Willows sprout and grass turns green. Spring brings a breath of recovery in March, and also brings good news for the coordinated development of automobile enterprises and chip enterprises.
Since this year, the Guangdong core YUENENG semiconductor project cooperated by Geely Automobile and a number of chip enterprises has entered the main structure construction stage, Jita semiconductor invested by SAIC has entered the list of major construction projects in Shanghai, and the auxiliary driving solution built by horizon based on journey 2 chip has been successively carried on a variety of models of SAIC GM Wuling
Since last spring, the joint “core” action of automobile enterprises and chip enterprises has gradually moved from paper planning to the stage of project implementation and flowering and fruiting.
car enterprise core enterprise cooperation is the current optimal solution
Stimulated by the insufficient supply of chips since the second half of 2020, there was an obvious shortage of auto chips in the first half of last year, which even led to some auto manufacturers unable to get off the line due to the shortage of chips.
From the beginning of 2021, Chinese auto enterprises began to make large-scale vertical investment in the chip industry to lay out their own auto chip supply chain. Among them, China’s old car enterprises, including BAIC, SAIC, Dongfeng and Geely, have actively invested in chip enterprises. Their product types cover silicon carbide power devices, automatic driving chips, intelligent cockpit chips and other fields.
In February 2021, SAIC and horizon reached comprehensive strategic cooperation; In March 2021, Dongfeng Automobile Co.Ltd(600006) became the second largest shareholder of Huaxin with a shareholding of 15.23%; In May 2021, Geely cooperated with xinjuneng semiconductor, Xinhe technology and other companies to establish Guangdong xinyueneng Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
So far, the project of joint core manufacturing between automobile enterprises and chip enterprises has been gradually promoted. At the beginning of this year, the Guangzhou core YUENENG semiconductor project, mainly for silicon carbide chips of new energy vehicles, entered the main structure construction stage. Jita semiconductor, which focuses on the manufacturing of analog circuits and power devices and will support the development of automotive electronics and other industries, was included in the list of major construction projects in Shanghai in 2022. In the first half of this year, horizon matrix mono assisted driving solution built by horizon based on journey 2 chip will start to be carried to various models of SAIC GM Wuling. Such actions mean that car companies and chip companies jointly make cores, which has gradually moved from planning and layout to project implementationP align = “center” Chinese car enterprises’ core manufacturing progress statistics (incomplete)
The first benefit of cross-border cooperation between automobile enterprises and semiconductor enterprises is that domestic vehicle specification chips have more opportunities for on-board certification. In 2020 and before, the chip supply of Chinese automobile enterprises basically depends on imports, and a few large overseas manufacturers control the global supply of vehicle specification chips. Their product standards also determine the standard recognition of such products in the whole industry. Coupled with the high replacement cost of standard products, auto enterprises are often unwilling to easily replace existing products. This is also an important reason why it is difficult for Chinese car regulation products to get on the train. The cross-border cooperation between automobile enterprises and chip enterprises has largely given the green light for the on-board verification of vehicle specification products.
Industry insiders believe that investment in chip companies and capital cooperation may be the best choice for car enterprises to improve their chip supply chain at this stage. Zhang binlei, senior analyst of xinmou research, said in an interview with China Electronics News: “upstream and downstream cooperation is a successful experience in the development of European and American automobile industry. Through upstream and downstream cooperation, promoting industrial coordinated development will enable China to establish an independent, controllable and competitive automobile chip supply chain with twice the result with half the effort.”
For the automotive chip industry with high entry threshold and great difficulty, it is very difficult to realize the chip “self research” in the short term by relying on the efforts of automobile manufacturers. At present, there are only a few enterprises in the world that can support their own automobile production by “self research”, and without exception, they have explored the road of independent research and development for many years.
As early as 2013, musk proposed to develop autopilot chips. Due to the lack of technology and talent reserves, Tesla could only cooperate with Mobileye in the early stage, and the products it developed did not meet expectations and only reached the L2 level. From 2015, Tesla reconstituted the team to lay out the autopilot chip, to 2019, Tesla officially released the first self-developed AP chip autopilot hw3 0, Tesla has experienced five years.
Similarly, Byd Company Limited(002594) semiconductor, a leading enterprise in China’s automotive chip field, has also experienced a long road of technology cultivation and on-board verification. Therefore, vertical capital cooperation with industrial chain enterprises is almost the best choice that Chinese car enterprises can make to improve their chip industry chain supply chain at this stage.
vehicle enterprises entering the upstream of the supply chain or normal
The end-to-end core manufacturing of automobile enterprises has solved the major problem of “on-board verification opportunity” most concerned by vehicle specification chip enterprises, but it also brings new problems: how can chip enterprises that establish capital cooperation relations with automobile enterprises ensure the universality of their products to other downstream customers? Will the brand association established with a car company become a stumbling block to the market expansion of chip enterprises?
As the “senior” of semiconductor enterprises with the background of Chinese automobile enterprises, Byd Company Limited(002594) semiconductor first encountered such problems. Since the formal split and establishment in 2004, the main customer of Byd Company Limited(002594) semiconductor is still its parent company Byd Company Limited(002594) group.
For those chip enterprises that have received investment from automobile enterprises in recent years, industry analysts believe that if such enterprises can ensure market-oriented sales strategies, they will not affect market expansion due to the investors of automobile enterprises. Teng ran said that the current automotive chip market is still in short supply of the seller’s market, and the cooperation and binding with specific enterprises have little impact on the development and introduction of new customers. At present, the vehicle specification chip is still in the technical preparation stage, and improving performance is the core problem faced by enterprises. Zhang binlei also believes that the most difficult problem for automotive chip enterprises is to improve product performance. Only in this way can China’s vehicle specification chip enterprises withstand the fierce market competition in the next few years.
As for the investment of automobile enterprises in the chip industry, Zhang binlei expressed some concerns: the traditional automobile chip market is not large, and blind core making may lead to the frequent homogenization and low-end projects of Chinese chip enterprises, which will inevitably leave “chicken feathers in one place” in the end, which will not only waste resources, but also drag down the development of the industry. He said that China’s current layout of vehicle specification level automotive chips, including power devices, sensors, automotive MCU and power management, will have the opportunity to develop only if they become competitors with product quality comparable to Italian French semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Infineon and other enterprises in the future. If the project is homogenized and there are more than three enterprises in the same track, it is not only not conducive to the international competition of products, but also easy to lead to “low-end Involution” among Chinese enterprises.
Therefore, Zhang binlei highly recognizes the practice of multiple auto enterprises choosing to invest in the same enterprise. “Instead of studying autopilot chips on their own, they will concentrate their capital on individual powerful enterprises. This model will be very conducive to platform and ecological chip tracks.
”He believes that “we are familiar with computer CPU, GPU and mobile phone processor. Only no more than three well-known enterprises monopolize the market, and this pattern will be the future of automatic driving chip.”
“Under the background of electronization, electrification and intelligence, the demand of vehicle manufacturers for chips is more diversified, and the single chain cooperation mode can not meet the demand.” In an interview with China Electronics News, Teng ran said, “vehicle manufacturers began to try to cross parts suppliers and directly cooperate with chip manufacturers to develop products. The emerging mesh model began to rise, especially in the field of automotive intelligence. The energy efficiency of chips can even directly determine consumers’ purchase intention.” This is a positive phenomenon in the chip industry. Teng ran believes that in the future, in the field of intelligence, the cooperation mode of automobile manufacturers entering the upstream supply chain through capital operation will become the norm.
Industrial Synergy is the common expectation of the upstream and downstream of the automobile industry chain. In July last year, when the problem of core shortage in the automotive industry was still unresolved, Li Shaohua, Deputy Secretary General of China Automotive Industry Association, said in an interview with China Electronics News that to solve the problem of “core shortage” in the automotive industry, the first thing to do is to strengthen the upstream and downstream coordination between the automotive and chip industries. At present, when the upstream and downstream cooperation of the industry is gradually established in the form of capital output, there are new key points for industrial development: cooperation can not be superficial. Chip enterprises should explore the real needs of the market through cooperation with automobile enterprises, strive to produce high-quality products, and avoid blind investment and waste of resources caused by adverse upstream and downstream communication, To truly “follow” to “lead” across.
