News Briefing

Despite a sluggish economy, institute investors estimate that global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) will increase by 35% annually in 2023, with a penetration rate of 16.3%. Under the active promotion of EV policies by various countries, it’s predicted that the market growth in the US, mainland China, and Europe should reach 65%, 38%, and 12%, respectively, which will play a role in the primary locomotive for growth.
 

Impact Analysis

At present, Mainland China is the largest electric vehicle market (accounting for 59% of the global sales for electric vehicles in 2022) worldwide. As sales continue to soar, the penetration rate of the new energy vehicles in mainland China has already reached 25%; as such, the substitution effect for fuel vehicles has, therefore, started to appear. Hence, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) has predicted that the sales of new energy vehicles in mainland China will reach 8.4 million in 2023, an annual increase of over 30%. On the other hand, the federal climate bill passed by the United States in 2022 will provide financial subsidies for EV and battery factories, and also for lithium, graphite, and other battery material processing facilities, rendering the US auto industry to step into the biggest wave of factory construction in decades. Based on the information from the Center for Automotive Research, a non-profit organization, the planned investment for the construction of assembly plants and battery factories from January to November 2022 will reach approximately US$33 billion, far higher than US$9 billion in 2017.

With the demands of global net-zero carbon emissions and active policy promotions by various countries, the market of EVs is growing rapidly. In addition, since the auto industry is moving toward electrification/motorization, we can regard the entire vehicle as a large computer. Even more, the components and PCBs that are used have become more diverse when working with the development trend of AI autonomous driving. E.g., multi-layer boards will be used in the body systems, driving safety systems, and powertrains: soft boards will be used in the central consoles, sensors, headlights, and automotive battery management systems; HDI in ADAS, and substrates in the various automotive chips, processors, and others. As viewed, the composition of parts for an EV will have covered most of the PCB products. From the perspective of market growth and application diversity, we can see that EVs will undoubtedly become one of the future development priorities in the PCB industry.