Last week Berg Insight was talking about mobile navigation. This week it’s vehicle telematics; using a mobile connection to send and receive in-car data. The company’s new research report says 3.5 million passenger cars in Europe will have an on-board telematics device at the end of 2009. It says year-on-year growth is expected to be 18.4%, less than last year’s 35.9% increase due to reduced vehicle sales. Vehicle tracking is still the most popular telematics application, with most systems installed by third-party providers, not vehicle manufacturers. However, Berg Insight points out that the proposed eCall project in Europe could generate shipments of about 15 million OEM telematics units annually. [Berg news]