Car companies demand a 20% price cut! What impact will it have on the SiC industry?
At the beginning of 2024, BYD launched a plug-in hybrid car for only about 70,000 yuan. Many car companies such as Nezha and Changan quickly followed suit and cut prices one after another. The price war continued throughout 2023 and became more and more intense.
As car prices drop, the pressure is also directly passed on to upstream parts suppliers. To borrow the recent words of Zhang Yong, CEO of Nezha Automobile, "pass the cold to everyone."
Recently, Xu Daquan, President of Bosch China, revealed in an interview that car companies will put more pressure on suppliers to reduce prices in 2024. "The requirements are all to reduce prices by 20%… In the past, the price reduction was usually 3%-5% per year." Under the extreme pressure, many auto parts suppliers were "sweating profusely" and shouted that they couldn't stand it. Bosch reluctantly said that the result of shutting down and not doing anything might be better than a 20% reduction; while Nidec and Freya made it clear that they would shift their focus from China to other markets.
However, it may not be a wise move to blindly ask suppliers to reduce prices. How can we not only reduce vehicle costs but also improve vehicle performance? I think there are 3 cost reduction paths:
Use new technologies to reduce the overall cost of the vehicle. For example, using 800V+SiC is expected to reduce the cost of the vehicle by 30,000 yuan;
Starting from other electronic control components, such as switching to film capacitor solutions, it is estimated that the cost of capacitors can be reduced by 4 times;
Actively introduce Chinese-made components from Yongming Electronics and other companies to further reduce vehicle manufacturing costs.
Below we will analyze them one by one so that you can see if they are reasonable.
SiC is expected to turn the tide and reduce costs and increase efficiency for new energy vehicles
Under the wave of price cuts for new energy vehicles, SiC semiconductors, as a key component of the main drive inverter, are also under great pressure. However, SiC will have multiple benefits in the future, including:
Taking up most of the market share of automotive IGBT modules, the market growth is huge;
Upstream substrates, chip production capacity and yield rates continue to improve, and SiC modules have certain room for price reduction;
New technologies can be used to reduce the usage and cost of SiC chips for electric drives.
At present, many car companies have achieved optimization of SiC main drive costs. For example, Nissan's new generation SiC electric drive system cost has been reduced by 30%, Tesla's main drive SiC has been reduced by 75%, and Xpeng's new electric drive has reduced carbonization by 30%. Silicon cost reduced by 50%…
More importantly, even under the current high price situation, SiC technology can "decompress" automobile companies and significantly reduce the cost of car manufacturing.
The general consensus in the industry is that new energy vehicles using SiC as main drive can increase vehicle battery life by 3%-10%. According to Bloomberg data, the industry average price of automotive power batteries in 2023 will be US$139/kWh. Based on this calculation, a 98kWh 800V model can save US$681-1362 (approximately RMB 4898-9797) in battery cost alone.
Li Xiang, chairman and CEO of Li Auto, said at the 2023 spring media communication conference that medium and large SUVs usually require 100kWh battery capacity to achieve a cruising range of 600 kilometers, but Li Xiang achieves the same through "800V platform + SiC technology + drag coefficient optimization" The cruising range only requires 80kWh, and the cost of a bicycle can be reduced by about 30,000 to 40,000 yuan.
Therefore, in the context of a car price war, the SiC supply chain must speed up cost optimization, and car companies and Tier1 should also speed up the introduction of SiC technology.
Thin film capacitors help silicon carbide enter the car, further alleviating cost anxiety
The largest cost of electric vehicles is the power battery (accounting for about 38%), and electronic control accounts for about 6%. According to Infineon's estimates, power semiconductors (IGBT/SiC, etc.) account for about 40% of the cost of electronic control, followed by DC-Link capacitors, which account for about 16% of the cost.
Therefore, in addition to SiC modules, low-cost DC-Link capacitor solutions are also beneficial to reducing electric drive and electronic control costs, and can alleviate the cost anxiety of car companies to a certain extent.
According to Nrel and Myavnet reports1, in a 30KW, 650V DC link, only 4 film capacitors need to be used. If replaced by electrolytic capacitors, 10 devices are required. It is estimated that the price of 4 film capacitors is lower than 10 aluminum electrolytic capacitors. The capacitance is more than 4 times lower and the volume is 15 times smaller.
In addition, according to Yongming Electronics, to give full play to the advantages of SiC, it is also necessary to match suitable capacitors for electronic control.
This is because new energy vehicles require higher power density and smaller size of motor controllers, and power modules are gradually shifting from traditional silicon-based IGBT modules to SiC MOSFET modules. However, the switching frequency of SiC modules is very high, with the highest switching frequency reaching 30 kHz. Excessively high peak current will increase the high-frequency component of the capacitor ripple current and cause more serious heating. Therefore, silicon carbide electronic control also puts forward more stringent conditions and higher requirements for the temperature rise of the capacitor at high frequencies. .
The resonant frequency of electrolytic capacitors is only 4kHz, which is not enough to absorb the current ripple of SiC electronic control. Moreover, because the electrolytic capacitor core itself generates high heat and has a lifespan that decays too quickly, and has poor corrosion resistance, it is difficult to use it in new energy vehicles. Popularize application. In comparison, film capacitors have better temperature characteristics, can withstand the same reverse voltage, have lower equivalent series inductance (ESL) and equivalent series resistance (ESR), longer service life and more High safety and reliability. For example, on DC-Link, electrolytic capacitors are one of the most likely places to cause failure of electronically controlled inverters. In contrast, the life of film capacitors is generally more than 10 years. Therefore, film capacitors are widely used in the field of new energy vehicles.
Data shows that the installed base of main drive electronic controls based on DC-Link film capacitors will reach 5.1117 million units in 2022, accounting for 88.7%, indicating that film capacitors have replaced electrolytic capacitors and become the mainstream of the electric drive market.
In addition to main drive electronic control, film capacitors have become increasingly popular in many fields such as vehicle power supplies and optical storage and charging. According to Tsinghua University estimates, the global demand for film capacitors will increase from 827 million in 2019 to 991 million in 2024.
Made in China further reduces the cost of capacitors, Yongming promotes the development of new energy with innovation
According to sources in the capacitor industry, the current single price of film capacitors used in new energy vehicles is about 200 yuan, and the average electronic control of a new energy vehicle requires 1.3 film capacitors, worth nearly 300 yuan. Film capacitors for vehicle OBC and other components The value is about 70 yuan, and the film capacitor in a car is worth nearly 400 yuan, which is also a considerable cost.
In response to the urgent cost reduction needs in fields such as new energy vehicles, Yongming Electronics recently launched the MDP and MDR series of DC support film capacitors. By using advanced manufacturing processes and high-quality materials, they can perfectly adapt to global power semiconductor leaders such as Infineon. The working conditions of Sheep's SiC MOSFET and silicon-based IGBT will further promote the new energy industry to achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
It is understood that Yongming Electronics' MDP and MDR series film capacitors have several outstanding features: lower equivalent series resistance (ESR), higher rated voltage, lower leakage current and higher temperature stability.
First of all, Yongming Electronics' film capacitors adopt a low ESR design, which can effectively reduce the voltage stress during switching of SiC MOSFET and silicon-based IGBT, reduce the loss of the capacitor, and improve the efficiency of the entire system. At the same time, the capacitor also has a higher rated voltage, which can withstand higher voltage working conditions and ensure the stable operation of the system.
According to reports, the capacity ranges of Yongming Electronics' MDP and MDR series film capacitors are 5uF-150uF and 50uF-3000uF respectively, and the voltage ranges are 350V-1500V and 350V-2200V respectively.
Secondly, Yongming Electronics’ latest film capacitors have lower leakage current and higher temperature stability. Taking the electronic control of new energy vehicles as an example, its power is usually large, which causes the film capacitor to heat up more seriously, which will reduce the life and reliability of the film capacitor. To this end, Yongming's MDP and MDR series are based on high-quality materials and advanced manufacturing processes to design better heat dissipation structures for film capacitors, so that the capacitors can maintain stable performance in high-temperature environments and will not be damaged due to temperature rise. Cause the capacitance value to drop or fail. In addition, capacitors have a longer service life and can provide more reliable support for power electronic systems.
Third, Yongming Electronics’ MDP and MDR series capacitors also have smaller size and higher power density. Taking the 800V electric drive system as an example, the technical trend is to use SiC devices to reduce the size of passive components such as capacitors, thereby promoting the miniaturization of electronic controls. Yongming adopts innovative thin film manufacturing process technology, which not only improves the integration and efficiency of the entire system, but also reduces the volume and weight of the system, providing more possibilities for device portability and flexibility.
Taken together, Yongming Electronics' DC-Link film capacitor series products have a dv/dt tolerance increased by 30% and a lifespan increased by 30% compared to other film capacitors on the market. They can not only provide SiC/IGBT circuits Providing better reliability can also provide better cost-effectiveness and break the price barrier in the popular application of film capacitors.
As an industry pioneer, Yongming Electronics has been deeply involved in the field of capacitors for more than 20 years. Its high-voltage capacitors have been stably used in high-end fields such as vehicle OBC, new energy charging piles, photovoltaic inverters, and industrial robots for many years. The launch of a new generation of film capacitor products this time has solved various problems such as film capacitor production process control, tooling and fixture equipment. It has completed reliability certification at leading global companies, achieved large-scale application, and provided services to larger customers. Prove product reliability. In the future, they will use their long-term technology accumulation and precipitation to help the rapid development of the new energy industry with highly reliable and cost-effective capacitor products.
