Samsung Electronics to Supply LED Headlamps to Tesla

Samsung Electronics has sealed a deal to supply LED headlamps to Tesla, the world's largest electric vehicle company, giving new momentum to its automotive electronics business. The deal is the biggest achievement since Samsung Electronics chose the automotive electronics business as its future growth engine in 2015.

In particular, it is noteworthy that the LED Business Team in the DS Business Division made the stellar achievement. The late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee selected the LED business as one of Samsung's top five new growth engines, but rumors of its withdrawal from the LED business went around after many years of losses due to a price war by Chinese companies and a glut in supply.

The LED Business Team betted on LED chips, instead of LED modules with weak price competitiveness. The team developed high-performance and high-efficiency LEDs for vehicles, accelerating its efforts to penetrate the electric vehicle market.

Samsung ranked fourth with a 6.5 percent share in the LED market in the third quarter of 2020, according to market research firm Omdia. Analysts say that if the vehicle-use LED market expands, Samsung will be able to overtake the frontrunners such as Nichia (13.5 percent), Oslam (9.7 percent), and Seoul Semiconductor (7.4 percent).

The market for vehicle LEDs is expected to grow fast. U.S. market research firm SU predicts that the LED market for vehicles will grow by 16 percent every year.