LG’s Market Share Hits Six-Year High in Telematics Market

The global market share of the VS Division at LG Electronics recently reached a new high in six years.

Amid the rapid growth of the telematics market, the global market share of the VS Division at LG Electronics recently reached a new high in six years. Telematics systems are like brains of smart cars.

The division’s global market share stood at 24.8 percent in the first quarter of 2021, up 7.7 percentage points from 17.1 percent in the same period of 2020. It was the highest-ever first-quarterly market share since 26.2 percent in 2015. As a result, attention is focusing on whether LG Electronics will be able to regain the top position that it lost to German company Continental in 2020.

LG Electronics came in first in the telematics market share rankings in 2018 and accounted for 24.5 percent of the while telematics market, according to Counterpoint Research. At the time, Continental placed second with 18.0 percent. However, LG Electronics (18.4 percent) fell to second place as Continental claimed the first spot with 20.3 percent in 2020.

LG Electronics’ automotive electronics business consists of the infotainment business by the VS Business Division, the powertrain business by a joint venture between LG Electronics and Magna and the lamp business by ZKW. Telematics is part of the infotainment business. LG Electronics started supplying telematics to General Motors in 2003 for the first time. The company has won contracts with leading global automakers such as Toyota, Honda, Germany, BMW, Hyundai and Kia.

Riding on this rapid growth, LG Electronics has been continuing to cooperate with Qualcomm since 2004 by developing telematics technologies. Recently it is currently developing a 5G connected car platform, one of the major components of autonomous cars. The platform is a technology that connects cars and nearby base stations in real time by utilizing a telematics control unit (TCU) powered by wireless communication technology.

The rapid growth of global 5G infrastructure is leading to the birth of the self-driving car market, thereby feeding the steady growth of the TCU market. Counterpoint Research predicts that the TCU market will grow at an annual average of 14.4 percent between 2020 and 2025 and the size of markets will top 7.4 trillion won in 2025.