Panasonic's Automotive Influence Grows as Company Takes Over Supplier

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

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]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Sceptic Sceptic on Mar 22, 2017

    This article is completely confusing. Which is it Panasonic or Samsung? "****Samsung**** has decided to purchase an extra 20 percent of Ficosa, which ... raises its ownership of the company to 69 percent. ****Panasonic**** hasn’t detailed the purchase cost." Hello, proofreader or editor needed.

  • Daniel J Daniel J on Mar 22, 2017

    Some Rambling thoughts. I used Panasonic Head unites in several cars back in the late 90's and early 2000's. I don't know what it was about their digital amps in their head units, but they always sounded better to my ear over Sony and Pioneer. Also Interesting is had Panasonic directly and several recruiters try and get me to interview over there in Peachtree GA. Getting to Samsung, a friend of mine works for a company doing high end Video stuff that was purchased some time ago by Harman. Then recently Samsung purchased Harmon mainly for Harman's auto business.

    • See 2 previous
    • JimZ JimZ on Mar 22, 2017

      @golden2husky it's not "electronic processing;" you have to boost the supply voltage to the power amp.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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