Growth Strategy (Mobility field): Electronics Business Center

Digitalkey

Digitalkey represents a next-generation system that anticipates the evolving nature of mobility and social infrastructure (such as smartphones and the cloud). Building on our track record with smart keys and in-vehicle technology, we will refine Digitalkey to create a new market and cultivate this product as a future business.
To grow this business, we are simultaneously working to develop a new business model while tackling product development—which includes the software development and operation of cloud servers, as well as approaches to quality assurance.

Smart keys

Smart keys, which offer more convenience, will expand globally by becoming standard equipment across all vehicles. We are expanding sales to emerging markets such as India, as well as into the two-wheel and micromobility vehicle sectors.

Semiconductors

We had been targeting low-volume consumer products, a strategy known as the long tail. But you can’t turn a profit with too few units, and with greater volume, competition emerges from consumer electronics manufacturers.
Since our company does not use fine pitch technology, it is difficult to be competitive when building the same functionality necessitates larger ICs and higher costs. Therefore, we are investing in 0.35μm fine-pitch technology to enhance our competitiveness.
On the other hand, automotive products have strict requirements for high voltage resistance and quality assurance. Due to these special circumstances, consumer electronics manufacturers tend to hesitate about entering this market. This has created a situation where there are users who want these products, but no players willing to supply them. We have therefore shifted our strategy to target users in need and increase our customer base, aiming to achieve sales of 3.2 billion yen by 2030 and 5 billion yen by 2035.

Growth strategy in the Mid-Term Business Plan, TRV 2030

Positioning of our growth strategy

Since commercializing Japan’s first digital key system in 1999, smart keys and Digitalkeys have been positioned as pillars of revenue for Tokai Rika. We will continue to target stable earnings with these product lines, driven by their high convenience.
Furthermore, we aim to evolve our custom IC design and manufacturing technologies—which have contributed to in-house production since 1980—to generate added value. We strive to have these technologies used by many customers as a new revenue source going forward.

Moving toward our goals

Developing digital keys

We believe that ultra-wideband (UWB), Bluetooth, and other radio wave technologies used in Digitalkeys (smartphone keys)—a market expected to further expand—hold the potential to create a wide variety of application products. One such example is our UWB-based detection system for children left inside vehicles, which received the Technology Development Award at the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan.

Semiconductor targets

We will add the automotive custom IC market as a new target and drive business acquisition by increasing competitiveness with our 0.35μm process.