Automotive Display Market to be around $6 Billion in 2021, Smaller than the Total Market but Brighter Outlook
LG “OLED and transparent, flexible technology... Samsung “Exclusive mobile phone OLED technology”

The most striking feature of Tesla's first sedan, the Model S, which has been receiving a lot of attention since its release, is the CID (Central Information Display) located in the center of the dashboard. This prominent 17-inch touchscreen is a good example of how displays can be utilized and commercialized in future cars.

As the TV and smartphone markets that led the display panel market slow down, the automotive display market is rapidly emerging. In recent concept cars for electric and autonomous vehicles, which are considered the cars of the future, displays are clearly emerging as a differentiating factor.


▲ Tesla's 'Model S' features a 17-inch touchscreen on the center dashboard to provide various vehicle information.

The automotive display panel market is expected to reach a global size of USD 4.8 billion in 2015 and approximately USD 6 billion in 2021. This corresponds to 139 million automobiles, and is expected to have a major impact on the future enlargement and higher definition of automobile displays.

Automotive displays can be subdivided into five types: central information display (CID), cluster, RSE (Rear Seat Entertainment), HUD (Head Up Display), and rearview mirror display. The central information display (CID) is combined with navigation, mobile, and audio systems to provide vehicle operation information and entertainment to passengers.

Clusters, which provide drivers with essential information for driving, such as driving speed, RPM, engine temperature, fuel level, and warning signs, are also trending toward larger LCDs and larger screen sizes due to the recent increase in information volume. RSE (Rear Seat Entertainment) is a display mainly used for entertainment information for rear seat passengers, and also displays driving conditions and simple navigation.

Also drawing attention is the HUD (Head Up Display), which displays some information such as vehicle driving status and simple navigation on the windshield where the driver's eyes are focused, thereby keeping the driver's eyes safe. If transparent flexible displays are commercialized, they can replace the entire windshield, so this is a sector with high growth potential. The rearview mirror display is also increasing as a convenience device by displaying rear camera images.

According to a report by DisplaySearch, shipments of LCD panels for automotive instrument clusters grew 48% (30 million units) in 2014 compared to the previous year, and are expected to reach 50 million units in 2018. Additionally, for cluster displays, it is expected that 40% of vehicles will be equipped with them in 2016.


▲Bosch unveiled a display dashboard and center console concept that enhances the vehicle human interface at CES 2016.

However, there are many technical hurdles that displays must overcome to expand into the automotive market. Due to the nature of automobiles operating in extreme environments, they must meet environmental resistance requirements that can withstand high temperature and humidity variations, and they must also significantly improve screen brightness, angle, response speed, and high definition in environments exposed to light.

First of all, the car must be able to withstand temperatures ranging from -40℃ to 95℃, and the display must be strong enough to meet the high temperature and high humidity reliability standards of 40℃, 95% humidity, and 2000 hours of testing. Since the vehicle LCD must be visible even under sunlight, the screen brightness is also important. Generally, the brightness is 450~500cd/㎡, but in some cases, 600~1000cd/㎡ or more is required. Since the panel's transmittance is limited, the brightness of the backlight must be improved. In addition, vehicle displays must have different light distribution characteristics because they are installed on the dashboard and viewed at an angle of about 30 degrees from the driver's or passenger's seat.

OLED Displays Rising as Display Panels for High-Definition and Larger Screens

Despite the advantages of existing LCDs, OLED displays are rapidly emerging as display panels for high-definition and large-screen displays. Since the wide visual range is important in terms of contrast, which is an important factor in high-definition, OLED is superior in that it maintains contrast up to about 45 degrees to the left and right.

In particular, OLED displays have the advantage of being usable regardless of low or high temperature compared to TFT-LCDs and have a simple basic structure. A simple structure means that it can be made thinner and the number of parts can be reduced, which can lower the price. In addition, it is evaluated as a display suitable for automobiles because the color reproducibility is much higher and there is little change in luminescence or color change.

Accordingly, interest is gathering on the development of transparent OLEDs. In terms of safety, it is possible to apply plastic substrates, and there is a high possibility that it can be mounted on a curved surface and used as a head-up display (HUD). It can be widely used in a variety of applications, including car dashboards that can be read in sunlight, navigation systems that are easy to read even at night, car door class video phones, car windows that can display information inside and outside simultaneously, and advertising panels on the outside of vehicles.

Domestic major companies participate in 'SID 2016' to show off latest vehicle display technology

Currently, the automotive display market is dominated by Japanese and Taiwanese companies. While Japanese companies have traditionally been strong (41.2% market share in 2014), Taiwanese companies once surpassed Japan (41.6% in 2014) by benefiting from the rapidly growing Chinese automobile market. Among Korean companies, only LG Display made it into the top five.


▲Hyundai Genesis’ head-up display.

Why are domestic display giants that dominate the global display market lukewarm about the automotive display market? Experts agree that the reason these large companies are not actively entering the automobile market is not because they are 'not doing it' but because they 'cannot do it'. They say that they have judged that it is 'not profitable' yet because the proportion of vehicle displays in the overall display market (3.1% of the overall display market as of 2016) is small.

However, these companies are not giving up on the vehicle display market. Although it is not a large market at present, it is undeniable that it will be a 'market that will grow' at any time. As if to reflect this, Samsung and LG recently addressed vehicle displays as one of the important fields at 'SID (Society for Information Display) 2016', which can be used to gauge next-generation display technology. The key is OLED, which these companies have a strong point in.

LG Display, which designated the vehicle display sector as one of its fostering projects in 2014, has recently been expanding its market by cooperating with domestic and Japanese automakers. The company is bringing together AH-IPS displays with high outdoor visibility and safety and plastic OLEDs with design strengths, and is also securing technologies such as OLED, transparency, and flexibility, raising expectations in the next-generation market.

LG Display showed off its technological prowess at 'SID 2016' held in San Francisco, USA in May, by introducing a variety of lineups ranging from central information displays to instrument panels, including a 12.3-inch curved display using plastic OLED and a 12.3-inch display with high resolution and high brightness of over 1,000 nits.

Samsung Display is also expanding its presence in the automotive market through OLED. Samsung, which monopolizes the OLED market for mobile phones (as of 2014), possesses unrivaled technology in small and medium-sized OLEDs.

Samsung Display also participated in the 'SID 2016' exhibition and introduced cutting-edge automotive AMOLED products. They exhibited transparent and mirror AMOLED products that are expected to be used in HUDs and rearview mirrors in the future, as well as AMOLED products that resemble automobile instrument panels. The company predicts that AMOLED will reduce driver eye fatigue, improve visibility, and even enable three-dimensional designs in the future.

Professor Seo Min-cheol of the Department of Information Display at Kyung Hee University said, “Among vehicle displays, window-integrated displays including HUD displays, as well as dashboard and wall-painting displays are expected to grow centered on flexible transparent OLEDs,” adding, “In order to produce high-resolution and large-area, high-transmittance displays, polarizer-free OLED structures and alternative technologies for increasing transparency, as well as low-resistance, high-transmittance cathode technologies, must be developed.”