New energy vehicle manufacturing in the middle stage: Parts companies face opportunities and challenges Automotive | Management | Enterprises
At the 11th China Vehicle Thermal Management Technology Annual Conference held from June 29th to 30th, Li Jiang, President of the China Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Industry Association, stated that currently, China's new energy vehicles have entered a period of full market expansion, and the application scope of automotive thermal management has also been greatly expanded. Efficient, energy-saving, green, and low-carbon thermal management technology has become a focus of industrial research.
The popularity of the automotive thermal management industry in the past two years is a microcosm of the transformation in the automotive parts industry.
The thermal management system was originally an essential technical means for improving energy efficiency in automobiles. On fuel powered vehicles, the main function of the thermal management system is to control the car's air conditioning and coordinate various components such as the engine, gearbox, motor, etc. to maintain a suitable working temperature range. But in the era of electric vehicles, the engine system of cars has changed, and the thermal management system must also be adjusted accordingly.
Moreover, compared to traditional fuel vehicles, new energy vehicles have stricter requirements for energy conservation and consumption reduction, and their thermal management systems are also more complex. Li Jiang introduced that the energy consumption of the automotive thermal management system accounts for about 30% of the entire vehicle, which is a key factor affecting the range of new energy vehicles.
Tesla's Model 3 is the first model on the market to adopt a centralized thermal management system, pioneering the integration of various types of thermal energy in the car, greatly improving the overall thermal efficiency of the vehicle and indirectly saving unit energy consumption. Driven by new energy vehicle companies represented by Tesla, the automotive thermal management industry is undergoing a disruptive technological innovation.
"Our thermal management products' original shipment volume in China may only be 1 million per year. After the penetration rate of new energy vehicles exploded, our pressure and temperature integrated sensor shipment volume has developed to over 10 million per year." Li Zhangchun, the thermal management product manager of Sensata Technology, introduced to reporters that in the past, Sensata Technology's integrated sensors were mainly used in the industrial field. Around 2006, we began supplying to a leading company and applied them to the electric vehicle field. With the acceleration of the penetration rate of new energy vehicles and the gradual increase in sales, Sensata's revenue has also grown rapidly in recent years. At the same time, it has continuously expanded its production scale in the Yangtze River Delta, and its production lines have increased from a few to 20 now.
Similar to Sensata, cases arising from technological changes are not uncommon in the field of automotive components. Even the entire thermal management track has seen a significant expansion. According to a research report by Dongwu Securities, the single vehicle value of the vehicle thermal management system for pure electric vehicles is as high as about 7000 yuan, which is significantly higher than the single vehicle value of traditional fuel vehicles around 2000 yuan. The market space for narrow passenger car thermal management systems in China will increase from 82.08 billion yuan in 2022 to 132.077 billion yuan in 2026, with a compound growth rate of 12.63%.
Currently, the technological transformation in the automotive parts industry has not stopped. Taking the thermal management industry as an example, although many enterprise representatives stated at the technology annual meeting that the domestic automotive industry has "rolled over", some industry insiders still believe that the application potential of thermal management systems will continue to expand. Li Bin, co-founder of Jiazhidao Automobile, introduced that the next generation of thermal management refrigerant technology in the industry is currently being attempted and implemented. At the same time, the overcharging technology of electric vehicles and the material transformation of power batteries will bring new opportunities for transformation in the thermal management industry. The technological turning point of the thermal management industry is still ahead.
