Tesla Supplier AU Optronics In Talks To Manufacture Car Displays In North America: Report

Taiwan-based AU Optronics Corp. AUOTY, which is
Tesla, Inc.'s TSLA major supplier of displays, is exploring the possibility of expanding its manufacturing outside of Taiwan and China.

What Happened: AU Optronics has held talks with several of its customers to set up facilities for assembling car displays, Nikkei reported, citing Paul Peng, the company's chairman.

While AU Optronics is decided on setting up shop in North America — either in the U.S. and Mexico — it is also exploring the option of having assembly plants in other regions, including Southeast Asia, the report said.

Thailand is one of the locations the company is reportedly eyeing in Asia due to the fact that Japanese automakers have already established a supply chain here.

The proposed expansion would mark a paradigm shift for the panel industry, which so far has been concentrated in Asia.

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Why It's Important: The move away from Asia is precipitated by pressure from automotive clients, which are rooting for more localized production that would save them shipping and logistics cost, the Nikkei report said.

"Supplying the automotive market is highly customized. Display makers generally need to do more assembly work to link displays with other systems and then ship them to customers, so we need to be close to customers and the market, instead of only supplying screens," the Nikkei said, citing Peng.

AU Optronics' drive to expand overseas was initially due to demand from its notebook clients, which were worried about U.S tariffs on imports from China.

While the demand from notebook manufacturers have slowed, automotive clients are now placing more orders, according to the Nikkei report. 

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Photo courtesy of Tesla.