Localization of wire-controlled chassis, driving into deep water areas

Control-by-wire chassis is becoming the new darling of the capital market.

Recently, Jingxi Zhixing, a supplier of automobile chassis suspension and braking systems, announced the completion of a 2 billion yuan Series A financing. This is the latest investment in the domestic wire-controlled chassis track this year, and it is also the largest known investment event so far.

According to Gasgoo statistics, since 2023, at least 10 financings have been disclosed in the domestic wire-by-wire chassis field. The investment companies include Grubo Technology, Bibost, Likry Technology, Youpao Technology, Qiangu Technology, etc., among which Most of the financing scale is in the 100 million yuan level.

You must know that the most popular investment tracks in the field of smart cars in the past few years have mostly focused on the perception and decision-making aspects of smart driving, such as lidar, millimeter wave radar, AI chips, etc. This year, various capitals have flocked to the field of drive-by-wire chassis, which fully demonstrates that the investment and layout value of this track are gradually becoming prominent.

On the one hand, with the rapid development of smart electric vehicles, the potential demands of end customers for vehicle safety, intelligence, comfort, and personalization continue to increase. As a functional component closely related to these demands, the chassis is becoming more intelligent and control-by-wire. Chassis evolution is imperative.

On the other hand, from the perspective of the vehicle chassis market structure, this field has been monopolized by foreign giants for a long time. Whether from the perspective of supply chain security or the creation of an independent and controllable smart electric vehicle supply chain, it is required to develop local wire control. Chassis supplier.

Because of this, taking advantage of the new track of drive-by-wire chassis, a number of local companies have begun to seek independent breakthroughs. Among them, brake-by-wire, thanks to the continuous increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles and the rapid popularization of various ADAS functions in the terminal market, the demand for brake-by-wire has grown rapidly, and it has taken the lead in opening up a "hole" in terms of domestic substitution. ".

Domestic breakthrough results are beginning to show

In the field of control-by-wire chassis, brake-by-wire can be described as the "vanguard" of domestic alternatives.

The so-called brake-by-wire, compared with traditional hydraulic/pneumatic brakes, the main difference is that the mechanical connection between the traditional brake pedal and the brake is canceled, and instead the brake signal transmission and control are realized in a "wire-controlled" manner. Braking energy conduction. According to different technical routes, brake-by-wire is divided into hydraulic brake-by-wire EHB and mechanical brake-by-wire EMB, of which EHB is the mainstream at this stage.

Source: Jiangxi Automobile Group

For new energy vehicles, this braking method uses electronic assist instead of vacuum assist, which effectively solves the problem of no stable vacuum source because the engine is replaced by an electric motor. Not only that, in addition to meeting the daily braking needs of new energy vehicles, brake-by-wire can also recover braking capacity, thereby increasing the cruising range.

For autonomous driving, brake-by-wire can better meet the development needs of autonomous driving due to its faster response speed. For example, ADAS functions such as ACC, AEB, TJP, and HWP that are currently widely used in smart electric vehicles require Based on brake-by-wire.

So it is not difficult to find that with the rapid development of smart electric vehicles, the brake-by-wire track has become lively at a speed visible to the naked eye in the past two years. In particular, the control-by-wire system based on the Two-box solution has taken the lead in achieving domestic breakthroughs with the active deployment of local players represented by Tongyu, Nasen, and Grubo. Currently, everyone is moving towards a higher degree of integration. The high-level One-box made a collective effort.

Source: Jiangxi Automobile Group

The Two-box and One-box here both belong to the category of EHB. One-box, based on Two-box replacing the traditional vacuum booster with an electronic booster, further integrates ESP with the electronic booster. It not only has higher integration and energy recovery efficiency, but also reduces the number of parts. The cost of use is relatively low.

But this also means a higher threshold. Without certain technical accumulation and a deep understanding of related core components, it is basically difficult to skip the Two-box system and directly develop a more integrated One-Box.

Therefore, most companies currently use two technical routes in parallel, such as Bosch's iBooster+ESP and IPB, ZF's EBB (Two-box) and IBC, Nexen's NBooster (Two-box) and NBC, and Gel's Lu Bo's ESC+GIBS and GIBC.

Source: Glubo Technology

Judging from the progress of mass production, due to the relatively low technical threshold of the Two-box solution, both multinational Tier 1 and independent parts companies have achieved large-scale mass production. For example, Bosch's iBooster was officially put into mass production as early as 2013 and is currently being supplied by Tesla, NIO, GM and other car companies. Domestic companies such as Nason, Tongyu, Grubo, Likrypton, and Bibost have also completed mass production of brake-by-wire systems based on Two-box in the past two years, initially realizing the independent breakthrough of brake-by-wire.

As for the one-box solution, only a few products such as Bosch IPB, Continental MK C1, ZF IBC, Bethel WCBS, and Verdi Power BSC have achieved mass production. However, as brake-by-wire technology becomes increasingly mature, and at the same time, the rapid development of smart electric vehicles continues to put forward new requirements for brake-by-wire in terms of integration, response speed, cost, etc., the One-Box solution is starting a new era of localization. era.

Recently, Bibost held a theme conference in Nantong, Jiangsu. At the meeting, Bibost officially released three new wire-controlled chassis products, namely the new generation of integrated brake-by-wire system BIBC and the new generation of fully decoupled BEBS. and trailer-mounted RV braking system RV-EBS.

Since its establishment in May 2021, Bibost has been committed to promoting the localization of wire-controlled chassis. To this end, Bebost has successively developed the electronic hydraulic braking system BEHB (BEBS+BESC) based on the Two-box solution and the BIBC based on the One-box solution, and built three BIBC, BEBS and BESC systems in the Nantong Digital Factory product line, with a cumulative production capacity of 1.5 million sets.

Among them, BEHB has achieved large-scale mass production and delivered it to customers. It is expected that the cumulative delivery volume this year will exceed 200,000 units. This time, with the release of Bibost's new generation BIBC and its official rollout at its Nantong digital factory, Bibost's one-box brake-by-wire system has officially entered large-scale mass production.

Nason Onebox 2.0 integrated intelligent braking system, picture source: Nason

In mid-May, Nason Technology held a 2023 new product launch conference in Shanghai. The focus of this event was also directed at One-box. During this period, Nason launched a new generation of One-box 2.0 integrated intelligent braking system NBC. Prior to this, Nason's electronically controlled brake assist system NBooster based on the Two-box solution has been put into mass production in 2018, and has reached mass production cooperation with many car companies such as BAIC New Energy, BYD, Changan, and Great Wall.

According to Tao Zhe, founder and CEO of Nason Technology, the newly released Onebox 2.0 has also won the designation of multiple benchmark models from many domestic first-tier OEMs. It will be put into mass production starting in the third quarter of this year and is expected to be released next year. The shipment volume will reach 1 million units. To this end, Nason invested nearly 100 million yuan to build the Onebox 2.0 production line to ensure the stability, safety, and high-quality production of the product. The production line is designed to have an annual production capacity of 500,000 sets.

If we move the timeline further forward, at this year’s Shanghai Auto Show, local “rookies” in control-by-wire chassis, including Grubo, Tongyu Automobile, Likrypton, and Yingchuang Huizhi, all focused on displaying their respective integrations. brake control system, and everyone’s mass production time is concentrated this year.

Among them, Li Krypton is relatively ahead. Its integrated intelligent braking system IHB-LK® achieved mass production as early as last year. The One-box integrated brake-by-wire system GIBC independently developed by Grubo is expected to be put into mass production in the first half of this year. Tongyu Automobile is building a new iEHB production line, which is planned to be completed and put into production in the second half of the year.

This means that in the one-box field, local suppliers will collectively enter the large-scale supply stage this year. As independent parts companies continue to mass-produce, and at the same time due to frequent supply chain shortages in the past two years, local car companies continue to pay more attention to supply chain security. On the other hand, this year, the upstream and downstream of the automotive industry chain are generally facing There is great cost pressure, and One-box itself has significant cost-effective advantages. Driven by multiple factors, it is not difficult to foresee that the market share of One-box solutions will further increase in the next few years.

Comprehensive counterattack in multiple dimensions

Among the core components of the by-wire chassis, although the brake-by-wire system has taken the lead in localization, the willingness of OEMs to install it is also continuing to increase. At present, the overall penetration rate of this technology is not high, and it is expected to gradually explode in the next few years. .