In fact, as a technology manufacturer, LG has been overwhelmed by Samsung in recent years. Especially when Samsung and LG come up with a "folding screen" scheme at the same time, I can only silently sigh that "once the sea is difficult for water, it will always be amber."
▲ On the left is Samsung's folding screen scheme, and on the right is LG's folding screen scheme.
But if you think that Samsung's "glamour" will inevitably set off LG's "eclipse", it is all wet. At least in active cooperation with auto companies, there are ten apples between Samsung and LG.
According to preliminary statistics, many car companies around the world have reached cooperation with LG. This includes not only screens, car entertainment systems, cameras, but even fuel cells. It did not catch up with the "unmanned driving" like Apple, Microsoft and Google, but took the lead in bringing cutting-edge technology to the car step by step.
▲ Automotive power provided by LG Chem to major car companies?
Although every step is a bit slow, we can just re-examine how much value this company called "Lejin" can bring to car companies.
●LG is not only a technology manufacturer, but also a supplier.
At CES earlier this year, Sony released a new energy vehicle. This move surprised everyone, but within two days, the official announced that it only sold parts and not cars, which really fooled a wave of "believers."
▲ The pure electric car released by Sony turned out to be just a scorpion.
Similar to Sony's exquisite parts product line, LG is also a "generalist". At present, LG Group has four business segments: electronics, chemistry, clothing and communication.
▲ The business area of LG Group is divided into four sections.
As can be guessed from the name, except for the clothing field, LG's other three businesses have had an intersection with car companies. In addition, unlike Samsung and Panasonic, which only provide "fuel cells", LG's "carrot and stick" strategy seems to be more effective.
I. Electronic field
When it comes to flexible screens, most people think of Samsung first. Yes, Samsung has brought this field into the consumer market. But if it is a person who "opens up the territory", it is undoubtedly LG.
Some time ago, Cadillac officially released its flagship SUV, Escalade. The biggest highlight of this car is the first use of the curved screen in the car, and the supplier of this screen is LG. This 38-inch OLED display has a very high pixel per inch, which can reach twice the level of 4K TV if calculated according to PPI.
▲ Escalade's central control panel is provided by LG.
However, judging from the effect shown in the figure, the curvature of this curved screen is not very high. The curvature is only increased to improve immersion. The real advantages of this screen actually come from the organic light-emitting diode material itself, such as higher contrast, brighter colors, faster response speed and lower delay. Of course, there are also physical characteristics that can be bent and folded.
▲ The curvature of Escalade's curved screen is not very large.
In fact, converting LCD materials into organic light-emitting diode materials can be compared to "xenon high beam and LED high beam" of vehicles. Xenon lamp has high brightness, but high power consumption, and the light source is not easy to concentrate. The LED material not only ensures the brightness, but also gives consideration to the accuracy. More importantly, it can also be "deformed", so that the best way to distinguish the car type now is to observe the shape of LED headlights.
Put the words "Three Bars", "Tears" and "Hammer of Thor" here, and friends who know cars should know which cars I am talking about.
It is basically an indisputable fact that organic light-emitting diode materials will become the future standard. Not only the display screen in the car, but also TVs, computers and mobile phones, all products with display screens may not escape the "organic light-emitting diodes". It's just that the display screen of the car is one of the first products to take action.
▲LG began to study the morphological changes of the screen very early.
Frankly speaking, LG's top monitors are not as good as Samsung's. The central control display of the car carries the "rigid demand", and the requirements for screen quality are not so high. So even now, most luxury brands will choose a reliable LCD screen, focusing on the yield and durability of mass production.
▲ Even Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars are still using LCD screens.
Cadillac and LG are bold in the choice of materials that need to be played by both sides, and the cooperation between the two sides has also laid the foundation for the revolution of central control screen materials. At least, consumers can adapt to the organic light-emitting diode materials and curved display effects in advance.
LG said that Escalade is just the beginning and will provide OLED screens for various GM models in the future. If it goes well, we will soon see the production models with OLED screens listed in China.
▲ In the future, we will see more models equipped with OLED screens.
At least in the field of "automotive electronics", LG ran ahead of Samsung for the first time.
In addition to the monitor, LG Electronics also provided a camera for a German car company. Although LG did not disclose the names of its partners, there are only a few German car companies.
The camera provided by LG is mainly used in driver assistance system (ADAS), which is a camera module and software packaged and sold. Obviously, LG's smart phone business and household appliances business provide strong technical support for this ADAS camera. In particular, LG Electronics does not have a "separate portal" like Sony, but cooperates and helps each other.
It can be seen that components in the field of LG electronics are the largest export channel for suppliers. And because of the cooperation within the group, the mass production and application of many parts will be easier.
Second, the field of communication
At the CES show earlier this year, LG also released a brand-new in-vehicle entertainment system, officially named Conniro in-vehicle infotainment platform. This project is legally developed by LG and Qualcomm, based on the underlying webOS of Linux? Auto, combined with Qualcomm Snapdragon ADP automobile development platform.
▲ Poster released by LG at CES at the beginning of the year.
In fact, from February 20, 2009 to February 20, 2065438, LG filed a trademark application with the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The category of this patent is 3/35/42, covering on-board computer structure, man-machine interface, wireless telephone connection terminal, voice recognition software, driver assistance system hardware, interface display, on-board computer monitoring software, augmented reality software, and infrastructure and verification test of related technologies/services/frameworks.
▲ The cooperation between LG and Qualcomm is also a strong alliance.
Obviously, the development of 5G network will play a key role in the application of Conniro platform.
But unlike Huawei, LG does not have its own 5G chip as the foundation. The communication and networking hardware of Conniro platform is mostly based on Qualcomm, which leads to the embarrassing situation of LG. Its future development is controlled by people, but if you want to develop in the field of "car networking", you have to rely on others.
If we want to gain a firm foothold before the arrival of Samsung, Sony and Huawei, we must have the ability to manufacture hardware, at least the ability to manufacture communication chips. Otherwise, no one can say what friendship will be like in the capital market tomorrow.
▲ Huawei's Ba Long 5000 chip, not many manufacturers have the ability to make this chip.
However, at present, most of the functions of Conniro platform are only for developers, and the purpose is to let developers experience some integration into webOS. Innovative functions in automobiles. To put it bluntly, this project is still in the experimental stage. The artificial intelligence, streaming media display, energy-saving cockpit and rear seat entertainment system in the platform are still conceptual products, and there is still a long way to go before mass production applications.
The only thing we can be sure of is that the system between cars and mobile devices will be seamlessly integrated in the future. LG's Conniro platform is actually one of the products of the global "Internet of Everything".
Third, the field of chemistry
Different from electronics and communication, the cooperation between LG Chem and car companies is closer and more important, because most car companies cooperate with LG Chem on "batteries".
In June last year, Geely Automobile announced that Shanghai Huapu Guorun, a 99% subsidiary of Geely Automobile, would set up a joint venture with LG Chem, mainly engaged in the production and sales of electric vehicle batteries. The registered capital of the joint venture company is USD 65.438+USD 88 million (about RMB 65.438+RMB 30 million), and Shanghai Huapu Guorun and LG Chem will each contribute 50%. It is reported that the term of the joint venture company is initially 20 years.
This passage can probably be understood as follows: most of the batteries and technologies of pure electric vehicles released by Geely in the future are supported by LG Chem.
To tell you the truth, I was a little confused at first. Why set up a joint venture company to provide batteries? Later, I discovered one thing: after June 2006+2065438, new energy vehicles with foreign brand batteries could not get financial subsidies for new energy vehicles in China. This led domestic vehicle companies to immediately adjust their direction and start purchasing domestic brand batteries.
At that time, three foreign-funded enterprises provided batteries: LG Chem, Samsung SDI and Panasonic. These three companies were originally ambitious and intended to "show their talents" in China, but they were stopped by the policy.
▲ Battery manufacturer Panasonic was also hindered by the policy at that time.
Since then, LG Chemical Nanjing Factory and Samsung SDI Xi 'an Factory have fallen into a state of "stagnation". It was not until April of 20 17 that Geely Automobile wholly acquired all the production equipment, manufacturing technology and intellectual property rights of LG Nanjing factory, and established follow-up cooperation with LG before the plan of establishing a joint venture company was made.
▲LG Chemical Headquarters
Geely can choose LG instead of Panasonic that Tesla is optimistic about. We don't know the internal reasons. At least from the results, Geely trusts LG Chem's technology very much. As the saying goes, great minds think alike. Not long ago, American electric car manufacturer Lucid? Announced that it will cooperate with battery supplier LG? Long-term cooperation in chemistry, for the standard version of Lucid to be listed in 2023? Luxury sports cars in the air supply batteries.
▲LG Chem cooperates with Lucid Automobile.
Lucid official said: There are two reasons for choosing LG Chem, one is the performance of the battery, and the other is the ability to mass-produce batteries on time, but the official also revealed that other versions of cars may be equipped with batteries from other manufacturers. This practice is understandable. After all, "no one can hang himself from a tree". Even Geely set up a joint venture with Ningde at the end of 20 18.
▲ Signing ceremony of the joint venture project between Geely and Ningde.
Enterprises have this kind of worry. In case one company has insufficient production capacity, another company can guarantee the output of its products.
In fact, a few years ago, Lucid said that the strategic battery supplier would be Samsung SDI. But soon, Lucid officially announced that it would collect data according to tests for different versions of Lucid? Air provides different batteries. Later, by optimizing the battery of LG Chem, the official said that it had reached the ideal cruising range, energy density and charging and discharging efficiency, so it chose to cooperate with LG Chem.
▲ Samsung SDI is also a big manufacturer of battery suppliers.
Emmm… ..... I think it's mainly because LG Chem's batteries are cheaper.
Write it at the end.
With so many suppliers in the automotive industry, does LG have an advantage? Yes, but its advantage is more like the early "stupid bird first flies" style. Maybe we shouldn't say this about LG, but in front of Samsung, Sony and other large suppliers, LG doesn't have very advanced technology, let alone "big MAC" suppliers such as Bosch in the automobile industry.
LG's flexible screen, camera, car entertainment and battery can't be the top in the world. When most car companies choose it, they also regard it as one of the goals of laying nets. If you want to increase your voice in cooperation with car companies, LG also needs a "unique" technology.
Image source network, invasion and deletion.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.