According to information from Qunzhi Consulting, on October 17, it was announced that from the perspectives of technological evolution and market competition, the "competitive and cooperative relationship" between Mini LED and OLED in the automotive display sector will become the mainline of future development. Both technologies are competing in the mid-to-high-end market while iterating toward better adaptability for automotive scenarios. In the short term, Mini LED will accelerate its penetration in vehicles priced above 200,000 RMB due to decreasing costs and increased production capacity; by 2026, the proportion of Mini LED installations is expected to show more significant improvements compared to 2025.
In the long term, advancements will focus on higher partition counts and better color performance, with partition numbers potentially breaking into the ten thousands, optimizing color gamut through quantum dots. The application of large-sized Mini LED displays will expand from instrument panels and central controls to Head-Up Displays (HUD) and rear entertainment screens. As the global automotive industry undergoes significant transformations toward smart and electric vehicles, automotive displays have evolved from traditional “single instrument” functionalities to becoming a core interface that integrates driving information, cockpit entertainment, and smart scene control. This has made them not only the “first interface” for user-vehicle interaction but also a key avenue for automakers to differentiate their competitive edge.
Innovation examples range from Tesla's Model 3 central screen that disrupted traditional cockpit layouts to the five-screen interaction system in Li Auto's L9 and the AR-HUD integration in NIO's (蔚来-SW) ET9. Each breakthrough in in-car display technology continues to redefine the "smart gene" of vehicles. In this transformative industry window, Qunzhi Consulting identifies 2025 as a "critical watershed year" for automotive technology, marking both benefits from new emerging technologies and challenges stemming from short-term scale surges versus long-term sustainable development.
Product Technology Upgrades: Multiple Strategies in Parallel, Mini LED as the Core Growth Engine The automotive display panel market in 2025 will focus on “differentiation breakthroughs” in technology, resulting in a diverse landscape of “Mini LED explosion, steady OLED, and traditional LCD maintaining their basic market.” Different technological routes will align specifically with various price segments of vehicles and user needs, driven by both technological maturity and actual project implementations from car manufacturers.
Mini LED: Transitioning from "Niche Pilot" to "Mid-to-High-End Standard" As the "newcomer" in the automotive display sector, Mini LED backlight technology is anticipated to experience "explosive growth" in 2025, with numerous models adopting it, covering a range from luxury brands to new forces. Specific models such as the Cadillac LYRIQ’s 33” integrated instrument and infotainment screen, Zeekr's central display, and the Xiaomi YU7 PHUD cosmic screen have all adopted Mini LED backlight technology.
Data clearly reflects this explosive growth: Qunzhi Consulting shows that in 2022, Mini LED automotive panels achieved initial shipments of only 200,000 units. In 2023, supported by projects launched by certain car manufacturers, shipments surged by 300% year-on-year to 800,000 units; in 2024, with even more projects going into mass production, shipments are projected to grow by 50% to 1.2 million units. By 2025, in conjunction with mass installations of models from Cadillac, Lincoln, Zeekr, Xiaomi, NIO, and other brands, shipments are expected to "jump" to 3 million units, representing a year-on-year increase of 150% and further expanding market share.
This growth is propelled by a "dual fit" of technological breakthroughs and market demand. On the technology front, improved yield rates of Mini LEDs, combined with scaled procurement across the supply chain, have decreased the cost per screen, breaking the “high-end technology high barriers” bottleneck. Market-wise, as costs decline, products will shift from high-end models priced between 300,000 and 500,000 RMB to the mainstream range of 200,000 to 300,000 RMB, doubling the number of planned Mini LED-equipped models over 2023, significantly unleashing potential demand. Additionally, the technical characteristics of Mini LED are ideally suited for automotive scenarios—offering ultra-high brightness exceeding 1000 nits for clear visibility in bright environments, a temperature range of -40℃ to 125℃ to accommodate diverse climates, coupled with over 50,000 hours of usage life, creating a positive cycle of “demand stimulating production, production lowering costs, and cost driving demand.”
OLED: Steady in High-End Market, Accelerated Strategy Adjustments Leveraging self-luminous capabilities, high color gamut (over 100% NTSC), high contrast (over a million to one), and flexible folding characteristics, OLED has achieved scale applications in the automotive sector since 2022, yet growth has remained “steady without explosion,” primarily focusing on high-end luxury vehicle projects. Examples include Audi's electronic rearview mirror, Mercedes EQS’s 1.41-meter MBUX hyper screen, and NIO's OLED central control screen, all using OLED as a “luxury feature tag.”
According to Qunzhi Consulting's data, OLED automotive panel shipments reached 600,000 units in 2022, are projected to surpass 2.5 million in 2024, and reach 3.1 million in 2025, achieving a 25% year-on-year growth. Despite quick growth, the pace is slower compared to Mini LED. The primary constraint on large-scale OLED expansion is "cost and stability": currently, the single-screen cost of OLED automotive panels is about 3-4 times that of traditional LCDs, limiting its suitability to vehicles priced over 500,000 RMB and hampering penetration into mainstream price ranges. Moreover, automotive scenarios impose strict requirements for high and low-temperature endurance and anti-aging, leading most automakers to adopt a “cautious pilot” strategy, utilizing OLED only in select screens of flagship models, limiting its scale expansion.
However, driven by the rapid rise of Mini LED in the mid-to-high-end market, OLED suppliers are accelerating adjustments to their strategies. Leading manufacturers such as Samsung Display (SDC), LG Display, and BOE are implementing Tandem technology, vacuum evaporation techniques, and enhancing yields to significantly lower OLED automotive panel costs compared to earlier stages. Further, they are enhancing stability testing for automotive scenarios, extending panel temperature ranges to -40℃ to 105℃, and employing pixel compensation technology to improve screen reliability, striving to capture greater share in the mid-to-high-end automotive market, establishing a competitive dynamic in the “high-end niche segment” against Mini LED.
Traditional LCD: Cementing the Basic Market, Focusing on Mainstream Vehicle Models Despite the rapid penetration of emerging technologies such as Mini LED and OLED, traditional LCD continues to dominate the automotive display market thanks to its advantages of low cost, mature technology, and strong stability, comprising over 95% of the automotive panel shipment share, primarily targeting budget vehicle markets below 200,000 RMB. In terms of prevalent scenarios, the instrument and central displays in volume-selling models across brands are still primarily traditional LCDs, with annual sales of this category representing over 80% of total global automotive sales, offering a massive demand base for traditional LCD.
For traditional LCD, the key strategy for 2025 is “optimizing experience and controlling costs.” Panel manufacturers are enhancing brightness and optimizing color gamut to improve user experience within existing technological frameworks, while simultaneously lowering costs through scaled production and streamlined supply chains to meet automakers' demands for “high cost-performance ratios,” solidifying the market base, and fostering a complementary coexistence with emerging technologies in a “high-low pairing” framework.
Future Outlook: The Competitive and Cooperative Dynamics and Technological Evolution of Mini LED and OLED Examining technological progression and market competition, the "competitive and cooperative relationship" between Mini LED and OLED in the automotive display sector will epitomize future developments, as both strive for advantages in the mid-to-high-end market while evolving toward better compatibility with automotive environments. In the short term, Mini LED will leverage reduced costs and released capacity to accelerate its penetration in vehicles above 200,000 RMB, with that installation ratio expected to rise more noticeably by 2026.
In the long term, the focus will shift toward achieving higher partition counts and superior color performance, aiming for breakthroughs in partition sizes combined with quantum dots to optimize color reproduction. The application of larger Mini LED displays will expand from instrument panels and central controls to HUDs and rear entertainment screens. OLED will continue to anchor its position in mid-to-high-end flagship models, relying on its self-luminous advantage to maintain display delicacy and flexible competitiveness.
In the long run, it will seek to enhance material stability and reduce reliability risks through innovations in folding and coiling forms, meanwhile attempting to penetrate the mid-range market of 300,000 to 500,000 RMB in small increments by utilizing matured production lines. The competition between the two technologies will drive rapid iterations, all while they navigate balance and challenges ahead. Qunzhi Consulting advises automotive manufacturers to choose between Mini LED and OLED based on model positioning and cost considerations, weighing the current balance of display effects and costs while anticipating the impact of future technological advancements on vehicle life cycles. For panel manufacturers, it is crucial to avoid excessive bets on a single technological route and to simultaneously develop production capacities for both Mini LED and OLED to address shifting market demands while ramping up investments in R&D to enhance the adaptability of both technologies in automotive scenarios, achieving healthy industrial growth through competitive cooperation.