Carlos

TCL is in an enviable moment in the television market. In 2025 managed to sell 20% more TVs while other of its competitors such as Hisense fell. Even Samsung, world leader in sales, fell slightly and the separation with TCL, its most direct rival, is already barely 1% share. The striking thing about this growth of TCL is in which segment it has occurred: the high-end. Nobody dispatches more MiniLED TVs than them right now and giant screens (85 inches or more) take up more than 22% of the global market. ​ The coup de effect was the recent announcement of alliance with Sony. The agreement, which is expected to come into operation in April 2027 at the earliest, is the most eloquent sign of how far a company has come that, until not long ago, was seen as good value for money and that’s it. With all this context, we were able to chat with Carlos Li, CEO of TCL Europe, who explained to us the company’s next steps to continue growing in televisions, but also in other segments such as household appliances. TCL has conquered the market thanks to a very good quality-price ratio and now I suppose the challenge is the high-end segment. What is your strategy to convince the European consumer to invest three or four thousand euros in a TCL X955For example? “We are focused on technology and also on giant screens. We believe that bigger, especially if we want to motivate consumers to return to the living room to watch television more often as a family. It takes a good experience to watch games or movies and differentiate itself from other devices, such as phones or tablets. We simply offer bigger screens and better image and sound quality. For more premium products, we are working on improving the experience, both in audio and video, to create an immersive cinema or gaming environment. That’s it which motivates consumers to pay premium prices to get a better product for their daily use.” Do you see this being a trend across Europe or just in some countries? Is it also happening here in Spain? “Yes, it has been proven and has been very successful in many markets. First years ago in China, and now in the United States, Europe, emerging markets, Latin America and also in the Middle East. We see this trend because, thanks to better products and larger screens, people are buying more televisions than before, especially high-end products with higher prices. We think we are very competitive in that area.” The recent news about the manufacturing deal with Sony has generated a lot of buzz. Beyond the volume of business, do you feel that the fact that a brand as demanding as Sony trusts its subsidiary CSOT serves as a definitive validation of TCL’s engineering and all its experience in this field? “First of all, the possible cooperation between TCL and Sony is still in the phase of a memorandum of understanding (MOU). We are still in the process of migrating from the MOU to a contract, so there are many things under discussion. But the good thing is that both Sony and TCL see the synergy that we can create together due to our capabilities in the industry, especially in the supply chain, R&D, resources in terms of CSOT panels, and our continuous investment in new technological innovations. This creates the synergy. perfect between the two companies for a new joint venture. Everything is still in process, but I think it is good proof that both parties see good added value in the other for the business portfolio.” I know everything is under discussion right now and it may take time to talk things out, but is there a tentative date to operate together? “It is a long-term bet, we are at an early stage and the two companies really need to get involved in the new strategy. There will be contracts later, so we do not expect to have an immediate impact on the market in 2026. It is more of a medium-term impact, like five or ten years.” There is a lot of talk about mini RGB or RGB mini LED as the technology that will surpass OLED and even traditional mini LED. What is TCL’s vision regarding this technology? “We have been developing Mini RGB technology for years, although we did not announce it before. We believe that SQD is a better display technology with better quality in terms of brightness and contrast. In the end, RGB is a type of mini LED TV with red, green and blue, but it has a higher cost because instead of a single LED light, you need to have three. This technology is not new for us, we have been developing it for eight years, which is why we are also launching our RGB mini LED TV. However, along with that, we will strongly push our “SQD because it is a unique technology in the industry, very robust and linked to our CSOT panel technology. For the moment, we reserve the SQD technology exclusively for our TCL brand, which creates a much better image quality compared to a Mini RGB. So the Mini RGB will be just one of the products in our portfolio.” Will they prioritize SQD then? “We believe that SQD will be the main trend for the future. We think it is a better solution as a display technology, which can really surprise the end user while maintaining the original price, and that is why we propose this.” Appliances, glasses and other areas where TCL also wants its piece of cake Carlos Li during the inauguration of the new TCL office in Madrid Many people know TCL for their televisions, but they also have appliances and we are seeing a lot of movement from other manufacturers in this segment. What is TCL’s next move in Europe regarding home appliances? “In home appliances, and together with air conditioners, we are … Read more