Audi and BMW Followed by Ferrari... Samsung D's Strategic Move into Automotive Market (Comprehensive)

Annual Average 26% Growth Rate in Vehicle OLED Market

Samsung Display will supply cutting-edge organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays to the supercar brand Ferrari. This marks the first partnership with a luxury supercar brand that offers a special experience beyond mere transportation, signaling a turning point in the expansion of its automotive OLED business.

Samsung Display announced that on the 11th, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ferrari at its Asan campus to develop display solutions for Ferrari's next-generation automobile models. The signing ceremony was attended by Samsung Display President Choi Joo-sun and Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna.

Under this MOU, Samsung Display will leverage its world-class OLED technology to develop luxurious yet innovative automotive display solutions befitting a luxury supercar brand and support Ferrari's accelerating digital transformation. Over the past decade, Samsung Display has led the premium smartphone market's technological shift from liquid crystal displays (LCD) to OLED. Based on its long-accumulated, unrivaled OLED expertise, the company is actively targeting the automotive display market.

Samsung Display opened the door to the automotive business by supplying a 5.7-inch OLED display for rear-seat controllers in Audi's 4th generation A8 launched in 2017. In 2018, it supplied a 7-inch OLED display for e-mirrors in Audi's electric sports utility vehicle (SUV) e-tron. In 2021, a similar OLED display was installed in the Hyundai Ioniq 5, and this year, Samsung Display partnered with BMW to supply a 13.4-inch OLED display for the MINI concept car Aceman.

Automotive displays are essential devices that provide drivers and passengers with necessary driving information. In the past, the display functions installed in cars were limited to showing whether the vehicle could operate normally, average fuel efficiency, digital speedometers, and vehicle settings. However, with the emergence of future-oriented vehicles such as electric and autonomous cars, the role of displays has diversified.

Reflecting these trends, Samsung Display attracted attention by unveiling the ‘New Digital Cockpit’ at CES 2023, the world's largest home appliance and IT exhibition, in January this year. The 34-inch display equipped in the New Digital Cockpit features bendable technology with a 700R curvature on both sides, providing the optimal viewing distance suited for the driver and enhancing concentration.

Samsung OLED is praised for its lightweight and slim structure, thin bezels that allow excellent design scalability, perfect blacks, and deep contrast expression, meeting the needs of automakers seeking innovative and luxurious designs. In particular, OLED’s low power consumption characteristics increase vehicle efficiency.

Samsung Display is aggressively expanding its automotive OLED market presence because it is a market with significant growth potential. Market research firm Omdia forecasts that the automotive OLED market will grow from $269.6 million this year to $1.39041 billion by 2029, representing a compound annual growth rate of 26% based on sales.

As of the end of last year, the automotive OLED market share was dominated by Korean companies, with LG Display holding 50.0% and Samsung Display 42.7%. BOE of China, which has surpassed Korea to dominate the LCD market, holds only a 7.3% share. Samsung Display’s rapid market share expansion is particularly notable. In 2020, Samsung Display’s automotive OLED sales were only $3.91 million, accounting for an 8.8% market share, but last year it succeeded in expanding sales to over $100 million. The market share gap with the leading operator LG Display narrowed from 81.2 percentage points in 2020 to 7.3 percentage points last year.

Choi Joo-sun, President of Samsung Display, said, "Based on our long-accumulated OLED technology, we will present cutting-edge display solutions worthy of ‘Ferrari.’ We plan to strengthen our automotive OLED business by collaborating with Ferrari and other leading global automakers going forward."