LG Innotek employees show high-performance LiDAR sensors (left and right) and a heating camera module (Courtesy of LG Innotek)
LG Innotek Co., South Korea’s leading mobile camera module maker, is upping the ante to lead the automotive sensing market with high-performance light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems and advanced automotive camera modules, intending to generate 2 trillion won ($1.4 billion) in annual sales by 2030.
“We will leverage our mobile camera module-developing expertise to foster our automotive sensing solution business as another global leading sector that generates 2 trillion won in annual sales by 2030,” LG Innotek Chief Executive Officer Moon Hyuk-soo said in a press statement on Monday.
To meet this goal, the company is expediting its advance into the LiDAR market with its high-performance LiDAR systems and launched a separate LiDAR unit directly under the CEO earlier this month.
The Korean mobile camera module leader has been shifting its focus toward automotive camera modules and sensors as the automotive sensing market is set to grow amid the fast advancement in autonomous driving technology.
LiDAR is a sensing component that detects the three-dimensionality of a target and measures the distance. It can accurately identify situations, which even cameras or RADAR systems can miss.
The higher the autonomous driving stage, the more LiDARs are needed per vehicle.
Screenshot captured from LG Innotek website
According to Precedence Research & Consulting, the global self-driving market is forecast to grow to $2.35 trillion in 2032 from 2023 at a compound annual growth rate of 35%.
In line with this, the market for LiDAR systems critical in autonomous driving is expected to expand to $11.2 billion in 2030 from $2.1 billion in 2025, according to Yole Intelligence.
LG Innotek acquired 77 patents about LiDAR technology from a US self-driving startup last year. It currently owns about 300 LiDAR-related patents.
AUTOMOTIVE CAMERA MODULE IS ANOTHER CORE TECHNOLOGY
The company will also accelerate its drive to lead the self-driving camera module market, which is forecast to grow rapidly, the company said.
S&P Global recently forecast that thanks to fast advancement in autonomous driving technology, the global vehicle camera module market will expand at a CAGR of 7% to $10.03 billion in 2030 from 2023.
To ensure its leadership in the new growth-driving sector, the company invested 1.4 trillion won from 2022 to 2023 in expanding facilities for semiconductor substrates and camera modules.
LG Innotek’s new ADAS camera module fitted with a direct heating system (Courtesy of LG Innotek)
In early January, LG Innotek acquired stakes in AOE Optronics Co., an automotive lens-making subsidiary of Taiwan-based Asia Optical, to enhance their partnership to widen the technological gap with rivals in the global automotive camera module market.
AOE, a globally renowned optical lens developer, boasts the leading technology in manufacturing aspherical glass lenses, a core component of high-resolution cameras. The demand for aspherical glass lenses is on the steady rise in line with the global push for autonomous driving.
A month later, the Korean company also developed a camera module fitted with a direct heating system for an advanced driver assistant system (ADAS), which unthaws frost, snow or ice significantly faster than existing products while consuming much less power.
It plans to develop more advanced automotive camera module systems.
Last year, the company embarked on the process to add automotive camera module-producing lines in its automotive electronic parts plant in San Juan del Rio, Mexico. The new lines will commence mass production late next year.
By Chae-Yeon Kim
why29@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.
