In the midst of enlargement of electric motor vehicles in the automobile market, domestic parts enterprises are also seeking change to a mobility corporation in line with the rapidly changing market’s paradigm. Among them, Central Motek established as Samjin Electric Co., Ltd. in 1994 completed changing the name of the company as CTR Mobility Co., Ltd. in April of 2023 and announced that they are promoting new businesses a step ahead of the market flow while strengthening its position as a mobility solution corporate.

Hence, we met Lee Dongok, the representative of CTR Mobility, and heard about the background of changing the company’s name and the corporate vision in-depth. Lee Dongok, the representative, joined the Central in 1995, served as the team leader of future planning team while being in charge of CTR Group strategy in 2008, and currently, he is holding a position as the representative of CTR Mobility.

Q. The will to leap forward as a mobility company with a new company name is prominent. What is the reason and background for the company’s name change?

A. The paradigm of the automobile market is changing quickly from internal combustion engine to electric vehicle. Our company has been preemptively preparing for paradigm change in the drastically changing market along with being listed on KOSPI in November of 2019. Through split- off in aluminum forging business field in January of 2022, ‘CTR Eco Forging’ was newly established and in April of 2022, Central DTS focused on driving business and CTR Mobility proceeded merger.

From merger of two companies, flexibility of utilizing various types of resources was maximized and we were able to quickly transfer to a business focused on eco-friendly vehicles.

We changed the company’s name to CTR Mobility Co., Ltd. in April of 2023 with the will to leap forward to a core parts company of mobility industry as the last stage of corporate innovation. It is our ambition to develop as a core company (Central to your safe mobility) providing safe products and services to all means of transportation. In addition, our ultimate objective is to establish a foundation for all external and internal persons concerned to recognize and communicate that ‘CTR is a safe brand’ by binding the corporate vision (direction) and culture (members) and public image (persons concerned) through CTR brand integration such as CTR which is the affiliate company.

We will attain tangible results from the first half of this year. Based on accumulated precision cutting technology, we are seeking expansion of obtaining orders with a new business (electric vehicle) and entry to the business of reusing electric vehicle batteries. For the new business and obtaining order to become under way in earnest, we are going to focus on new organization composition and external financing. Hereby, we are going to be reborn from the existing internal combustion engine focused company to core parts company of eco-friendly electric vehicles

Through this, we declare ‘BEYOND 3015’ targeting sales of one billion and business profit of 5% in 2030. We are confident of attaining stable objective with successful transition as a mobility company and securement of multilateral sales.

Q. What is the main new business to promote together with entry to the mobility parts manufacturing field in earnest?

A. We will promote major parts business of electric vehicle field and we intend to carry out new businesses in △ Electric vehicle battery pack case △ Automobile air-conditioning coolant manifold △ Battery pack reuse and re-manufacturing, etc.

If you bind numerous battery cells to make a module and bind numerous modules to make a pack, finally one battery pack case is completed. CTR Mobility distinguishes ‘frame’ which protects the cell from shock, heat, and vibration and module among the module parts bound with certain number of battery cells and manufactures ‘site cover panel’ that protects the modules during shock and heat expansion. The corresponding product is expected to be installed on Company F electric pickup trucks, etc.

Coolant manifold is a part that efficiently circulates by applying TSM (Thermal Management System), which is the heat management integrated control system, mainly applied by finished car companies. Among the parts that constitute TSM, for exclusively for the first time in Korea regarding coolant manifold housing, we have completed securement of technology from raw materials to manufacturing of finished products for mass-produce and supply and we are gearing up in developing mass-production type.

Battery pack reuse and re-manufacturing field is necessary for realization of carbon neutrality, which is most-talked-about topic globally in terms of environmental problems and recycling resources in the global electric vehicle industry which is the full-scale growth step. CTR Mobility selected the re-use/re-manufacturing market that manufacture and sell batteries which are to be used for ESS, small-size mobility (small-sized EV, golf cart, unmanned transport robot, etc.) utilizing batteries after being used by electric vehicles and repair electric vehicle battery pack.

Q. Are there differentiated strategies to secure competitiveness in the new business field?

A. For electric vehicle battery pack case and automobile air-conditioning coolant manifold business, we are planning to preemptively introduce a smart factory, which is an innovation in the manufacturing process. Through robot process and Artificial Intelligence (AI), we will maximize yield and process efficiency and provide high-quality products at reasonable prices. If big date and AI are applied, we can expect manufacturing size and flexibly respond in special situations. Our objective is to analyze data of customers or attaining customer-focused on-demand production which manufactures customized products.

For the battery pack reuse and re-manufacturing business, we have concluded MOU with companies having core competitiveness in each field starting from the business review step, retained cooperative relationships, and established value chains. Along with this, we are proceeding securement of battery performance after use through early development of prototypes. In addition, the core of battery pack reuse industry is manufacturing and quality management ability and the manufacturing technology know-hows of CTR Mobility which have been accumulated through automobile parts manufacturing for the past 30 years and global automotive OEM supply experience will be the base of reduction of manufacturing unit price and quality innovation.

Q. What are the future plans and objectives in the future as a mobility parts company?

A. For the battery case parts of CTR Mobility, a total of 20 million parts and sales of about 180 billion are expected annually. If the number of vehicles to be installed with the corresponding parts records a sales volume at the level of existing internal combustion engines, it is anticipated that the size will drastically increase even more. We are planning to increase the current sales structures over 2~3 times by expanding the market with derivative products in relation to the battery pack case in the future.

For the automobile air-conditioning coolant manifold, we will secure competitiveness by expanding the supply chain to overseas finished cars through export after the first obtaining order in the first half of 2023. In 2030, we will proceed research and development and investment with an objective of 76 billion won annually and accumulation of 270 billion won and we are currently promoting business materialization.

Along with this, this year will be the most significant starting point of entry to the battery pack reuse industry. Through business review over the past 3 years, we notified the beginning in earnest with the launch of ‘CTR ENERGY’ in the form of Company in Company (CIC) in January of this year, and we are planning to complete establishment of infrastructure for business proceeding by finishing factory establishment, equipment introduction, etc. by the end of this year. In addition, through establishment of Battery Industry Association (Tentative Name: EV Resource Circulation Association), we will lead accompanied growth of relevant companies.