Application of PCB in the automotive industry

Application of PCB in the automotive industry

Factors of increasing the value of automotive PCB

In recent years, the trend of automobile electrification and electronics has become more and more obvious. As the backbone of electronic products, the importance of PCB manufacturing in the automotive supply chain is also increasing day by day. Compared with traditional fuel vehicles, the addition of charging, energy storage, power distribution and voltage conversion equipment for new energy vehicles will bring a large number of new application scenarios to PCBs.

At the same time, although autonomous driving above L4 cannot be mass-produced in a short time, the gradual penetration of a variety of intelligent driving components will bring rapid development opportunities for the application of high-end high-frequency PCBs in automobiles.

According to calculations by relevant departments, only in the powertrain and transmission fields, the value of PCBs on electric vehicles is as high as about RMB 800 per bicycle, which is 20 times the value of PCBs in this field of traditional vehicles.

The new demand for electric vehicles mainly comes from powertrain related equipment-on-board chargers, battery management systems (BMS), voltage conversion systems (DC-DC, inverters, etc.) and other high-voltage and low-voltage devices.

Factors of increasing automotive PCB production

A large number of high-voltage and high-power devices contained in new energy vehicles, such as IGBTs and MOSFETs, have high requirements for heat dissipation, which makes the layout of PCBs not too dense, which further increases the amount of PCBs for new energy vehicles.

On each new energy vehicle, the total PCB board required for the above-mentioned equipment alone amounts to about 0.8 square meters.

However, the total PCB required for a medium-level electronic fuel vehicle is only about 0.43 square meters. In the internal combustion engine and traditional system of traditional fuel vehicles, the amount of PCB used is very small, only about 0.04 square meters in total, which has greatly increased the output of automotive PCB.

According to calculations by relevant departments, the PCB consumption of new energy vehicles equipped with millimeter-wave radar and large central control screens will reach 1.24 square meters, worth 1281 yuan, which is 3.6 times that of traditional fuel vehicles without the above configuration.

Factors contributing to the considerable growth rate of China's pcb market

The production and sales of China's new energy passenger vehicles will continue to grow rapidly in the next few years, and the CAGR is expected to be around 40% in 2018-2025. The domestic new energy passenger vehicle sales exceeded 1 million in 2018, and it is expected to exceed 2.5 million by 2020, and close to 12 million by 2025, with a market share of more than 40%.

Major domestic PCB manufacturers have a relatively complete layout in the fields of automotive infotainment, lighting, powertrain and chassis (steering and braking).

It is estimated that by 2025, the global automotive PCB market will reach 58.3 billion yuan, and China is expected to reach 40 billion yuan.