New Delhi, Jun 27 (IANS): With more than 175 million new vehicles to be shipped with embedded connectivity during 2018-22, the global telematics control unit (TCU) market is set to grow at 18 per cent (CAGR), a new report said on Wednesday.

A TCU is an embedded onboard system that controls wireless tracking of and communication to/from the vehicle.

LG, Continental, Harman, Bosch and Denso are leading the global TCU market that represents the global TCU shipments for all vehicles including passenger cars, LCVs, HCVs and buses, said Counterpoint Research's "Internet of Things Tracker Service".

The market is expected to get a major boost with European Union's (EU) "eCall" mandate (to bring rapid assistance to motorists involved in a collision anywhere in the EU), Japanese original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) embracing embedded connectivity and the 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 account for the remaining 28 per cent of the total TCU market," said Hanish Bhatia, Senior Analyst for IoT & Mobility.

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.

The market is moving swiftly towards 4G LTE connectivity.

"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," said Peter Richardson, Research Director at Counterpoint.

According to Research Director Neil Shah, 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," Shah said.