Industry Background and Drivers

Intelligent chassis: the execution layer of autonomous driving

The chassis system is a key executive component for electric vehicles to enter the era of intelligent autonomous driving. From fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles, the innovation of the chassis system stems from the change of power form, and its transmission mechanism has changed from mechanical transmission to electrical signal transmission, and the carrying object has also expanded from the power system to the three major systems of intelligent cockpit, automatic driving and power.

When performing driving tasks, the chassis has also changed from passive execution to the ability to actively recognize the road environment, predict and control the interaction between the wheels and the ground, and implement self-management of the vehicle's operating state. The hardware upgrade of the chassis system execution and decision-making level is the only way to realize high-level autonomous driving of electric vehicles.

The connotation of intelligent chassis includes wire control and collaboration

Compared with the traditional automobile chassis, the intelligent chassis gradually replaces mechanical or hydraulic devices through electronic devices, and on this basis, it realizes the linkage between the chassis domain and the intelligent driving domain and the body domain, with active perception and decision-making capabilities, and can achieve autonomous control.

In terms of wire-control, brake-by-wire, active suspension and steer-by-wire are the key subsystems of the intelligent chassis, and each system is developing and iterating in the direction of pure drive-by-wire and lightweight. In terms of collaboration, the development trend of intelligent chassis is intra-domain integration and cross-domain integration of the chassis domain, with "cloud" functions including remote control.

The development status of intelligent chassis

The intelligent chassis in the 1.0 stage realizes partial wire control and collaborative control in the X and Y directions, and most of the products are based on semi-wire control systems; The intelligent chassis in the 2.0 stage realizes the collaborative control of three directions and six degrees of freedom, and the chassis has certain active perception and control capabilities. The intelligent chassis in the 3.0 stage has achieved comprehensive wire control on the basis of 2.0, and the perception technology has leapfrogged from "vehicle-road collaborative perception" to "vehicle-road cloud collaborative perception", and chassis products with AI attributes will gradually mature.

At present, the entire intelligent chassis industry is in the 2.0 stage, and some mid-to-high-end models have realized the standard configuration of the intelligent chassis 2.0 system. NIO's AI The 4D chassis has taken the lead in realizing some of the functions of the intelligent chassis 3.0 stage, and it is expected that the industry will officially enter the intelligent chassis 3.0 stage in 2026, opening the era of automotive intelligence with AI-defined chassis.

Driving factors: The wire-controlled chassis is more suitable for the wave of automotive intelligence

The advantages of chassis-by-wire in intelligent driving include:

•Meet the requirements of intelligent driving system for high precision and high sensitivity of actuators.

• Drive-by-wire technology is more suitable for intelligent driving than mechanical connectivity: In high-level autonomous driving, the computer must have full access to the steering system and brakes, and the drive-by-wire system is more suitable for software-only control than systems that still require mechanical intervention.

|Driving factors: the rise of domestic brands under the wave of new energy vehicles

In November 2023, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles exceeded 40% for the first time, and by October 2024, the penetration rate has exceeded 50% for three consecutive months.

The penetration rate of self-owned brand new energy vehicles is as high as 74.9%, which means that only one out of every four domestic vehicles sold is a pure fuel vehicle, and the position of pure fuel vehicles in the domestic market has been increasingly marginalized. In the luxury car segment, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is 33.5%; The penetration rate of NEVs by mainstream joint venture brands is relatively low, at only 7%.

Driving factors: domestic brands overtake in corners, and domestic parts usher in incremental opportunities

Traditional overseas parts giants have risen by supporting foreign mainstream car companies, and independent parts suppliers in the era of smart electric vehicles are expected to achieve domestic substitution through the rise of independent brands. In the era of traditional automobiles, the European automobile industry has achieved Bosch and Continental, while the Japanese automobile industry has driven the rapid development of Japanese parts giants such as Denso, and the development of leading fuel car companies is closely related to the development of parts and components Tier1.

From the perspective of the globalization path of German and Japanese parts suppliers, the rise of parts suppliers is often accompanied by the achievement of the following two conditions: 1) the local automotive industry technology is competitive on a global scale; 2) Local leading car companies emerged and took the lead in rising, and sought new overseas incremental markets. At present, China's automobile market has initially reached these two prerequisites.