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| Cho Joo-wan, right, CEO of LG Electronics, speaks with Markus Knabl, left, senior manager of marketing at Magna International, during the IAA Mobility 2023 in Munich, Germany, Tuesday (local time). Courtesy of LG Electronics |
By Baek Byung-yeul
LG Electronics is strengthening cooperation with Canada-based automotive parts company Magana to expand its presence in the burgeoning automotive electronics business, the Korean company said Wednesday.
LG said its CEO Cho Joo-wan visited Magna's booth during the IAA Mobility show, which is currently being held in Munich, Germany, and had a meeting with Diba Ilunga, president of Magna Powertrain, and other executives.
The company has been operating LG Magna e-Powertrain, a joint venture with Magna. They announced at the IAA Mobility show on Sept. 4 that they would establish an electric vehicle (EV) parts production plant in northeastern Hungary and accelerate global business expansion.
Upon completion of the new plant, its first in Europe, LG Magna e-Powertrain will operate a total of four plants in Incheon, Nanjing in China and Ramos Arizpe in Mexico. The joint venture also plans to expand its supply of EV powertrains, including drive motors, inverters and converters, the key parts of EVs.
In addition, LG Electronics and Magna have been promoting strategic technological cooperation to meet the growing demand for advanced cars since the beginning of this year. Through the cooperation, LG said its infotainment technology and Magna's advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) and autonomous driving-related technologies will be integrated to respond to the upcoming autonomous driving era.
To diversify its business portfolio, the home appliance maker launched a vehicle component solutions (VS) unit in 2013. The VS unit succeeded in turning a profit last year and has become a solid profit source for the company. LG added that the unit's order backlog touched 80 trillion won ($60 billion) as of the end of 2022 and the figure continues to expand.
Via its collaboration with Magna and due to upgrading its own technology, LG's automotive business consists of an infotainment business through its VS unit, the EV powertrain business through LG Magna e-Powertrain and the automotive lighting business through its Austrian subsidiary ZKW. Based on the steady growth of these three core businesses, the company said it is increasingly expanding its presence in the global auto parts market.
"Through the cooperation with Magna, we will strengthen our position in the global automotive electronics market and proactively respond to the future mobility era of EV and self-driving cars," the LG CEO said.
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