LG Electronics Inc. holds the opening ceremony of a new corporation dedicated to research and development in Hanoi, Vietnam, on March 8, 2023, in this photo provided by the company.
SEOUL, March 9 (Korea Bizwire) — LG Electronics Inc. said Thursday it is scaling up its research and development operations in Vietnam to respond to a rapidly growing electric vehicle (EV) parts business.
The South Korean tech company held a ceremony Wednesday to celebrate the opening of a new entity in Hanoi, in a bid to further nurture the existing auto parts-focused R&D center, which LG has been running since 2016.
LG’s Hanoi R&D center focuses on software development and inspection of in-vehicle products, including telematics, and audio, video and navigation devices.
The company expects the new entity to strengthen LG’s R&D infrastructure and competitiveness in Vietnam, and said it will increase the number of developers there by more than 30 percent to 1,000 by next year.
In 2020, LG also opened a R&D office for auto parts in the central city of Danang to enhance its EV-related business and nurture talent.
The South Korean electronics giant considers the EV parts business one of the most promising growth sectors.
During the fourth quarter, the company reported a significant drop in operating profit due to slowing demand for home appliances, but its EV parts business made a turnaround 10 years after its launch.
LG was a leading player in the field of telematics with a 23 percent market share during the July-September period, according to the company’s estimates based on data from Strategy Analytics.
At CES 2023 in Las Vegas in early January, Eun Seok-hyun, president of LG’s vehicle component solutions division, said he expected its EV parts business to grow sharply this year to top 10 trillion won in sales.
“The EV parts business is in a period of rapid change where technologies of many other industries are integrated and converge.”
He said LG has a competitive edge over other industry players with its excellent expertise in customer experience.
“Based on that, we can proactively make suggestions on made-to-order products for our customers,” he said.
(Yonhap)
