Samsung and LG, the two giants of Korea’s mobile scene, also have many other businesses. Among them are LG Innotek and Samsung Electro-Mechanics, the industrial manufacturing and science arm of each company. The two produce a wide variety of products, including car parts. Specifically, the electronics in vehicles, both human-facing and under the hood. Things like camera modules, converters, battery management systems and DCT motors are all on the menu. Recently, however, it seems that both firms are increasing their focus on auto parts. There was no word on whether this is in reaction to the veritable gun show that’s taking place in the auto space between traditional automakers and tech firms, which reached its climax at 2015’s CES. Self-driving cars are poised to drive competition and possibly change the face of the auto industry, meaning it would be none too surprising if that was the motivation here.
On the LG front, contracts in the auto space worth about 2.8 trillion won hit the books. By the end of the year, LG Innotek had made a fairly incredible 629.6 billion won from auto parts, up from 532.5 billion won back in 2014. Between the end of 2014 and 2015, LG’s back order queue for automotive electronics jumped up a staggering 2.2 trillion won (totaling 6.2 trillion won), approximately. Their 2014 backlog was only 4 billion won, marking an increase of over fifty percent. To top it all off, they managed to snatch up 29.5 percent of the global market share for vehicle communications modules.
Samsung, meanwhile, is signing up to supply parts such as wireless chargers for phones and camera modules for various companies in the auto space. A deal inked with BMW for 2016 helped to increase their clout. Having jumped into the business years earlier, Samsung Electro-Mechanics is finally getting a designated sub-team for auto electronics, indicating a bigger focus on that area of business. LG Innotek and Samsung Electro-Mechanics are both pumping up their focus on automotive sensors. Thanks to recent and upcoming requirements in the US and EU pertaining to driver assistance, the sensor market is expected to jump up over 20 percent year on year for the next decade, if not longer.