LG Innotek (CEO: Ung-Beom Lee) crossed the 30-million unit mark in the cumulative sales of its automotive motors, asserting its global competitiveness in the automotive electronic parts market.
The company has recently announced its global cumulative sales of the automotive motors including the motors for the Anti-lock Brake System (ABS) and those for the Electric Power Steering System (EPS) surpassed the 30-million unit mark as of January 2014. This feat came in seven years after 2007 when LG Innotek started mass-producing automotive motors.
More surprisingly, it took only a year for the maker to achieve this after it broke the 20-million unit mark in its cumulative sales in January, 2013. Specifically, it posted the sales record of about 7 million units for the ABS motors and nearly 3 million units for the EPS motors last year. This means LG Innotek’s ABS motors were mounted in approximately 8% of the 87,380,000 cars produced that year worldwide.
The ABS motor is a crucial component that keeps the wheels from locking up, preventing unintentional skidding. It also decreases braking distances and facilitates steering for the driver to avoid obstacles, resulting in enhanced safety.
The EPS motor is another indispensable component to implement the electronic control steering system of a vehicle. When a steering wheel is in motion, the EPS motor is put into operation in place of a hydraulic pump to provide the optimal steering feel and stability according to the given driving environment.
■ Core technology convergence helps the maker further diversify product lineups with nearly 20 types of automotive electronic parts
LG Innotek, which has long been a materials and parts maker in the high technology field, crossed the 3-million unit mark in the cumulative sales of its automotive motors and achieved the yearly sales record of 10 million units. The industry views this feat indicates that its competitiveness in terms of technology and quality in the automotive electronic parts business has been acknowledged, putting the maker on a stable growth path.
LG Innotek ventured into the automotive electronic parts market with the proprietary ABS motors and EPS motors since 2007. In 2008, the company launched the world’s first torque angle sensor, spearheading the technological innovation in the industry.
A torque angle sensor is the cutting-edge component that detects the torque and angle applied by the driver to a steering wheel in a swift and accurate manner to provide the optimal vehicle control according to the given driving conditions.
The company actively pursues the convergence of core technologies of the materials/parts industry to further diversify its lineups for the automotive electronic parts. LG Innotek has nearly 20 products including the automotive motors and sensors, automotive camera modules, automotive wireless communication modules, LEDs, battery management system (BMS) for electric vehicles, power conversion modules, and others.
■ Specialized in automotive electronic parts across the entire areas from R&D to production, quality assurance and marketing
LG Innotek has been demonstrating its competitive edge in terms of quality by establishing specialized systems for the automotive electronic parts across the entire areas of research and development, production, quality assurance and marketing while remaining committed to innovative products.
As automotive parts are linked to the safety of drivers, passengers and even pedestrians, quality can never be compromised, so the process from development to shipping is very intricate, meaning that the entry barrier to the market is pretty high.
Especially, these automotive parts are required to endure various external conditions such as extreme temperature, vibrations, and shock. Naturally, environmental testing time easily amounts to 1,100 hours for automotive motors. The environmental testing temperature also hovers in extreme ranges from 40 below to over 100 above zero.
The company has been committed to creating its proprietary process specialized in the automotive business by obtaining the ISO/TS16949 certification, a standard quality management system in automobiles. In addition, the LG Innotek has been training all of their employees who produce electronic automotive components in professional quality control measures in order to strengthen its competitiveness through systematic quality control.
"Our current foothold in the automotive electronic parts business is an outgrowth of our dedication to vehicle electrification," a source from LG Innotek tells, "In addition to the motors and sensors, we will continue to step up our game with the development of core parts for green cars and smart cars, a rapidly emerging segment in the global auto market."
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