Automotive VCU Research: Rapid Evolution towards Integration and Domain Control

 Zoss Automotive Research Institute released the "2021 New Energy Vehicle Vehicle Controller (VCU) Industry Research Report".

Competition landscape of VCU for new energy passenger vehicles: OEMs gradually realize independent supply

The vehicle control unit (VCU) is the "brain" of new energy vehicles. In the early days of the development of the new energy vehicle industry, VCU was mainly supplied by foreign manufacturers. With the development of China's new energy vehicle industry, domestic vehicle manufacturers and automotive electronics suppliers have gradually begun to master core technologies, and their industrialization capabilities have been greatly improved.

For example, BYD's VCU has achieved complete independent supply, Geely Automobile has continuously increased the proportion of self-produced VCU, and the self-production ratio has reached about 60%, almost 80% of Changan Automobile's VCU comes from self-production, and more than 90% of Chery Automobile's VCU has been self-produced.

Changan Automobile Vehicle Controller Products

Source: Changan Automobile

Some OEMs or some models purchase VCU from third-party suppliers. The main third-party suppliers include United Electronics, Bosch, Continental, Denso, Jinmai Electronics, Etech, Hefei Shengtai Technology, Hangsheng Electronics, etc. Suppliers can make their own software and hardware and directly supply OEMs, or they can provide OEM services for OEMs.

The market size of vehicle controllers is related to the output of new energy vehicles. It is estimated that by 2025, the market size of vehicle controllers for new energy vehicles in China will reach 5.03 billion yuan (including self-supplied by vehicle manufacturers).

Forecast of China's new energy vehicle vehicle controller (VCU) market size

Source: Zoss Automotive Research "2021 New Energy Vehicle Vehicle Controller (VCU) Industry Research Report"

Lightweighting promotes the development of "all-in-one" electric drive + electronic control + VCU integrated system

In order to cater to the development trend of electric, intelligent and lightweight vehicles, new energy vehicle controllers will develop towards a highly integrated direction in the future. OEMs and Tier 1s have launched "all-in-one" electric drive systems, integrating VCU into them.

In order to further reduce the weight of new energy vehicles and improve product performance and riding comfort, BAIC started the experiment, and later GM, Huawei, BYD and others launched highly integrated products. The "all-in-one" electric drive + electronic control + VCU integrated system has become the focus of OEM and Tier 1.

Advantages of the “all-in-one” electric drive system

Source: BYD

In September 2021, BYD's Fudi Power launched an "eight-in-one" electric powertrain, which deeply integrates eight major components including drive motor, motor controller, reducer, on-board charger, DC converter, distribution box, vehicle controller (VCU), and battery manager.

One of the main purposes of BYD's "eight-in-one" integrated system is to reduce the weight of electric vehicles. It can realize the sharing of multiple components such as external high-voltage filters, external interface filter circuits, and high-voltage sampling. The system has deep integration of DC, OBC, power distribution, transformer and inductor, and VCU/BMC/MCU chips. It can save one H-bridge and transformer, save a large number of high-voltage wiring harnesses, reduce the volume of the magnetic module by 40%, reduce the overall volume by 16% (which can bring about an increase in riding space or battery capacity), and reduce weight by 10% (which can further reduce power consumption).

BYD's "eight-in-one" electric powertrain system

Source: BYD

In July 2021, Changan Automobile released the second-generation integrated electric drive system, which integrates seven components: vehicle controller (VCU), high-voltage distribution box, motor controller, DC converter, charger, motor, and reducer. In terms of comprehensive performance, it has been significantly improved compared to the first-generation "three-in-one" (integrated motor, electronic control, and reducer) system, with a 5% reduction in volume, a 10% reduction in weight, a 37% increase in power density, and a 5% increase in efficiency.

Changan Automobile's new generation of super electric drive is expected to be mass-produced in the second quarter of 2022, and will be first configured on the C385, the first strategic model of the dedicated electric platform (EAP1).

Changan Automobile's new generation super electric drive system

Source: Changan Automobile

With the new E/E architecture evolution trend, VCU is developing towards domain control integration

From the perspective of the evolution of E/E architecture, centralized E/E architecture is the inevitable direction of the development of automotive electronic and electrical architecture. From the perspective of mass-produced models, the current stage is mainly domain-centralized EEA. The quasi-central architecture of central computing platform + regional controller is the next step for car companies to focus on, and finally evolve towards a central computing architecture, concentrating functional logic into one central controller.

With the evolution of the vehicle's electronic and electrical architecture, the "all-in-one" electric drive system will eventually be integrated into the domain control system. For example, the most eye-catching aspect of Huawei's "seven-in-one" DriveONE electric drive system is its domain control solution, which effectively improves the safety of the system through the integration from modules to systems, and from scenarios to solutions.

(1) VCU integrated into the domain controller

Under the domain control architecture, in order to cooperate with the development of the vehicle's electronic and electrical architecture, the vehicle control unit (VCU) can be integrated into the domain controller. For example, Skywell Auto integrates VCU with BMS to form the first-generation power domain controller VBU, achieving completely independent research and development.

Hardware: VBU uses Infineon's triple-core processor, has very rich I/O resources, and supports 100M Ethernet;

Software: Adopt AUTOSAR architecture, and the software architecture and interface protocol meet AUTOSAR 4.2.2;

Application: Currently, VBU has integrated vehicle control, battery management, charging control, and range extension control functions.

Skywell Auto's new generation E/E architecture integrates VCU functions into the power domain VBU

Source: Zoss Automotive Research "2021 New Energy Vehicle Vehicle Controller (VCU) Industry Research Report"

Huawei's CC architecture includes three central controllers (smart cockpit, vehicle control, and smart driving) and four zone controllers. The vehicle control domain (VDC) integrates the original VCU, adopts the VOS system, and is compatible with AutoSar.

On the VDC vehicle control platform, Huawei will develop an MCU and a vehicle control operating system, and open this vehicle control operating system to car companies, allowing them to carry out differentiated vehicle control based on the VDC platform.

Huawei CC architecture integrates VCU functions into the vehicle control domain VDC

Source: Zoss Automotive Research "2021 New Energy Vehicle Vehicle Controller (VCU) Industry Research Report"

In April 2021, BYD released the e-platform 3.0, which gradually integrated four domain controllers from dozens of ECUs into the entire vehicle, including the intelligent power domain, intelligent vehicle control domain, intelligent cockpit domain and intelligent driving domain. The intelligent power domain integrates the control parts of VCU, BMS, Inverter, PDU, DC/DC and AC/DC.

BYD's four major functional areas

Source: Zoss Automotive Research "2021 New Energy Vehicle Vehicle Controller (VCU) Industry Research Report"

(2) VCU integrated into the central computing unit

Under the central computing architecture, the central gateway degenerates into multiple regional gateways, and the business functions of the vehicle controller unit (VCU) will be integrated into the vehicle control unit of the central computing unit.

For example, Volvo's hybrid central architecture includes 1 central computing platform, 1 intelligent interconnection module IHU and 1 autonomous driving module ADPM, integrating the original domain controller into the central computing platform.

Volvo Hybrid Central Architecture

Source: Volvo

The main research contents of Zoss Automotive Research's "2021 New Energy Vehicle Vehicle Controller (VCU) Industry Research Report" are as follows:

• Research on the overview, market size, and market competition pattern of new energy vehicle controller industry;

• Research on the current status of the new energy vehicle controller industry chain and upstream and downstream industries;

• Research on the impact of E/E architecture changes on new energy vehicle controllers and the technical development trends of vehicle controllers;

• Research on VCU product solutions for some OEM manufacturers (such as BYD, Skywell Auto, Changan, etc.);

• Research on VCU product solutions from major domestic and foreign suppliers;