4/5/2021: South Korea’s LS Cable & System (LC&S) announced that it will be the sole supplier of magnet wire for the drive motors (enamel wire) of the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6 electric vehicles.

A press release said that LC&S is the first South Korean company to mass-produce magnet wires that can be used at 800 V. Sales are estimated to reach more than KRW200 billion within 6 years. It noted that the company succeeded in using a high-performance insulation material to develop a high-voltage magnet wire with improved efficiency.

As the charging speed competition is intensifying in the electric vehicle industry, development of high-voltage parts supporting this is becoming more important. “We expect that this supply will provide us with an opportunity to preempt the high-voltage electric vehicle wire market, which is still in its early stage,” the release said.

LC&S projects that global demand for environmentally friendly automotive magnet wire market will grow more than six-fold by 2025. It is responding by reinforcing its marketing efforts and increasing investments with regard to global automakers. “The drive motor and the battery are important enough to be called the two hearts of an electric vehicle,” said LC&S President & CEO Myung Roe-Hyun. “We are certain that the wires and parts business, which serves as the blood vessels of the heart, will also grow rapidly, so we are fostering them as new growth engines.”
Since 2016, LC&S has been supplying GM with the magnet wire (400V) for the drive motors of the Chevrolet Bolt EV. It is also discussing development of HV magnet wires that will be used by all EVs produced by GM.