The car is undoubtedly one of the hottest tracks at the moment. According to the latest statistics from the China Automobile Industry Association, China's automobile sales will reach 26.864 million units in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 2.1%, achieving three consecutive years of growth. The sales volume of new energy vehicles was 6.887 million, with a year-on-year increase of 93.4% and a penetration rate of 25.6%. Among them, the sales of pure electric vehicles were 5.365 million, an increase of 81.6% year-on-year; The sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles were 1.518 million, a year-on-year increase of 150%.

It can be seen that the transition from traditional fuel to electrification has become one of the irreversible trends in the development of the automotive industry. At the same time, with the advent of the digital era, the development of a new generation of information technology led by artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things is also profoundly affecting the automotive industry. Cars continue to integrate innovative technologies, such as autonomous driving, intelligent cockpit, intelligent instruments, and so on. Modules with intelligent functions are also becoming increasingly important. In this article, OFweek Electronics Engineering also combs the views of many automotive electronics industry insiders, discussing important development trends in the automotive electronics industry in 2023, as well as the underlying market prospects.

01. The trend of automobile electrification is not decreasing

It is understood that according to traditional automotive manufacturing processes, a car requires about 500-600 chips. With the improvement of the level of software and hardware carried by automobiles, automobiles gradually develop from machinery to electronics, and naturally require more chips. The average number of chips required per vehicle has reached over 1000. In addition to chips, the electronic level of automotive electronic control, instrumentation, communication, and other modules has increased year by year, significantly improving the overall performance of vehicles.

Li Cong, Deputy General Manager of Shenzhen Yangxing Technology Co., Ltd., told OFweek Micro Science and Technology Network · Electronic Engineering that the scale of the automotive electronics market formed by the transformation from traditional cars and fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles continues to expand, especially as the sales of new energy vehicles in China continues to grow, corresponding media systems, measurement and control systems, entertainment video and audio systems have also begun to become popular. Among these functional modules, the support of automotive electronic components is particularly important. Li Cong said, "Take crystal oscillator as an example. It is like the heart of an electronic circuit and can provide clock frequency output.". If the crystal oscillator fails due to insufficient accuracy or other reasons, it will affect the entire vehicle machine system. “

Li Cong also mentioned that under the "shortage of automotive chips" caused by the epidemic last year, for Yangxing Technology, the chips used in general consumer products or products that do not require high-precision passive oscillators actually have little impact, while the active oscillators used in high-end products or industrial grade or above products have been affected to some extent. Now that the epidemic is basically over, the economic environment is recovering, and the automotive electronics market is gradually recovering. It is expected that the automotive electronics market will begin to slowly recover in the third quarter, both in the crystal oscillator industry and the rest of the automotive electronic components.

In addition, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, IGBT has also ushered in a spring of growth. IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) is a power semiconductor device composed of bipolar transistors (BJTs) and insulated gate field effect transistors (MOS). It is a representative product of the third generation power semiconductor technology revolution, with excellent performance such as high frequency, high voltage, large current, and easy switching. It is known as the "CPU" of power electronic devices in the industry, and is widely used in the field of new energy vehicles.

Xia Chao, an application engineer in the automotive field of Ansemy Semiconductor in China, told OFweek Engineering that in the field of new energy vehicles, Si IGBT (silicon based insulated gate bipolar transistor) still occupies a leading position in the current new energy vehicles. Compared to SiC MOSFETs, Si IGBT is more mature and less difficult to develop and produce. Secondly, in scenarios with high cost control such as fast charging piles and on-board charging (OBC), the demand for Si IGBT is also very urgent.

It is reported that Ansemy Semiconductor not only has profound technical accumulation in SiC MOSFETs, but also strongly supports the continuous innovation of Si IGBT technology. The electrical performance of its latest generation IGBT is comparable to that of other companies' latest generation products, and it has received intended orders from multiple automotive companies. Ansemy Semiconductor attaches great importance to developing a stepped cooperation between new energy vehicle MOSFETs and high cost performance Si IGBTs through high-performance SiCs to achieve comprehensive coverage of the new energy vehicle market.

Obviously, on the one hand, the future car is not just a common "transportation tool", but its own energy consumption, comfort, user experience, etc., rely more on rich body electronic system functions; The country has continued to promote energy conservation and emission reduction, and the transformation of new energy vehicles has been deepened. Traditional automobile manufacturers have announced new energy transformation plans, and the electrification of automobiles naturally becomes the next major trend in the industry.

02. Rapid penetration of automotive intelligence

Compared to the general direction of electrification, intelligent vehicle configuration has a strong consumption upgrading attribute, and is an important direction for vehicle companies to achieve product differentiation. At present, autonomous driving, intelligent cockpit, intelligent chassis, and intelligent instruments are all manifestations of the rapid penetration of automotive intelligence.

The most typical function of automotive intelligence is autonomous driving. From the domestic situation, China's autonomous driving industry has stood at the forefront of the world. The scene appears at a faster speed. According to Li Yongheng of Baidu Intelligent Public Transport Business Department, autonomous driving can solve the pain points of the manned public transport industry, and is safer, more efficient, more economical, and greener. The large-scale commercial operation of the autonomous driving industry has entered the fast lane. With the maturity of autonomous driving technology, the "unmanned element" will accelerate the implementation of comprehensive unmanned commercial operations, ultimately resulting in a lower cost of autonomous vehicles+operating costs than traditional vehicles.

With the official implementation of the national standard "Classification of Automotive Driving Automation", the level of autonomous driving is developing to a higher level. In the past, autonomous driving chips mainly achieved single functions, such as controlling the chassis, engine, brake lights, and so on. Today, the automotive electronic and electrical architecture represented by Tesla has subverted the traditional model and adopted a centralized architecture, which uses a "brain" to control the entire vehicle. Domain controllers gradually integrate functions such as sensors, data fusion, path planning, and decision-making operations. Processing functions.

Unlike traditional automotive MCUs, most of the mainstream autonomous driving chips on the market are SoCs, with roughly three architectures:

① CPU+GPU+dedicated chip

② CPU+FPGA

③ Central processing unit+dedicated chip

In the long run, customized low-power, low-cost ASICs will gradually replace high power GPUs, making the combination of CPU and ASICs more promising. In addition, artificial intelligence algorithms such as deep learning are widely used in autonomous driving algorithms. Therefore, for autonomous driving, the vehicle needs AI chips with reasoning capabilities, and the cloud needs server chips with big data training capabilities. In addition, the level of autonomous driving is gradually increasing, and the evolution towards higher levels also puts forward higher requirements for chip computing power.

Let's take a look at the smart cockpit. The intelligent cockpit consists of central control screen, seats, LCD meters, air conditioning, and other components. The chip provides computational power output and voice gesture operation, providing control functions, and realizing intelligent interactive experience between people and the cockpit. The chip used in the intelligent cabin is called the intelligent cabin SoC chip, which has high performance computing power and can organically combine functions such as on-board entertainment systems, head up displays, and LCD meters to achieve the intelligence of the car cabin According to institutional research, the market size of China's smart cockpit SoC chips in 2021 has reached 8.31 billion yuan; In the future, with the increasing penetration of the intelligent cockpit market, it is expected that its market size will reach 22.57 billion yuan by 2025.

Currently, the main players in the global smart cabin SoC chip market include Qualcomm, Nvidia, Intel, Telecommunications, AMD, Renza, NXP, Texas Instruments, Samsung, etc. Among them, Qualcomm is currently the leading manufacturer of smart cabin SoC chips in the global market, and its mainstream product, Micron SA8155P (7nm process), has accounted for nearly 90% of the global market share of mid to high-end smart cabin SoC chips. The smart cockpit SoC chips of local manufacturers are mainly concentrated in the mid to low end market, and the main enterprises include MediaTek, Huawei, Xinchi Technology, Horizon, Jiefa Technology, Xinqing Technology, Ruixin Micro, etc. However, in recent years, driven by the growth of market demand, China's smart cabin SoC chip manufacturers have also entered a period of technological explosion, and the introduction of multiple high-end smart cabin SoC chip products is expected to occupy more share in the global market in the future, with great potential for industry development.

However, with the current surge in penetration of intelligent driving, as China's automotive intelligent industry ushers in a common prosperity, there are also many considerations behind the mass production and dimensional upgrading of intelligent driving. Liu Fuzeng, Vice President and Data Director of Shanghai Zhijia Automotive Technology Co., Ltd., stated that the current industry pain points and demand focus are the following: it is difficult to achieve reliable and stable performance experiences, it is difficult to create large-scale mass production with extreme cost performance, and it is difficult to achieve breakthroughs in high-end dimensions in autonomous driving technology. To address these issues, building data intelligence system solutions is essential.

In my opinion, from the perspective of the development process of automotive intelligence, traditional automotive manufacturers have always been the main force in promoting automotive intelligence. With the deepening of the Internet of Vehicles, the process of automotive intelligence has significantly accelerated. For the automotive industry, the in-depth integration of intelligence and networking for intelligent upgrades is different from any previous automotive technology upgrade, because the integration of technologies such as the Internet of Vehicles, intelligent transportation, big data, cloud computing, and intelligent decision-making means that the network architecture of automobiles has undergone changes. Therefore, the rise of internet car manufacturers has brought enormous pressure to traditional car manufacturers. However, whether traditional or newly built car companies, they should always adhere to the "vehicle oriented" route on the main road to promote intelligent cars. Improving the intelligent functions of automobiles and improving the degree of autonomous driving is the development direction of automobile intelligence. Nuclear.

03. Does the automobile become "electronic"? Massive market to be explored

You can see it at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which opens in Las Vegas this year. Manufacturers actively participated in the exhibition and displayed multiple functional vehicle modules. Therefore, in the trend of electrification/intelligence, cars in the future will indeed become more and more like "electronic products".

But the car of the future is not as simple as a "super battery" plus a "super computer". With the advent of electric and intelligent vehicles, people have increasingly high requirements for vehicles, and the configuration of vehicle engine systems that affect the user experience is becoming increasingly complex. Become the focus of more people's attention.

With the rapid development of electronic information technology and the continuous transformation of the automotive manufacturing industry, the application and innovation of automotive electronic technology has greatly promoted the progress and development of the automotive industry, which is of great significance for improving power, economy, and safety. It plays a crucial role in the development of automobiles, improving the stability and comfort of automobiles, reducing vehicle emissions pollution, and fuel consumption. At the same time, it also provides cars with rich functions such as entertainment, office, and communication.

Under the two major thrust forces of consumption upgrading and market driving, the essence of the future automotive industry may indeed evolve from traditional machinery to consumer electronics. The following will be a large number of market prospects and huge business opportunities. However, we still hope that it can retain the attributes of the vast mechanical age, such as stability, endurance, power, and so on. What do you think of this?

04. Explore cutting-edge technology, and this exchange cannot be missed

In 2023, we have reason to believe that due to the booming production and sales of new energy vehicles, the degree of automotive electronics will continue to improve, and automotive electronics will usher in a long business cycle. The industry will usher in great development opportunities at the level of the entire industrial chain. Intelligent and electric vehicles drive the growth of the automotive electronics market.