Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
LG Innotek aims to expand car lighting module biz
LG Innotek employees pose with a car mockup equipped with the company’s Nexlide vehicle lighting module. Courtesy of LG Innotek
By Baek Byung-yeul
LG Innotek is aiming to grow its automotive lighting module business as one of its core sectors by accelerating its expansion into the global car lighting module market, the company said, Monday.
The company said its Nexlide flexible stereoscopic lighting module for vehicles has become a flagship product for its automotive electronics business with a steep annual sales growth rate of 47 percent over the past 10 years. As of April, the total number of cumulative orders for Nexlide was for 146 different kinds of vehicles.
“LG Innotek will continue to develop the automotive lighting module business into a trillion won business based on the capabilities we have proven in the global market with Nexlide during the last decade,” said Yoo Byaeng-kuk, senior vice president of the automotive components business unit at LG Innotek.
Starting with the mass production of Nexlide-A in 2014, LG Innotek has launched a total of nine Nexlide products to the market. To date, Nexlide modules have been installed in 88 different models from nine domestic and overseas carmakers in Korea, North America, Europe, Japan and China.
Nexlide is made by attaching a package of multiple light sources to a thin substrate, optical resin and a high-performance and reliable optical film using LG Innotek's patented micro-optical pattern technology.
The company said its patented technology has helped reduce the number of additional components by more than 20 percent, and slimmed down the thickness of the modules. The company added this has enabled carmakers to have greater freedom in vehicle design.
There has been a recent trend to expand the role of automotive lighting, such as installing lights on the grilles of vehicles to communicate with drivers and pedestrians, or to display the driving status of self-driving cars in specific colors.
To meet the trend, LG Innotek aims to complete the development of pixel lighting technology by 2025, which will enable its lighting modules to display text and animation effects. The company also plans to develop the next generation of energy-efficient Nexlide lighting modules by next year.
According to global market research firm Reports Insights, the global automotive lighting market is expected to grow to $32.08 billion by 2030 from $21.9 billion in 2022.