The core battlefield of the Internet of Vehicles: Interpretation of the TOP10 list of T-Box market share in 2023

With the rapid evolution of the automotive industry, especially the rise of intelligent connected cars, T-Box, as an important bridge connecting vehicles with the outside world, is gradually becoming a new focus in the automotive industry. With the development of communication technology and network technology, the degree of intelligent networking of automobiles continues to increase, and the vehicle-mounted T-Box, which plays the role of vehicle and cloud information transfer station, has also begun to be upgraded.

Nowadays, consumers' demand for smart car functions continues to increase, and new functions such as OTA updates, remote car control, and digital keys continue to become popular. Major suppliers have launched Tbox solutions with their own characteristics in order to occupy a place in the market.

The distribution of market share is not balanced. Some leading companies have occupied a larger market share by virtue of technological innovation, brand effect and in-depth cooperation with car companies. The T-Box market is experiencing unprecedented growth and is also facing more intense competition.

Competition in the T-Box market intensifies, with local suppliers accounting for half of the market

From the perspective of competition, the current domestic passenger car T-Box market is relatively fragmented. What is gratifying is that unlike the past situation where major markets were dominated by foreign suppliers, we can already see some domestic manufacturers starting to exert their efforts, gradually increasing their market share, and moving towards the top position step by step.

According to data from the Smart Cockpit Configuration Database of the Gasgoo Research Institute, among the top 10 domestic automotive T-Box market share manufacturers in 2023, foreign powerful players mainly include LG, Valeo, Continental and Mitsubishi, among which LG ranks No. 1 with a market share of 17.8%. First, Valeo and Continental occupy 9.1% and 5.9% of the market share respectively, ranking third and fifth.

In the T-Box field, foreign manufacturers basically have a monopoly on foreign-invested and joint venture car companies. LG mainly supplies OEMs such as Audi, Buick, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Kia. Valeo's partners with Continental mainly include BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Volvo, Infiniti and other companies. Of course, some domestic car companies such as Changan, Great Wall, and Geely are also within the supply scope of these international suppliers.

Domestic manufacturers are led by Neusoft, whose market share reaches 10%, ranking first among domestic manufacturers. In addition, five local companies including Huawei Terminal, Lianyou, BYD, Jingwei Hengrun, and Huihan Microelectronics are on the list. Overall, local suppliers account for more than half.

What cannot be ignored is that due to the late start of China's T-Box industry, there are gaps between its sales network establishment, R&D investment, related talent investment, financial barriers and industry qualifications compared with international manufacturers.

In this context, it is not easy for Neusoft to achieve such results.

In the field of intelligent communications, Neusoft has more than 10 years of experience in R&D and mass production. It has been developing in-vehicle intelligent interconnection terminals for new energy vehicles and passenger car monitoring since 2012, from 2G BOX to the new generation of 5G (V2X) BOX. , Neusoft's T-BOX products have achieved 5 generations of product iterations, and have cooperated with nearly 100+ models from 20+ well-known global automobile manufacturers.

At present, its 5G V2X T-Box has achieved large-scale mass production and is installed in dozens of mid-to-high-end models such as Geely and Great Wall. It is the well-deserved leading manufacturer in the domestic vehicle T-Box field.

Neusoft 5G+V2X BOX; Image source: Neusoft

Ranking second among domestic manufacturers is Huawei Terminal. In addition to strong Huawei-related brands such as Avita and Wenjie, it also has partners such as Buick and Toyota. In the field of intelligent network connection, Huawei has laid out a "device-pipe-cloud" business system and mainly promotes 5G+C-V2X vehicle communication modules, T-Box, and vehicle gateways. It is one of the few products that ranges from automotive communication chips, communication modules to T -Box is an enterprise with a comprehensive vertical layout.

Lianyou follows closely behind. In 2023, Lianyou's T-Box market share will account for 4.9%, and it mainly supplies Dongfeng models. According to official data, Lianyou T-Box’s cumulative shipments have exceeded 4.6 million units. In addition, BYD, Jingwei Hengrun, and Huihan Microelectronics also performed well.

At present, some OEMs such as GAC and Xpeng have chosen to develop their own T-Boxes. Most of them focus on the design and software parts, while the hardware part is still based on OEM. Gasgoo Automobile Research Institute believes that this option can reduce R&D costs in the short term and speed up the pace of new product R&D. In the future, when T-Box matures, in order to achieve large-scale production and reduce costs, T-Box suppliers will still be the main suppliers.

T-Box manufacturers have a deep binding relationship with car manufacturers. At present, there are relatively few Chinese local T-Box manufacturers entering the supply chain of international car manufacturers and joint venture car manufacturers, and most of their T-Box product customers are independent brands. However, as local manufacturers update and iterate their products, the localization rate is gradually increasing.

The localization rate increases, and 5G T-Box accelerates mass production and launches

Behind the increase in the localization rate of T-Box is the combined effect of many factors.

The development of the Internet of Vehicles industry has risen to a national strategic level. Policies related to intelligent connected cars are being actively formulated and implemented. Policies related to the Internet of Vehicles have promoted the steady growth of vehicle-mounted T-Boxes, thus promoting the development and localization of T-Box technology.

As the proportion of automobiles connected to the Internet increases, the market demand for automobile T-Boxes continues to expand. Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute predicts that the passenger car T-Box market will reach 13.78 billion yuan in 2027.

The tens of billions market has attracted various forces to compete, with local forces occupying an important position. With the rise of Chinese automobile brands, the market share of self-owned brand models continues to increase. These brands are more inclined to use domestic T-Boxes to reduce costs and improve the stability of the supply chain.

Domestic manufacturers usually have advantages in production cost control, which helps them provide more cost-effective products. Their in-depth understanding of the domestic market also enables domestic manufacturers to better meet the needs of local automakers and consumers.

Based on the supply of domestic car companies, local suppliers are seeking to diversify their products. This has also prompted domestic companies to increase investment in research and development to improve product quality and competitiveness.

Forging iron requires one's own hard work. Local T-Box manufacturers such as Neusoft and Lianyou Technology have improved their technical level through continuous product innovation and iteration, which has improved the performance and reliability of domestic T-Boxes and made them popular in 5G T-Box. Breakthroughs in Box and other fields. This is a key factor in promoting the improvement of localization rate.

At present, T-Box software and hardware tend to be integrated, and traditional T-Box is developing in diversified directions such as smart antennas and communication domain controllers to adapt to the centralized evolution of automotive EE architecture.

Take Neusoft's smart antenna as an example. It adopts the all-in-one design concept and integrates software and hardware such as Tuner, GPS, and Wi-Fi. At the same time, the traditional shark fin and T-BOX are integrated to collect and digitize the wireless signals of the whole vehicle, which avoids the difficulty of laying out the traditional wiring harness on the whole vehicle, functionally improves the communication quality, and realizes smooth, safe and integrated communication. Automobile intelligent interconnection experience and full scene coverage, and effectively save wiring costs.

Neusoft smart antenna; Image source: Neusoft

Neusoft smart antennas are now widely used in Hongqi H9, HQ9 and other models. At the same time, this product fully supports 5G and 5G+V2X applications.

At present, 4G T-Box is the mainstream product in the market, while 5G T-Box is still in the early stages of development. In this field, domestic manufacturers are leading the way.

Based on the high speed, high bandwidth, and low latency characteristics of 5G, Neusoft integrates Bluetooth key, Ethernet, FOTA and other hotspot functions, and integrates the independently developed V2X protocol stack (VeTalk). It is the first to develop and launch integrated C-V2X, Gigabit The 5G V2X BOX with Ethernet, high-precision positioning and other functions has filled the vacancies in the domestic and foreign 5G markets and achieved large-scale mass production. The product market share is nearly 30%, ranking first in the Chinese market.

Neusoft 5G/V2X BOX core competitiveness; Image source: Neusoft

It is worth mentioning that currently vehicle-road collaboration and 5G-V2X are gradually launching large-scale commercial applications and have become the focus of industry joint efforts. China has advantages in C-V2X industry standards and core technologies, and driven by national policies, the vehicle-road collaboration industry is expected to grow rapidly.

As China's first 5G T-Box supplier certified by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Neusoft provides China's first C-V2X protocol stack and product solutions with fully independent property rights. It has a complete vehicle-road collaboration solution and end-to-end C-V2X products, including the increasingly widely deployed intelligent vehicle terminal OBU, intelligent roadside equipment RSU, roadside supporting integrated sensing equipment and vehicle-road collaboration cloud control platform. On behalf of China, he has participated in large-scale interconnection tests such as the "Four Crosses" and the "New Four Crosses" on many occasions. Its independently developed vehicle-road collaboration system has been widely used in major domestic OEMs and intelligent connected vehicle demonstration zones.