What Display Daily thinks: The automotive display market is a gold rush right now. The question is, how will the initial customers of automotive OLEDs feel if, or when, they start to see their luxurious dashboard displays fade? No matter how old a car gets, it still has a significant value to its owner. Is that alarmist or just acceptable risk? It seems like mixed messages from the likes of LG: on the one hand, the market is growing and there are going to be ever bigger displays, but on the other hand, there is probably a lot more work to be done on ensuring the reliability and longevity of the displays themselves.
It seems like the best strategy for succeeding in the automotive display business is to tightly bind yourself to your customers, make sure their cars go out there on time and with the best technology, and keep working on all those problems that may be five or ten years away. It’s going to be a very expensive proposition for the display vendors in the short term because they are going to pay for all of their mistakes. I wonder what the aftermarket for digital dashboards is going to look like in five years’ time, as well. There are a lot of possible issues that are glossed over because automotive displays are a bright spot in a gloomy market.
LG Envisions Big Rise in Vehicle Display Sales
LG Display expects the rise of electric vehicles to positively impact the vehicle display market. The number of displays per vehicle has increased from around 1.2 displays a decade ago to 2.2 displays per vehicle today. While this number is expected to remain stable by 2030, the size of these displays is predicted to grow significantly. LG believes automotive displays will be 15% of its sales by 2027.
LG typically makes OLED displays smaller than 20 inches for vehicles. However, the company plans to mass-produce OLED displays larger than 30 inches for vehicles for the first time later this year. The company has also prepared the infrastructure and technology for even larger displays (50 to 57 inches) that stretch from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat.
At K-Display 2023, LG talked about its work with major car OEMs, including Mercedes and Cadillac, on OLED displays. Hyundai is scheduled to use LG Display’s second-generation tandem OLEDs by the end of the year. There was also mention of six other, unnamed brands, described as premium brands in Europe and the US, who will be using LG’s OLED displays. The company intends to make an announcement about its nine partners at 23rd IMID in Seoul this week. But it also raised the issue of longevity for its automotive displays, while touting the benefits of its tandem OLED approach, while also acknowledging that it might have to consider triple-stacked OLEDs because of the longer life expectancy of automotive displays.
