Present situation of automobile core shortage

Due to the shortage of chips, the car factory stopped production.

In 2020, the so-called first year of magic, it seems that everyone is used to it.

The specific thing is this. At the beginning of 65438+February, news from the media began. Due to the reduction of production by upstream enterprises, the production of car gauge chips began to decrease. In the last month, some domestic car factories will face the risk of declining production or even stopping production.

First of all, it was revealed that North and South Volkswagen was likely to stop production and the supply of chips was cut off, so the on-board computer modules such as ESP and ECU could not be produced, which means that all models including these modules could not be produced. This is completely understandable. The North and South Volkswagen with large output and advanced cars are naturally more vulnerable to such incidents.

Just as this rumor was raging, some media or individuals began to ask the North and South about the authenticity of the incident, and the reply was similar, roughly meaning that "due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the supply of chips for some electronic components in the car was affected, but it was still in normal production."

If you simply explain this sentence, it is really affected by the shortage of chips. At present, normal production can be maintained. After that? I don't know.

There is absolutely no content aimed at the public here. Under the wave of globalization, the supply chain has gone wrong, and almost no car company can be immune. It is reported that Dongfeng Honda, Chery Automobile and other car companies will face different degrees of chip supply crisis. The reason why the public is particularly concerned is just to attract the wind.

Causes of core defects

In fact, before this happened in the automobile industry, the technology circle had already experienced a wave of lack of cores, reduced production of mobile phones and shortage of graphics cards ... Friends who have the feelings of saving the machine should know that until now, several top graphics cards are hard to find.

The lagging response of the automobile industry to the chip shortage is mainly the deviation of the automobile enterprises' judgment on the market.

The procurement cycle of the chip industry is relatively long. Generally speaking, it is necessary to start ordering from manufacturers six months to one year in advance. At the beginning of the year, the domestic market was hit by the epidemic, and car companies stopped production. At that time, car companies generally lost confidence in the market and reduced chip orders. However, with the gradual control of the epidemic, the speed of market recovery is faster than everyone expected, and the production capacity needs to be replenished quickly. Looking back, the chip inventory was in a hurry.

There were not enough chips, so we stepped up the order, and the order volume exploded, which was difficult to digest in a short time. Various emergencies occurred in some areas: at the end of September, Asahi Kasei, the only wafer factory of the Japanese audio IC giant, caught fire and did not put out the fire for 82 hours; In June, 5438+0 1, employees of three trade unions in stmicroelectronics held a general strike in their respective factories. VX chips are in short supply, and the price of agents is rising. Some parts of Europe suffered from bad weather, poor transportation and reduced supply of raw materials. ...

In addition to affecting the production of downstream enterprises, the price of chips has also risen. Take NXP, a leading manufacturer in the automotive chip industry, as an example, a price increase letter with NXP's trademark circulated on the Internet. The general content is: Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, we are facing a serious shortage of products and rising prices of raw materials, so we have decided to increase the prices of all products.

The picture comes from the internet.

To put it simply: the shortage of chips and rising prices have had a great impact on the automobile industry beyond many people's imagination.

Automobile chip

According to the data provided by NXP, the value of semiconductor components used to produce a mid-to high-end fuel vehicle is about 400 dollars. However, with the development of autonomous driving and car networking technology, this cost will exceed $65,438+0,200 in the future.

Where does all the cost here come from?

Here, let's take a look at the semiconductor components in the car:

Automotive semiconductors can be simply divided into functional chips according to their types. MCU (microcontroller? Unit), power semiconductor (IGBT, MOSFET? Wait a minute. ) and sensors.

MCU is mainly used in safety and driving, automatic driving (auxiliary) system control, central control system display and calculation, engine, chassis, body control and other core aspects. ...

The main functions of power semiconductors are mainly used for power supply and interfaces, such as vehicle Ethernet and logic, and play an important role in AC and DC transformation of new energy vehicles.

Sensors are easy to understand. In addition to various radars, airbags, tire pressure detection and so on, various sensors will be used.

The data comes from American consulting firm StrategyAnalytics.

From here, we can see that chips are almost everywhere in cars. More importantly, the technology of this kind of automotive chip, especially the core chip related to automobile power and safety, is basically in the hands of several major manufacturers.

At present, NXP, Texas Instruments, Infineon, Renesas and stmicroelectronics are five automobile chip manufacturers, accounting for half of the global automobile chip market. If any of them goes wrong, global car companies may not have a core to use.

Domestic chips have a long way to go to get rid of the status quo.

Domestic storm chip without core-1

True status quo

Even if the front is dark, as long as there is hope in your heart, you can lead the team to victory. -It's never too late to start Ren Zheng Fei.

This is the chicken soup that Ren Lao often pours. In fact, it is quite suitable for the moment when the core is missing. In fact, Huawei is experiencing an unprecedented lack of core. Before selling the glory brand, it was obviously a last resort and the chip was in a hurry. Huawei chose to launch the flagship mobile phone series with the only inventory, just like a strong man with a broken arm, but it had to be.

At first glance, Huawei's lack of core and the lack of core of domestic car companies cannot be confused. The former is mainly restricted by American forces, while the latter is more related to the market and the general environment.

But if you want me to say, it's easy to talk. There is a way to develop domestic chips once and for all, that is, to get rid of the technological blockade of capitalist countries, reduce the price of chips to sand and print "Made?" Are you online? The words "China"

Full of ideals and reality.

Reality is like a pot of cold water falling from the sky.

In 20 19, the global automobile chip market scale is about 3 10 billion yuan, and the domestic related industries scale is10.5 billion yuan, accounting for less than 5% in conversion. At the same time, the market share of domestic brand cars exceeds 30%, with a huge gap.

Roland berger's White Paper on China's New Energy Vehicle Supply Chain mentioned that in China's automobile market of 28 million vehicles a year, China's automobile semiconductor output value accounts for less than 5% of the world's total, and some key parts are imported over 80%-90%. Among the top 20 automotive semiconductor industries, there are only 1 local enterprises in China.

..... There are countless related data, all of which show that China enterprises are really not competitive in the chip industry at present.

Domestic chip -2 in the storm of lack of core

There is hope for the future.

Yes, but not at present. In the future, we are worth looking forward to.

In September this year, with the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National New Energy Automobile Technology Innovation Center led more than 70 enterprises and institutions to establish the "China Automobile Chip Industry Innovation Strategic Alliance", which is equivalent to the national team on automobile chips. After co-cultivation, chip autonomy will become the next round of development focus of all automakers.

In fact, many domestic car companies have started to make their own car chips.

BAIC Group signed an agreement with Imagination Group and Cuiwei Co., Ltd., and the joint venture company established by Beijing and Xinda Technology Co., Ltd. will focus on the research and development of autonomous driving chips and language interaction chips.

SAIC and Infineon established a joint venture company of automotive IGBT-SAIC Infineon Automotive Power Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., focusing on the research and development of IGBT.

But in this respect, the strongest is BYD. This year, due to the rising stock price, the guy who wants to regard Wang Chuanfu as an idol can probably be discharged from Pingshan to Houhai, and the author is included here.

As early as 2009, Wang Chuanfu ordered to spend 200 million yuan to acquire Ningbo Zhongwei Semiconductor Company. Before that, the Ningbo government had invested a lot of money, and many people thought BYD would be dragged down by it, but Wang Chuanfu ignored all this.

What happened afterwards? After ten years of investment and R&D, BYD has the R&D strength of domestic advanced vehicle-grade IGBT, not only has the ability to independently design domestic IGBT, but also the first self-developed vehicle-grade IGBT production line in China comes from BYD.

Not only that, there have been rumors that Huawei will join hands with BYD, and Huawei Hisilicon will deliver the confidential technical documents of Kirin chip to BYD. Although we don't know the details of the cooperation at present, it is worth looking forward to whether BYD OEM Kirin chip or the two jointly develop car logo chip.

One is the leading enterprise of new energy, and the other is the representative of China science and technology. No matter where they go, their cooperation on chips will promote the domestic chip industry.

After the storm

Since the beginning of this year, Tucki and Ideality have been listed in the United States, and the share prices of BYD and Weilai have hit record highs, which makes us excited. At one time, we all thought that China was far ahead in building new energy vehicles.

At this moment, the lack of core storm is like a pot of cold water poured on everyone's head. Looking back, we still have a long way to go with the international leading forces in many aspects of new energy vehicle manufacturing.

If we really stop production because of lack of core, we will admit it, but we can't do it.

But after the storm, the domestic automotive semiconductor industry should also think about it.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.