haoxing

Auto parts companies are keen to change "engines" and new business has grown exponentially


No mention of tires, no mention of brake systems, no body stability control system, Continental AG (FEC) at the 2018 Asia Consumer Electronics Show (hereinafter referred to as "Asia CES") abandoned its 140 years of auto parts suppliers Identity, which emphasizes that he is a technology company.

The group’s chief technology officer, Jing Ming, said in an exclusive interview with the First Financial Reporter that the automotive industry has developed very rapidly in the past few years, and a large number of new technologies have been applied to the automotive industry. Doing a good job of real technology and using it to promote it to the market is the embodiment of high-tech enterprises.

With the development of electrification and intelligence, the automobile industry has stood on a brand-new hill. The industrial barriers that have been built for a hundred years have been broken, and numerous opportunities and challenges have emerged. For traditional parts and components enterprises, technology giants and start-ups are eager to subvert and embezzle their territory. It is difficult to meet the needs of market competition as long as production and supply are in urgent need of change.

 

Big change

At this year's CES in Asia, Continental has brought three key technologies: interconnected ride solutions, autonomous driving solutions, and new charging systems. These technologies are the transformation direction of traditional auto parts companies.

Bosch is vigorously deploying automatic driving. According to Bosch's plan, the L2-class self-driving car will be launched in 2018. The main performance is that when the traffic jams, the vehicle is taken over automatically to reduce the burden on the driver; At speeds of 60 km to 130 km/h, in addition to maintaining the lane, the vehicle can also perform lane change and steering control with the driver issuing a confirmation signal; after 2021, the driving control is gradually transferred to the vehicle.

The Continental Group countered with three major product groups: sensors and actuators, electronic and software system integration and high-precision map software. At the same time, the mainland has bought laser radar business from ASC, acquired Argus, a virtual security technology company in Israel, and Quantum Inventions, which acquired Singapore, to enhance its market competitiveness.

After the split and rebranding, Ambo said it will focus more on active safety and the provision of autonomous driving solutions. "Our goal is very clear, the first is to do the brain and nervous system of the car." Yang Xiaoming, president of Asia Pacific, Anbofu, told the First Financial Reporter that part of Anbofu's business is to provide car companies with signals and power distribution solutions, the cloud And vehicle interconnection, sensing technology and solutions.

Electrification is happening now compared to the imaginary space that is still intelligent in the future. In 2017, the sales volume of electric vehicles in China reached 777,000. According to the new energy vehicle development plan, by 2020, the annual output of new energy vehicles will reach 2 million. Faced with such a huge market space, traditional parts suppliers are gearing up to speed up the layout and transformation.

 

30% and 1%

The driving force for the transformation of component companies is not only the rapid development and iteration of new technologies, but the weakness of traditional business growth is also becoming the heart of these enterprises.

According to data from Roland Berger, the global auto parts industry's overall revenue will exceed 1.25 trillion euros in 2025. The main driving force for growth is the rapid development of electric drive systems, autonomous driving + driver assistance systems and car networking. These three businesses will grow at an average annual rate of 30%; in contrast, the traditional business has an average annual growth rate of only 1%.

Dai Lei, president and founder of Baiteng Automotive, said in an interview with the First Financial News that the automotive industry has seen so many disruptive changes for the first time in more than one hundred years, especially electrification and intelligent networking. Will change the future of automotive products. Any company in the automotive industry chain needs to blend these trends perfectly.

In the field of hybrid and pure electric, which is actively deployed by Continental, battery management systems, wireless charging technology, DC/DC converters and other products enable it to increase its operating income and profit margin by more than three times compared with the traditional gasoline and diesel business. . According to relevant data, Continental's electric drive products in 2017 achieved a revenue of 310 million euros, electronic products of 4.62 billion euros, and mechanical hydraulic products of 2.77 billion euros.

Bosch said that it is accelerating the development of electric traffic. Bosch has received a considerable number of orders in 2017, and some orders have even reached billions of euros. In 2017, the automotive and intelligent transportation technology business unit sold a total of 47.4 billion euros, an increase of 7.8%, which is three times the growth rate of global automobile production.

The first financial reporter combed the data and found that in the market of autonomous driving sensors and controllers, Continental Group listed Bosch as the most powerful competitor, followed by Denso and Autoliv. It is reported that Bosch has achieved sales revenue of 3.5 billion euros in this field in 2016. As an opponent of the court, Continental’s investment in autonomous driving also brought in 3 billion euros in revenue in 2016.

 

Big cooperation

"The automobile industry or the entire big travel industry is a big ecosystem. In this ecosystem, it is possible to accommodate several companies and accommodate the entire industrial chain." Jing Ming told the First Financial Reporter.

He believes that different types of companies will make different plans according to different needs. This is a multi-mode, multi-scenario, and there must be no situation in which a certain scheme dominates the world. Therefore, in the future, different solutions will continue to work together to achieve a satisfactory solution for both supply and demand. And these programs themselves may not be completely provided by a company from the end to the end.

Coexistence in the industrial chain brings the possibility of cooperation, while fierce competition explains the necessity of cooperation. In the words of the Ming Dynasty, it is “to cooperate with different companies to gain different advantages”.

In March of this year, Bosch Group announced that it will cooperate with Zebra to carry out product development, operation and project execution in various fields such as automotive intelligent network, in-vehicle infotainment system, intelligent human-computer interaction, fleet management and mobile travel.

On June 11, Faurecia and China FAW Group signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement to jointly develop technological innovations and green mobility solutions for future cockpits. It can be seen that in this cooperation, intelligence and electrification are key projects.

On the same day, the company announced that the Ningde era has become an investor in its B-round financing, and that Baiteng has given priority to the battery of Ningde era. This is a case of the upstream component companies investing in new forces, and it is also a signal that parts companies are infiltrating into the downstream.

Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Association, analyzed that “parts and components of automakers can first master the downstream manufacturing industry and improve the production and supporting technologies for battery companies. Secondly, they can achieve stronger cooperation. After all, the power The battery is a strategic resource product and needs to ensure a strong supply and demand relationship."

It is not difficult to find that whether it is a traditional OEM, a new force in the car, or even a third-party technology company such as Zebra, the business field of the traditional parts giant has gradually extended to all aspects. They understand that the competition in this year is the comprehensive strength, and the mode of individual combat has almost been falsified.

Compared with the Ningde era, the BYD era, which has always insisted on self-sufficient vertical closed mode, has already drawn a position in the installed capacity. This forced BYD to open its doors, try to strip the battery business and supply other automakers.

According to the data of the High-Tech Research Institute of Lithium-Ion Research Institute (GGII), among the TOP10 enterprises with power battery installed capacity from January to May 2018, the Ningde era topped the list with 5.44GWh, which is more than twice the second BYD 2.56GWh.

As for whether BYD can finally regain market share, it may depend on its strength and determination to open cooperation.