LG Innotek to foster car communication parts business with digital key

South Korea’s LG Innotek Co. aims to accelerate growth in the global auto communication parts market with a new digital car key as its parent LG Group expands its automotive business.

LG Innotek, which unveiled its first digital car key module in 2021, said on Monday it has developed a next-generation digital key solution with enhanced passenger safety and convenience. A digital key allows users and drivers to lock and unlock their vehicles and start the engine with their smartphones or any other mobile device.

The company is running various promotions for global automakers and intends to start mass production of the solution in 2027.

“LG Innotek plans to foster car communication parts with unrivaled wireless communication source technology as a core of the automotive electronics business,” said its CEO Moon Hyuksoo.

The major camera module supplier for Apple iPhones has been expanding its presence in the automotive electronics industry. The company 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, for example.

Its top shareholder LG Electronics Inc., the leading global home appliance maker, has been advancing its automotive business, one of the company's future growth drivers.

TO QUADRUPLE COMMUNICATION MODULE SALES

LG Innotek’s new digital car key has a built-in module equipped with antennas and circuits, as well as running software.

The product significantly improved security functions compared to the existing models working on long-range cellular communication technology as it is equipped with short-range wireless communication technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), near-field communication (NFC) and ultra-wideband (UWB), according to the company.

The next-generation digital car key equipped with a radar developed by LG Innotek features additional safety and convenience functions such as a child presence detection (CPD) system, which notices kids left behind in the vehicle and sends alerts in an emergency, not just to the vehicle owner, the unit of South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate LG Group.

LG Innotek aims to expand its presence in the global automotive communication parts market with the digital key and the 5G-V2X communication module it developed for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) last year.

The company expected sales of car communication components to more than quadruple this year compared to 2023 as it won a deal to supply the module to a global automaker, although it did not provide details such as the name of the customer and the value of the contract.

Write to Chae-Yeon Kim at why29@hankyung.com
 

Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.