SEOUL, South Korea, April 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovations focused on a better life for customers were recognized for their outstanding impact at the LG Awards. Four projects that generated tangible results, such as increased sales and orders, and enhanced business structure efficiency, received the highest honor, the 'Customer Impression Grand Award'.
LG held the '2026 LG Awards' on the 16th at the LG Academy (LG's Corporate University) in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. Now in its eighth year, the LG Awards is an annual event that honors best practices that have driven performance through customer value innovation over the past year. From 2019 to this year, it has produced over 4,700 winners and 583 outstanding projects.
This year, going beyond simply solving customer pain points, a total of 730 winners and 91 outstanding projects were selected. These included projects that elevated the customer experience by providing differentiated customer value, as well as initiatives that tackled bold challenges and achieved results surpassing the competition.
The event was attended in person by 550 people, including LG Corp. CEO and Chairman Kwang Mo Koo, top executives, representatives of the customer judging panel, and the award winners. Over 1,000 employees who participated via live-stream broadcast also celebrated the innovative achievements together.
Since taking office, CEO Koo has attended the LG Awards every year, personally overseeing innovation cases in the field and encouraging employees in their endeavors.
Reflecting on feedback from the customer judging panel, CEO Koo emphasized, "The reason for LG's existence is captured in the words of the customer judging panel, 'LG is life itself.'" He added, "The value we must create is not technology, products, or services themselves, but a better life for our customers. If we focus on the single goal of a better life for our customers, we will be able to give them a better tomorrow than today."
Out of 217 submitted projects selected from all LG affiliates, a total of 91 projects were chosen after comprehensive judging by customers, employees, and experts, including 4 'Customer Impression Grand Award' winners, 33 'Customer Satisfaction Award' winners, and 54 'Customer Empathy Award' winners.
This year's 'Customer Impression Grand Award' projects generated tangible business results, including trillion-won scale orders, process innovation, and strengthened cost competitiveness in the ABC (AI, Bio, Cleantech) sectors.
LG Energy Solution's Cathode Material 2 Team of the Cathode Material Technology Division took home the 'Customer Impression Grand Award' for developing the 'world's first grain-boundary coated 95% high-nickel cathode material'.
Generally, as the nickel content is raised to increase the battery's energy density, the risk of structural instability also increases—a common problem faced by electric vehicle (EV) automaker clients. LG Energy Solution solved the technical challenge of electrolyte permeation through micro-cracks generated during charging and discharging by applying 'grain-boundary coating' technology, which coats every interface of the fine internal grains of the cathode material, for the first time in the world. As a result, the battery's energy density was increased, extending the EV driving range by 30%, while simultaneously improving both lifespan and safety. Batteries featuring this grain-boundary coating technology have been highly sought after by global EV clients, resulting in successful orders on a trillion-won scale and enabling LG Energy Solution to secure a technological advantage of more than three years over competitors through robust patents.
LG Electronics' Telematics 5 Project Team from the Vehicle component Solutions (VS) Company also received the 'Customer Impression Grand Award', achieving a world-first with the development of the 'Smart Antenna 5G Telematics' module to realize physical AI mobility.
For physical AI mobility, such as autonomous vehicles and connected cars, antennas to capture external signals and high-performance telematics communication systems to connect them to the vehicle are essential. Automaker clients faced challenges with increasingly complex communication methods, which required mounting multiple external antennas on the vehicle, thereby complicating vehicle design and increasing costs.
LG Electronics solved this problem by integrating telematics and antennas into a single unit for the first time globally. Utilizing its patented grounding technology, the company commercialized a telematics module integrating 12 antennas. By accommodating various communication methods and vehicle models while eliminating the need for external antennas, it received highly favorable reviews from clients, leading to trillion-won scale orders. Through the Smart Antenna 5G Telematics module, LG Electronics secured a technological gap of more than three years over its competitors and preemptively acquired core technology for the future realization of physical AI mobility.
LG Energy Solution secured the 'Customer Impression Grand Award' for a smart factory project for the second consecutive year by implementing a 'next-generation cylindrical battery smart factory' based on intelligent autonomous manufacturing.
The Equipment Technology Department of LG Energy Solution's Cylindrical Technology Division pursued the high-speed operation of battery assembly lines to secure price competitiveness, a core priority for EV clients. By applying AI transformation technology, they pre-verified equipment concepts and drive unit designs, improved equipment operational speeds, and created manufacturing lines capable of flexibly responding to diverse battery cell demands. As a result, they doubled the efficiency of facility investments compared to previous setups, which served as a key driver in securing orders from global EV clients.
At last year's LG Awards, LG Energy Solution also won the 'Customer Impression Grand Award' for a smart factory logistics solution utilizing autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). That project played a decisive role in securing cost competitiveness for clients and continues to contribute to cost reductions amounting to hundreds of billions of won to this day.
LG Chem also demonstrated the spread of an innovative organizational culture across borders through this year's top-prize winning projects. Penny Butler, Senior Director at AVEO Oncology, LG Chem's U.S. oncology subsidiary, was selected as the first international employee to win in the individual category of the 'Customer Impression Grand Award'. While there have been previous cases of international employees included in team-unit awards, this marks the first time an international employee has received an individual award.
Butler streamlined the insurance approval process through the AVEO ACE (Access Center of Excellence) Program to secure a critical window for kidney cancer patients' treatments.
In the United States, terminal cancer patients frequently fail to receive timely treatment due to financial burdens when insurance coverage for their treatment is denied. Butler established customized strategies for individual patients through real-time collaboration with relevant departments, analyzing insurance systems and case studies. She successfully shortened the insurance re-approval process, which previously took four weeks, to just one week.
This process improvement significantly alleviated the life-threatening delays, anxiety, and financial burdens faced by terminal cancer patients. Furthermore, these efforts contributed to double-digit growth in both annual sales and average monthly prescription volume for the kidney cancer treatment FOTIVDA®.
This year, LG expanded video participation and real-time chat rooms so that a diverse range of employees could join the LG Awards and share in the innovative achievements. The event also featured a congratulatory performance by the LG Philharmonic Orchestra, the company's in-house orchestra. Additionally, the company plans to invite the families of the 'Customer Impression Grand Award' winners to the 'Hall of Fame,' a commemorative space dedicated to past Grand Award recipients. (End)
About LG
LG is a technology innovator and global leader in consumer electronics, advanced materials, and automotive components. Founded in 1947, LG was a driving force behind South Korea's modernization. The company produced South Korea's first radio and television sets and today is a global leader in organic light-emitting displays (OLED), electric car batteries, and advanced industrial plastics. The LG group of companies operates in more than 60 countries that together generate USD 140 billion in annual revenue. LG Corporation (LG Corp.) is the holding company for industry-leading LG subsidiaries, such as LG Electronics, LG Display, LG Energy Solution, LG Chem, to name a few. For more information about the LG group of companies, visit lgcorp.com.
SOURCE LG
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