The development of new energy vehicles drives the demand of automotive PCB industry

It is expected that automobile electronics will account for about 50% of the vehicle value in 2020

Modern automobile has developed from completely mechanized in the past into a combination of machinery and electronics, and has become a multifunctional platform integrating transportation, entertainment, office and so on from a simple means of transportation. Today, automotive electronics account for an increasing proportion of the cost of the vehicle, such as body sensors, GPS navigation, car dashboard, central control, lights, engines, etc. The two most important development directions are new energy vehicles and autonomous driving system, among which the two major demand growth factors of domestic vehicle PCB are new energy vehicle power system and ADAS system.

With the promotion of new energy vehicles and the gradual development of autonomous driving technology, the use of vehicle PCB board will be more and more widespread, no longer limited to the vehicle central control electronic system. The share of automotive electronics in vehicle cost is increasing, and it is predicted that by 2020 automotive electronics will account for about 50% of vehicle value.

It is estimated that by 2020, the global electronics market will reach $2.15 trillion, among which the automotive electronics market is growing the fastest, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.5%, which leads the development of the automotive PCB industry. The estimated size in 2018 is $5.5 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 3.8%. By 2020, It is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 3% to $59 trillion. Under the situation that global production capacity continues to transfer to Asia, domestic and foreign enterprises have invested in building factories to meet the demand of downstream products at home and even around the world with lower production cost, which makes the replacement preparation for domestic PCB and expands the market share.

At present, Chinese automobiles are mainly fueled by gasoline and diesel. With the rapid growth of automobile ownership, the rate of energy self-sufficiency has slowed down in recent years. Multiple factors lead to the shortage of fuel and energy supply. Promoting new energy vehicles will help ease the energy pressure of our country. In addition, under the influence of environmental protection pressure, traditional vehicle exhaust pollution has been increasingly paid attention to, among which the air quality in North China is generally low. Under this dual background, new energy vehicles, as an alternative product, have been increasingly paid attention to. The main power source of new energy vehicles is electric energy. Compared with traditional fossil fuel vehicles, electric vehicles have the advantages of zero emission, zero pollution and high energy conversion efficiency.

According to the production and sales data of new energy vehicles, China's new energy vehicle industry has entered a stage of rapid development since 2014. From 2014 to 2017, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China have maintained a high growth rate, with a 3-year compound growth rate of 116.72% and 118.00% respectively. In 2017, 794,000 and 777,000 new energy vehicles were produced and sold, with year-on-year growth of 53.58% and 53.25%. In the first eight months of this year, the cumulative global sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 1.079 million units, up 69 percent year-on-year.

Unlike traditional cars, NEVs have a unique power system: BMS (battery management system), VCU (vehicle controller) and MCU (motor controller), which drive the demand for PCBS.

In terms of PCB consumption of traditional cars, PCB consumption of ordinary cars is about 1-1.5 square meters, and PCB of luxury cars is about 2.5-3 square meters. Because the price per meter is close to 1,000 yuan, each PCB of luxury cars is worth about 3-5 thousand yuan. The main control circuit of the BMS in the new energy vehicle power control system for PCB consumption is about 0.24 square meters, the unit price can be as high as 20000 yuan/square meter; PCB consumption of single management unit is 3-5 square meters; VCU and MCU use relatively less PCB about 0.03-0.15 square meters and the PCB used is ordinary board, the price is about 1000 yuan/square meter, the average PCB demand is as high as 3-5 square meters; Coupled with other electronic systems, the PCB consumption of the whole car is between 5-8 square meters, which means that the PCB demand of a single new energy car is more than 5 times that of ordinary cars. The average price of the power system of the new energy car is about 2000 yuan per square meter, and the other system is calculated by 1000 yuan per square meter. The value of the PCB of a single car is about 10,000 yuan.