Self-rescue operation launched!Global chip ischemia, Chinese car companies make chips and make a living

Under the circumstance of “car chip shortage”, an industry-based self-rescue operation of car companies is underway.

According to a report from China Business News, on February 22, SAIC Motor, a subsidiary of SAIC Motor, has finalized a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with the “unicorn” Horizon in the smart chip industry, or SAIC Motor will enter the chip industry as a carrier to ease production capacity. crisis.

It is worth noting that SAIC Group is not the only car company that intends to manufacture its own cores. Car companies such as Great Wall Motor and Wuling also intend to do so.

　　Global Chip Shortage

The shortage of automotive chips can be traced back to the epidemic last year. As for the reason behind it, the most “simple violence” understanding is that supply exceeds demand.

During the epidemic, the production capacity of chip suppliers in Southeast Asia, Europe and other regions was affected, the supply was restricted, and the supply of chips was reduced. However, the outbreak has not reduced production demand. On the contrary, consumer electronics, medical care, communications and other fields have surged in demand under the stimulus of the epidemic.

In the case of reduced supply and increased demand, a global “chip shortage tide” has been triggered.

It is worth mentioning that, according to the analysis of foreign media such as the “Nihon Keizai Shimbun”, the sanctions and bans imposed by the US government on Chinese technology companies are also an important factor causing the shortage of chips——

First, China’s semiconductor production is blocked, and the supply of chips is reduced;

Second, the limited production capacity has been transferred to other countries and regions, increasing the production pressure on chip suppliers;

Third, the unstable economic and trade environment has distorted the production and supply chain. The US sanctions against China have triggered stockpiling and panic buying, and demand has further expanded.

With the rapid recovery of the automobile market in the second half of 2020, the problem of lack of cores in automobiles has become increasingly prominent, which has hindered the production of major automobile companies.

In December 2020, Honda, Volkswagen, Ford, GM and other car companies announced production cuts, adjusted production rhythms, postponed the production of some product lines, and some even announced a temporary suspension of production.

Entering 2021, the global “chip shortage tide” continues.

Recently, affected by natural disasters such as a strong earthquake of magnitude 7.3 in Japan and a cold wave in Texas in the United States, the production capacity of automobile chips has been further damaged, which has made the supply situation of chips in short supply even worse.

According to Bernstein Consulting, a global shortage of automotive chips in 2021 will cause a loss of 2 million to 4.5 million vehicle production, equivalent to about 5% of the global annual car production in the past decade.

In addition, the forecast results of Inverto, a think tank of Boston Consulting Group, also support this statement. Inverto expects that the shortage of automotive chips will continue to affect the auto industry for half a year or even three quarters.

On the one hand, there is the “stuck neck” chip production capacity, and on the other hand, there is an urgent production demand. Under such circumstances, car companies have begun to find another way to make a living – seeking to make their own cores.

　　Car companies enter the bureau to make cores

According to China Business News, on February 22, 2021, SAIC Motor, a subsidiary of SAIC Motor, has finalized a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with Horizon, the “unicorn” in the smart chip industry.

It is reported that SAIC Group or SAIC passenger cars are the carriers of entering the chip industry. On the one hand, it can effectively alleviate or even solve the production capacity crisis caused by the shortage of chips. Drive domain controllers and system scenarios.

In fact, not only SAIC, but also car companies such as Great Wall Motor, BYD, SAIC-GM-Wuling, and Geely have their own “core things”.

Lei Feng.com noticed that on February 9, among the investors who announced the completion of the C3 round of financing of 350 million US dollars, many star enterprises in the upstream and downstream of the automobile industry chain, including BYD, Great Wall Motor, Changjiang Automobile Electronics, and Dongfeng Assets, have carried out strategies. Bless.

In addition, the cooperation between Yikatong (under Geely) and Arm China, BAIC Production Investment and Imagination Group is another example of car companies developing chips.

In May 2020, BAIC Production and Investment and Imagination Group signed an agreement to jointly establish Beijing Hexinda Technology Co., Ltd., which will focus on the research and development of application processors for autonomous driving and voice interaction chips for smart cockpits.

In October 2020, Yigatong and Arm China jointly funded the establishment of core engine technology, including high-performance automotive-grade digital cockpit chips, full-stack AI voice chips, advanced driver assistance chips, microcontroller processors and other products.

In addition to joint R&D, some car companies also choose to conduct independent research.

On January 15, SAIC-GM-Wuling announced that it will set up a TDC chip localization working group to comprehensively promote the localization of vehicle chips to ensure that the company’s project production capacity is not affected by suppliers.

Lei Feng.com noticed that in addition to car companies, some Internet technology giants that announced their entry into the automotive field have also contributed to easing the shortage of “car cores”.

In August 2020, Huawei officially released its AI processor Ascend910, and then announced that it would develop its own MDC intelligent driving platform based on this Ascend chip. In addition, the Extreme Fox Alpha T launched last year is also equipped with a Huawei chip, which is the “MH5000 5G chip T-BOX”.

In addition to Huawei, “Baidu”, which officially announced that it is making cars, has also been involved in chip research and development. So far, Baidu has successfully mass-produced Honghu voice AI chips and Baidu Kunlun first-generation chips, and the second-generation Baidu Kunlun chips. The chip is expected to be mass-produced in the first half of this year.

For the auto industry with a “chip shortage”, this is undoubtedly the sweet dew on dry land.

　Self-made car core, not so easy

It is gratifying that domestic car companies have concentrated their efforts on chip research and development, but another inevitable problem has also emerged on the paper at the same time, whether domestic car companies can really solve the problem of “lack of cores” by making cores.

Regarding the consideration of this issue, we must first see two questions, namely “what core is missing” & “what core is made”.

The previous case shows that at present, most Chinese car companies entering the chip field mainly focus on chip research and development, design and other fields, and rarely get involved in the construction of chip production capacity – and the shortage of chips is a major reason for the limited production capacity.

In addition, from the perspective of chip type, the chips made by domestic car companies are mostly voice chips, assisted driving chips, etc., not the 8-bit MCU chips that are in short supply in the automotive field, and the MCUs that ESP and ECO modules in auto parts need to use. etc. (The chip data is the result of a multi-party survey by securities companies).

On the whole, it is not realistic in the short term to solve the problem of “car core shortage” only by car companies making cores.

Even so, it needs to be pointed out that the core manufacturing of car companies may become a major trend in the automotive industry. CBN quoted Zeng Zhiling, general manager of LMC Automotive Market Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., as saying: Auto companies have shortcomings in software, and entering the chip field will become a trend. The core competition of future smart cars lies in technology. However, self-developed chips are more complicated and require division of labor with technology companies.

In addition to the consideration of the actual situation, the attention at the national level is also one of the reasons.

On February 9, 2021, regarding the shortage of automotive chip supply, the First Division of Equipment Industry and the Electronic Information Division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held discussions with relevant companies, suggesting that automotive chip supply companies attach great importance to the Chinese market, increase production capacity deployment, and improve circulation efficiency.

The document of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology mentioned that the upstream and downstream enterprises of automobiles should strengthen coordination, strive to alleviate the shortage of automobile chips, and provide strong support for the stable and healthy development of China’s automobile industry.

In fact, whether it is the automotive industry or other high-tech fields, technological breakthroughs and innovations are by no means easy; chip research and development is one of these “difficulties”.

Whether it is due to natural factors of force majeure or artificial restrictions, historical cases one after another are warning people that only by achieving independence can they avoid being “stuck in the neck”.

The past year has given the most realistic portrayal. If history is not to be repeated, some “difficult things” have to be done.

Although core making is not easy, the brave will follow it.