user guides etc.
- Warranty documentation
- Brochures and parts catalogues
- Infotainment systems
- Diagnostic information
- Dealership content (dealership communications, operating standards, service recall letters)
- Sales presentations
- App/software text
- Training materials (including workbooks and e-learning scripts)
- Video voice-over scripts and subtitling
- Marketing materials, websites and press releases.
The risks of ineffective automotive translations
While effective automotive translations help to turn the wheels of the automotive sector, the risks of poor translation services can bring operations and international growth to a screeching halt.
The impact of poor quality, inaccurate automotive translations range from:
- Reputational damage and dissuading clients and customers from investing in/buying from the brand (risks of poor marketing/website translations)
- Ineffective repair services, engineer and user accidents, injuries, fatalities and legal pressures (risks of inaccurate technical translations)
- User confusion and poor user experience (risks of poor translations of dashboard display and infotainment system text)
- Shipping delays and missed product release/document delivery deadlines, leading to loss of reputation, turnover and client/customer trust (by having to fix poor translations)
Our automotive translation approach
Sector-specialist translators
At Andiamo, we use only skilled and experienced sector-specialist translators to conduct automotive translations, who have worked or trained in the automotive industry and have a deep understanding of its terminology.
Your project will be assigned to sector-specialist translators with the most experience working with your particular document type (brochure, handbooks, training manuals etc).
We also provide each of our clients with a dedicated project manager to guide the timely completion of your project, and answer any questions you may have along the way. We drive value at every turn.
Single language services partner
Beyond automotive translations, we also offer typesetting, subtitling and interpreting services to provide you with an end-to-end solution for all your language service needs. You’ve found your new, single, language services provider.
Translation tools
Andiamo! translators use a variety of translation tools to support the consistency and accuracy of translations. By working within software environments like Translation Memory, our team analyses technical automotive documents, to isolate repeated text and matches from previous translations so it’s translated consistently each time it appears, whilst also enabling us to offer you match discounts.
By using other tools and resources such as glossaries of primary terminology, our translators further support the accuracy and consistency of your translations.
Quality assurance
Our translators also use QA tools within our Translation Memory software, which help to provide another layer of quality assurance. This is in addition to the in-house checks performed by our projects team, which are carried out when we receive the translations from the translators.
Machine translation
For high-volume, short turnaround, technical translation projects, and those with smaller budgets, we can also use Machine Translation (MT) – or specifically Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE), to offer cost-effective automotive translations.
This “full” MTPE service, offers you the assurance that professional MT output has been thoroughly proofread by specialist human translators, and offers a translation quality almost equal to human translated content, at a faster rate and a lower cost.
Why Andiamo?
When you work with Andiamo, you can rest assured that automotive translation specialists, and technical translation experts, are working to support your organisation and its international growth.
We provide all clients of our automotive translation services with a dedicated project manager to guide the timely completion of your projects and act as your point of contact for any query you may have.
Beyond our 35+ years of experience, we hold multiple ISO certifications (ISO 9001:2015, ISO 17100:2015, ISO 14001:2015), and are audited externally to maintain these standards and demonstrate our commitment to quality.
Contact our friendly team today to discuss how our automotive translations can help drive value across your business.
