Samsung wants to start making electric vehicle components

Samsung Electronics announced on Dec. 9 that it sets foot in the automotive electronic parts industry. Its official announcement is drawing the attention of many in the industry as global IT giants such as Google, Apple and Amazon are throwing down the gauntlet in the fields of self-driving vehicles, electric vehicles and the like in the interest of their future growth. Still, the Samsung Group clearly said that its participation in the automotive electronic parts sector does not mean that it re-enters the automobile industry. The group had kicked off automobile manufacturing back in the mid-1990s but shut it down years later due to the repercussions of the East Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. Samsung Electronics completed its business reorganization on Dec. 9, setting up an automotive electronic parts business team to that end. “For the time being, the team will focus on in-vehicle infotainment and self-driving technology so that it can have sufficient business capabilities within a short period of time,” it explained, adding, “Then, a number of projects will be in progress in cooperation with the other subsidiaries of the group in the fields of telematics, central information display, head-up display and many more.”