Recently, some media broke the news that said Volkswagen has stopped production since February 4, 65438, and FAW-Volkswagen has also stopped production since early February. It is also said that the main reason for the suspension of production of these two joint venture car companies is the insufficient supply of automobile chips needed to build cars, which has aroused widespread concern in the industry for a time.
Subsequently, FAW-Volkswagen responded that "at present, its Volkswagen brand, Audi brand and Jetta brand are still in normal production and have not been affected." On the other hand, SAIC Volkswagen also responded quickly, saying that the production of new cars has indeed been affected to some extent, but the company has not completely stopped production as rumored by the outside world, and has made relevant preparations.
Although Audi AG said that "the problem is not serious", mainland China and Bosch, its two major domestic parts suppliers, are not optimistic. The two companies said: At present, the automobile chip market is experiencing an overall shortage, which is likely to continue until next year.
According to market news, apart from Volkswagen, Dongfeng Honda, Changan Automobile and Chery Automobile are all more or less affected by the industry's "lack of core".
"The chip shortage does exist, but it is not so serious. The superposition of multiple factors has led to the contradiction between supply and demand of chips during this period. " On February 8th, 65438, Li Shaohua, Deputy Secretary-General of China Automobile Industry Association and Minister of Industry Development, said that the failure of chip supply should be treated rationally.
In fact, the global chip shortage has shown signs.
This year's COVID-19 epidemic raid made this already tense "string" unable to support any longer and quietly broke.
It is reported that there are two main reasons for the chip shortage in the domestic automobile industry: on the one hand, China's automobile industry continues to recover, the market performance is better than forecast, and the demand for automobile chips is higher than expected; On the other hand, the global epidemic is spreading, the production capacity of upstream fabs is tight, the supply of chips for various electronic consumer goods such as mobile phones and computers is insufficient, and the production capacity of automobile chips is also limited.
With the development of automobile electronization, the importance of semiconductor chips in automobile manufacturing industry is increasingly prominent. These electronic components are widely used in multimedia entertainment systems, intelligent key, automatic parking systems, engine and gearbox control systems, airbags, driver assistance systems, electric power steering, ABS? And electronic stability system (ESP).
Compared with other automobile parts, the market competition pattern of automobile semiconductor chip enterprises is relatively stable, mainly controlled by suppliers such as NXP, Infineon, stmicroelectronics, Renesas, Texas Instruments and Bosch. These companies, except Renesas and Texas Instruments, are all from Europe.
Nowadays, affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, overseas production has been stopped on a large scale, resulting in a serious shortage of semiconductors worldwide.
"If the chip supply problem cannot be alleviated within 65438+February, it is estimated that 15% of domestic automobile production capacity will be affected, which means that the production of nearly 400,000 domestic automobiles may be affected only in 65438+February."
As we all know, 65438+February is an important barrier for car companies' year-end impulse. If car companies stop production due to chip shortage, it will greatly affect the annual sales data of each car company, and then lose market share.
Under the predicament of chip shortage, many automobile chip manufacturers have also begun to "raise prices".
165438+1On October 20th, Sunmoon, a packaging testing manufacturer, informed customers that the average unit price of packaging testing in the first quarter of 2020 would be increased by 5- 10%. According to industry sources, due to insufficient production capacity, the packaging and testing factory has raised the price of lead frames and wire bonding packages by 5438+00 in June, and the price of urgent orders and new orders has increased by 10%.
165438+1On October 26th, NXP, one of the world's largest automotive semiconductor suppliers, said that due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the company was faced with the dual impacts of serious product shortage and rising raw material costs, and decided to raise the price of its products across the board.
165438+1October 30th, Japanese semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Electronics also sent a price increase notice to customers, and the effective date of the price increase is next year, 65438+1October 30th. Since then, it has been reported that five MCU factories in Taiwan Province Province, including Sheng Qun (Hetai), Tong Ling, Songhan, Hongkang and Xintang, recently raised their quotations simultaneously, and the amplitude modulation of some projects exceeded 10%, and the delivery time was extended to four months for the first time.
In fact, due to the shortage of wafer and packaging and testing capacity and the shortage of products, many links in the entire semiconductor industry chain have started the price increase model. According to industry insiders, the supply of wafers will continue to be tight in the coming year, and some products require customers to sign a one-year NCNR (no return, no exchange) agreement.
"Shortage and price increase", but in the face of this known crisis, the automobile industry is still unable to "save itself"? .
"Too dependent on foreign countries."
The low localization rate of automobile chips is the deep-seated reason behind the current shortage of automobile chips.
According to the data of China Automobile Chip Industry Innovation Strategic Alliance, in 20 19, the scale of China's independent automobile chip industry only accounted for 4.5% of the world. At the same time, the import rate of automobile chips in China exceeds 90%, and the chips of key systems such as advanced sensors, car networking, three electric systems, chassis electronic control, ADAS (advanced driver assistance system) and automatic driving are over-dependent, and the chip autonomy rate is insufficient 10%.
In 20 19, China's semiconductor sales accounted for 35% of the world's total, but the localization rate of various chip designs was only 0-20%. At present, domestic wafer manufacturing, packaging testing and localization of semiconductor materials are relatively low, and many semiconductor materials are still stuck in place.
With the continuous improvement and upgrading of automobile intelligence, chips will undoubtedly become the "life and death door" of future automobiles, and the "chip crisis" that is being encountered this time has undoubtedly sounded the alarm for the industry, and the breakthrough of domestic chips has a long way to go.
In fact, many domestic car companies have sounded the horn of self-developed chips.
As early as April of 20 18, Zero Run Auto, an intelligent electric vehicle company, officially announced that it would jointly develop an AI autopilot chip with Dahua Co., Ltd., and planned to conduct a real vehicle test in the second quarter of 20 19. It is reported that this is the first new energy automobile company in China to announce independent research and development of chips except Tesla.
After the zero-run car started the first shot of self-developed chips in the domestic auto industry, many auto companies also accelerated the layout of auto chips. According to incomplete statistics, at least seven car companies including BAIC, Geely and Weilai have entered the market. Among them BYD is the hardest core. Not only designed our own domestic IGBT (called the CPU of automobile electronics, which belongs to the power semiconductor in automobile chips), but also made the first production line in China. Although there is still a gap between products and giants like Infineon, its strength should not be underestimated.
In addition, some cross-border bosses are also providing solutions for car companies, for example, Huawei? 5G？ Baseband chip Balong? 5000, which can be used in the field of vehicle networking and automatic driving at the vehicle end; The "Kunlun" AI chip developed by Baidu can also adapt to the autopilot Apollo system.
It is worth mentioning that under the trend of chip localization, the state has also introduced relevant policies to promote the development of smart car chips. In February this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the 1 1 department issued the "Innovative Development Strategy for Smart Cars", emphasizing that the domestic automobile industry should promote the research and development and industrialization of core technologies such as on-board chips and intelligent computing platforms.
In September, with the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, more than 70 enterprises and institutions led by the National New Energy Automobile Technology Innovation Center (National Innovation Center) established the "China Automobile Chip Industry Innovation Strategic Alliance", which was the first time that a unified action organization appeared in the field of automobile chips, and also reflected the country's attention to automobile chips.
"It is necessary to attach importance to the development of automotive chips to the strategic height of developing China's autonomous and controllable automobile industry. If there is no self-controlled car-class chip, China's intelligent networked new energy vehicle will repeat the mistakes of the previous joint venture vehicle. "
It can be predicted that the localization of chips is the general trend and a long-term "battle".
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.