Telematics Connected Car TCU Market Growing

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According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Internet of Things Tracker service, the global TCU market is expected to grow 18% CAGR with more than 175 million new vehicles to be shipped with embedded connectivity during 2018-22. The data represents the global TCU shipments for all vehicles including passenger cars(1), LCVs, HCVs and buses. In terms of number of units, the market will be primarily driven by EU’s eCall mandate, the adoption of embedded connectivity by Japanese OEMs and rising demand for connected vehicles in China.

Commenting on the findings, Hanish Bhatia, Senior Analyst for IoT & Mobility said, “In terms of market share, LG leads the market, catering to more than a quarter of the total market demand, followed by Continental, Harman, Bosch and Denso. Other TCU manufacturers together account for the remaining 28% of the total TCU market.”

Discussing on the brands’ performance, Hanish Bhatia further highlighted, “LG, Continental, Harman and Bosch’s strong association with top automotive OEMs such as General Motors, BMW, Audi, Daimler are driving the market volumes at large. Also, Denso has been working with Toyota for the Lexus brand till now, and the association will likely continue as Toyota adds embedded connectivity to its top-selling vehicles in the future”.

Looking at the connectivity technology, Peter Richardson, Research Director at Counterpoint Research said, “The market is moving swiftly towards 4G LTE connectivity with nearly half of the vehicles being fitted with 4G LTE enabled TCUs. Going forward, 4G LTE is likely to dominate the market until 2022 and beyond, as many markets look to sunset 2G and 3G networks in the first half of the next decade.”

“Additionally, TCU manufacturers are expected to embed Cellular Vehicle to X (C-V2X) capabilities in 2018 and 2019, using the Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset solution. The progress on sophisticated, embedded C-V2X systems in vehicles along with 5G-NR (Standalone or SA) enabled vehicles post-2025, will provide a thrust to Level-IV & beyond autonomous vehicles later in the next decade. This will be a revolutionary transformation, similar to how the mobile phone industry shifted from feature phones to smartphones with the advent of 4G cellular connectivity, touchscreens and smartphone application-driven platforms”

Commenting on the connected car evolution, Research Director, Neil Shah noted, “There are three trends which are about to shape the entire automotive industry: first is electrification of vehicles; second the addition of super-fast, low-latency cellular connectivity; and third, hundreds of sensor-integrated highly-automated driving features. All these trends will be converging to a point over the next decade for which OEMs and the entire supply chain will have to be geared up, starting now. These new capabilities will enable radically new business models to flourish, creating new business opportunities while disrupting many existing companies.”

“This means how the TCU, Infotainment and Electronics Unit functions currently, will be completely transformed and become more integrated as more vehicles get connected and are equipped with a wide array of sensors. The TCU’s transformation into a “gateway modem” on steroids or the central brain is inevitable, which will power the entire car connectivity and functions and thus increase in importance the role of the TCU vendors and related component vendors in the supply chain.”

Market Highlights:
  • The global Telematics Control Unit market is expected to grow at 17.7% CAGR with more than 175 million new vehicles to be shipped with embedded connectivity during 2018-22
  • In terms of number of units, the market will be primarily driven by EU’s eCall mandate, the adoption of embedded connectivity by Japanese OEMs and rising demand for connected vehicles in China
  • In terms of market share, LG leads the market, catering to more than a quarter of the total market demand, followed by Continental, Harman, Bosch and Denso
  • Other TCU manufacturers together cover the remaining ~28% of the total TCU market
  • LG, Continental, Harman and Bosch’s strong association with top automotive OEMs such as General Motors, BMW, Audi, Daimler are driving the market volumes.
  • The market is moving swiftly towards 4G LTE connectivity with nearly half of the vehicles being fitted with 4G LTE enabled TCUs.
  • More TCU manufacturers are expected to launch TCUs with C-V2X capabilities in 2018 and 2019, using the Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset solution

Note:

  1. Includes SUVs, MUVs and high-performance vehicles

The comprehensive and in-depth ‘Global Telematics Control Unit Market Tracker 2018’ from our Connected Car research service is available for purchase at report.counterpointinsights.com.

The Counterpoint’s Internet of Things Market Tracker research for Connected Cars is based on total shipments estimates based on supply chain checks, company’s IR results, vendor polling triangulated with sell-through (sales), and secondary research.