Panasonic's Automotive Influence Grows as Company Takes Over Supplier

The company once known mainly for its televisions is growing ever-longer tentacles into the automotive industry.

Panasonic, which is already a major battery supplier for electrified vehicles, has bought a majority stake in a Spanish auto parts supplier, giving it a larger foothold in the automotive realm.

Reuters reports Samsung has decided to purchase an extra 20 percent of Ficosa, which produces high-tech automotive mirrors and various safety systems, raises its ownership of the company to 69 percent. Panasonic hasn’t detailed the purchase cost.

The deal, which could be approved in April, is part of an industry-wide trend towards high-value automobiles. As we’ve seen with Google, Apple, and a myriad of other tech companies, there’s money in them there cars. Builders of mobile devices and other electronics see supplying the auto industry as a stable meal ticket — the best way to avoid ruin while battling for scarce dollars at the lower end of the consumer market.

Panasonic’s Automotive & Industrial Systems Company has many global branches, with its American offices located in Peachtree, Georgia, and Farmington Hills, Michigan. Globally, the company predicts auto-related income of nearly $18 billion by 2019. That income surge comes by way of infotainment and connectivity systems that no new car can be without.

In 2015, Ficosa announced a new production facility in Tennessee for its rear-view camera systems — its first in the U.S. It opened on October 31. From that plant, the company supplies the Detroit Three, as well as Nissan and Volkswagen.

The two companies have already partnered on the development of an “intelligent” rear-view mirror that uses a rear-facing camera to project an image.

[Image: © 2017 Chris Tonn/The Truth About Cars]