For
Mando Corp., a South Korean auto-parts maker, China’s market for battery-powered and driverless vehicles is the next big thing.
The maker of camera sensors and electric steering systems that supplies to Chinese EV startups including
Byton, is expecting sales in China to grow 10 percent annually in the next few years, according to Chief Technology Officer Ike Tak. The joint venture partner of billionaire
Li Shufu’s Geely Group is also looking to increase supplies to Changan Automobile Group and Great Wall Motor Co., he said.
“The Chinese market is our top priority and we’d like to keep expanding our business there,” Tak said in a phone interview. “We are seeking to be on the front line in the Chinese industrial shift, where there is rising demands for our electric products.”
China is at the center of a global auto industry transformation, where a government push for less-polluting cars is spurring demand for new-energy vehicles and spawning a slew of startups experimenting various technologies including autonomous driving. Mando plans to increase its spending on research and development to 8 percent of sales by 2022, from 5 percent now, to help tap new opportunities.
Mando is also stepping up supplies of electrical parts to conventional carmakers. Sales of components including chassis to Geely accounted for 10 percent of the firm’s global sales in 2017, versus 3 percent two years earlier. It earned 1.6 trillion won ($1.5 billion) in revenue from China last year, or 30 percent of its global sales.