This semiconductor company, Suzhou Cisco Semiconductor, is jointly owned by Li's affiliated companies-Beijing Chehejia Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. and Hunan Sanan Semiconductor Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of 300 million yuan. The legal representative of the company is Xu Yonghui, whose business scope includes the manufacture and sales of power electronic components and semiconductor discrete devices; Electronic component manufacturing, etc.
This is an important move for Li to lay out SiC chips. Under the situation that the global core shortage tide is getting worse and worse, chips have become a battleground for new energy automobile strategists. What position does SiC chip occupy in new energy automobile enterprises?
In a competitive place, various car companies compete to appear. Not only before Li, but also before Tesla, followed by, Weilai, FAW, Toyota, Honda and so on. Car companies are not willing to fall behind here.
What's the intention?
For Li Lai, this is the least risky option.
Previously, according to the simple case formula of operator concentration in official website, the Anti-monopoly Department of the State Administration of Market Supervision, Chehejia and Sanan Semiconductor established a joint venture company, with a shareholding ratio of 70% for Chehejia and 30% for Sanan Semiconductor.
What is the origin of Sanan Semiconductor? Mainly engaged in the research, development, production and sales of semiconductor materials related to SiC substrates, epitaxy and chips, backed by Sanan Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. (referred to as Sanan Optoelectronics) 100% holding subsidiary, which is the largest LED epitaxial wafer and chip manufacturer in China and has been listed on the domestic main board.
Therefore, it is speculated that the joint venture between Li and Sanan Semiconductor is to jointly lay out the market of automotive SiC chips and modules.
What is a SiC chip for automobiles? What position does it occupy in new energy vehicles?
SiC chip refers to silicon carbide. Specifically, it is an important basic material for the new generation semiconductor and the third generation compound semiconductor, and it is the key to the third generation semiconductor industry. Some western developed countries imposed a strict embargo on China, which also restricted the development of domestic semiconductor industry. Therefore, the demand for domestic substitutes in China is increasing.
Silicon carbide power devices have the characteristics of high voltage resistance, high temperature resistance and low loss, which can effectively meet the requirements of high efficiency, miniaturization and lightweight of power electronic systems, and have obvious advantages in new energy vehicles, photovoltaic power generation, rail transit, smart grid and other fields.
Used in new energy vehicles?
Compared with traditional Si materials, SiC materials can help new energy vehicles to extend the cruising range and shorten the charging time. The power requirement of new energy vehicles for semiconductor components is higher than that of traditional fuel vehicles, and the consumption is several times more.
Hilpan Amin, vice president of General Motors, said: "Electric vehicle users are pursuing longer cruising range, and we regard silicon carbide as an important material in power electronics design."
Zhan Shaoxin, manager of the technical center of Guangzhou Automobile Aian New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. also said: "Power semiconductor is an important component that distinguishes new energy vehicles from traditional fuel vehicles. Each electric vehicle needs to be equipped with about 90- 100. If it is a four-wheel drive system, the demand will increase by 50%, and the value of power semiconductors in vehicle semiconductors will account for about 60%. The main performance of silicon carbide is high voltage and high frequency, which leads to its characteristics of high temperature resistance and high power. For the whole vehicle, it can improve the energy conversion efficiency and miniaturize the system. "
One more thing, the value of the power unit used by each new energy vehicle is about 700 US dollars to 1000 US dollars. Using silicon carbide substrate material can save a lot of cost for new energy vehicles.
As a leading enterprise, Sanan Optoelectronics must have stronger premium ability, lower cost, lower risk and guaranteed efficiency if it wants to cooperate with it to establish a joint venture company. The most important thing is to ensure the continuous consumption in Li in the future.
Li Xiang, founder, chairman and CEO of Li Company, once said that the silicon carbide electric drive system is one of the four core technologies of Li's high-voltage pure electric platform. It seems that it is imperative for Li to attach importance to the application of silicon carbide chips in the ideal model.
Looking at the whole new energy vehicle enterprise market, it is not only ideal to accelerate the layout, but also which vehicle enterprise does not accelerate the competition here?
Strive for competition
The global core shortage tide is spreading, and the shortage of various raw materials has always existed. In order to deal with these problems in advance, players of various car companies only have their own tricks.
In the final analysis, SiC devices are very suitable for the power supply design of electric vehicles. Why can't car companies miss this toon?
It is estimated that in the future, the demand output value of functional safety products of SiC motor controller alone will reach 200 million yuan a year.
Strictly speaking, from the development history, Tesla is also a pioneer in the use of silicon carbide chips. Since Tesla, all car companies have come to an end.
In April of 20 16, Tesla fired the first shot of SiC MOSFET. Since then, SiC has not only become a hot track for semiconductor manufacturers, but also accelerated its entry into the automotive field.
In 20 18, Tesla replaced IGBT module with silicon carbide module for the first time in Model 3. At the same power level, the package size of silicon carbide module is obviously smaller than that of silicon module, and the switching loss is reduced by 75%. After the conversion, the system efficiency can be improved by about 5%.
Later, the power module rear wheel drive of Model Y introduced by Tesla also adopted SiC MOSFET. Slade, a new model released on 2021June 1 1, has become the fastest production car in the world, and its inverter continues to adopt silicon carbide technology.
The success of Tesla Model 3 caused an uproar in the automobile and chip industries, and also gave birth to a series of applications and development of SiC chips.
In this way, BYD, Weilai, Tucki, Ideality, Beiqi New Energy, SAIC, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Great Wall, Geely, Guangzhou Automobile, FAW and Chery all practiced SiC products on their own models.
The market is very lively, with self-built production lines, investment methods and similar ideal joint ventures.
On the road of self-built production line, BYD left earlier.
At the end of 2020, BYD announced its own silicon carbide chip, and expanded its module production line in May 20021year. On 2021August 1 1 day, the motor controllers of BYD Handy 1000000 new cars used their self-developed high-performance silicon carbide power modules for the first time.
Weilai also adopted the method of self-research. According to the message of 202 1, 10, an experimental line of SiC power module will be developed and some test equipment will be added.
In addition to self-research, the most common way for car companies is to invest.
It is worth mentioning that Tian Yue Advanced, a leading investor in SiC substrates such as SAIC and Tucki, was listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in early 2022, becoming the first listed company of SiC and a leading enterprise in this industry.
An Peng Xingyuan New Energy Industry Investment Center (Limited Partnership) invested by BAIC also invested in Shanghai Zhanxin Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., which is a silicon carbide semiconductor enterprise. Zhanxin Electronics mainly provides power conversion solutions with SiC power devices, SiC driver chips and SiC modules as the core.
202 1, 1 1, SAIC and its market-oriented private equity investment platform Shanghao Capital * * * jointly invested 500 million yuan to complete the A-round investment in Guitar Semiconductor, a leading domestic manufacturer of automotive chips and SiC power devices.
It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of 20021,Shanghao Capital also invested in Shanghai Hanyu and laid out SiC circuits. Shanghai Hanxin Technology Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise dedicated to the research and development and production of the third generation wide band gap semiconductor power devices and power modules.
Of course, it is also ideal to set up a joint venture.
On 20021May 18, Suzhou Yima Semiconductor Silicon Carbide Module Project, a joint venture of FAW Group, was officially put into production, with an investment of 200 million yuan in the first phase.
And Geely automobile. In May, 20021,Geely established Guangdong Xinyueneng Semiconductor Co., Ltd. with Core Semiconductor and Core Technology, and laid out automotive power semiconductors. New Yueneng, located in Nansha, Guangzhou, is a chip foundry company, engaged in the manufacture and research of SiC chips in the field of vehicle regulation and industrial control.
Soon, SiC became a place with fierce competition, and the layout covered all aspects of the automobile industry and the semiconductor industry.
This time, the ideal choice has already shown signs. In SiC, a battleground for military strategists, establishing joint ventures with leading enterprises is an important option for it. Obviously it is safe, reasonable and guaranteed. (Text/Li Tongwei Source/Investment Network)