The Semi-Finals of "Double Carbon Star Species" - "New Energy Vehicles" Chapter: Technological Upgrade Leading the Transformation of the Industrial Chain

With the rapid development of China's new energy vehicle industry, the components, semiconductors, and upstream raw materials that support the industrial chain are also accelerating their technological upgrading.

Competing in three power systems, intelligent driving, supply chain, and ecosystem... In 2024, "intense competition" is undoubtedly the key word in the new energy vehicle track.

On the other hand, while Chinese new energy vehicle enterprises are in the midst of intense competition, they have also developed stronger technical capabilities and market competitiveness. Not only has the quantity and quality improved simultaneously, but the high-end process has continuously achieved new achievements. In the international competition, they have transformed from "followers" to "leaders".

In the opportunity period of the global automotive industry's accelerated transformation to new energy, China's new energy vehicle enterprises are achieving a "corner overtaking" or even a "lane-changing overtaking" through technological upgrading. In 2023, China's automobile export volume surpassed Japan for the first time, ranking first in the world. In the Thai market, the market share of Chinese brand electric vehicles in the first five months of this year is as high as nearly 80%.

With the rapid development of China's new energy vehicle industry, the components, semiconductors, and upstream raw materials that support the industrial chain are also accelerating their technological upgrading, and driving the innovation and transformation of the entire industrial system.

At the semi-final site of the 3rd Double Carbon Star Species · Sustainable Innovation Competition jointly held by 36Kr, Orient Securities and its subsidiaries Dongzheng Innovation and Dongzheng Capital, 12 start-up companies in the new energy vehicle industrial chain made a brilliant appearance, showcasing product and technological innovations in multiple sub-fields such as high-performance lithium batteries, new energy commercial vehicles, components, satellite navigation, and upstream new materials, becoming the well-deserved protagonists on the field.

After fierce competition and rigorous evaluation, four outstanding enterprises stood out and became the top four enterprises in the new energy vehicle industrial chain track. They are Ningbo Yinci New Materials Co., Ltd., Guangdong Guna Technology Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Disi Technology Co., Ltd., and Hunan Xingsheng New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. They will also join the winning enterprises from the other two tracks in the final competition.

In the second half of the new energy era, the intelligent and electrification transformation of automobiles will open up the long-term growth space of the industry and accelerate the entry into a new stage of large-scale and global high-quality development.

At this Double Carbon Star Species competition, we have seen that different types of new energy vehicle industrial chain enterprises have demonstrated the achievements of their innovative exploration in their respective fields, showing the huge growth potential of the new energy vehicle track. With the continuous progress and breakthrough of related technologies, the future of new energy vehicles will have unlimited business opportunities.

01

Moving with the "New", Accelerating Component Innovation

The automotive industry is undergoing a transformation towards electrification, intelligence, and greening. This major trend not only drives the rapid rise of new forces in vehicle manufacturing but also attracts more component manufacturers to enter the market, writing a new chapter for the rapid development of global new energy vehicles.

In the past two years, Chinese component enterprises have shifted from a "cost advantage" to a high-quality development path of "research and development, integration, and innovation", and are gradually going global, comprehensively enhancing their comprehensive competitiveness.

At the semi-final site of this new energy vehicle competition, many excellent new energy vehicle component enterprises are actively exploring and innovating in their respective fields, continuously promoting the reduction of component costs and the improvement of energy efficiency and quality.

Yinci New Materials is an innovative enterprise engaged in the research, development, and manufacturing of silicon nitride ceramic products. Its main products include ceramic substrates, bearing balls, components/structural parts, cutting tools, etc. The company has mastered multiple key technologies such as the formulation, molding, sintering, and processing of advanced silicon nitride ceramic materials, and has completed the comprehensive domestic substitution of upstream powders and equipment.

Different from ordinary ceramics, high-performance silicon nitride ceramics use artificially synthesized high-purity, ultra-fine powders as raw materials and are sintered under strict process conditions. The special materials and processes endow silicon nitride ceramics with the properties of high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, and electrical insulation.

Applied to the motor bearings of new energy vehicles, ceramic bearing balls can effectively prevent the current from passing through the inner and outer rings of the bearing, avoiding the problem of electrical corrosion and prolonging the service life of the bearing and lubricant. This solution has been adopted by new energy vehicle manufacturers such as Tesla and Audi, and has set off a technological substitution trend.

In the field of automotive semiconductors, silicon nitride ceramic plates can simultaneously meet the requirements of high heat dissipation and reliability under strong vibration conditions. Therefore, they are rapidly replacing traditional alumina ceramic plates and becoming the first choice for the packaging of power modules of electric vehicles.

Yinci New Materials was officially established in 2020, but it has accumulated more than ten years of technical precipitation.

The founder, Dr. Yang Wenwu, studied under Professor Kitajo Junichi, the former chairman of the Japan Ceramic Society, and has more than 15 years of research and development experience in the field of silicon nitride ceramics. Other core team members have also been deeply engaged in the field of new materials for many years.

According to Yang Wenwu, the performance of Yinci's silicon nitride ceramic products is already comparable to some leading products in Japan, with good stability, low cost, and high yield, and has filled many domestic gaps.

At present, Yinci New Materials' automotive ceramic bearing balls have been verified by important international customers, and the silicon nitride ceramic substrates have been verified by metallization customers, and are rapidly increasing in volume. In the next step, the company will continue to expand its production capacity to seize the new market opportunities of tens of billions of yuan triggered by new energy vehicles.

In addition to the innovation of power electronic components related to performance such as motor bearings and power module substrates, electrification and intelligence have also elevated the value of vehicle lights, resulting in more and more innovative applications. The functions have far exceeded lighting, and there is a greater space for development in creating an atmosphere, interaction, and emotional expression.

Another excellent start-up company in this innovation competition - Disi Technology, is a core supplier of vehicle light products for new energy vehicles, large-displacement motorcycles, and mid-to-high-end electric vehicles. The company is committed to providing the entire vehicle lighting system and intelligent solutions for first-line high-end automobiles, motorcycles, electric vehicles, and intelligent short-distance travel tools.

Since its establishment in 2016, Disi Technology has gradually become a core supplier of vehicle light products for well-known brands such as Honda, BYD, Volkswagen, Loncin, Vietnam VinFast, Chunfeng Power, Haojue Suzuki, Dayang, Yadi, Kwang Yang, Ninebot, Niu Technologies, and Mijia.

According to Wang Shuang, the founder and president of Disi Technology, Disi Technology positions itself as a mid-to-high-end lighting fixture for electric vehicles, focusing on industry-leading enterprises and new forces in vehicle manufacturing. Currently, the company's vehicle light products have the highest market share in the short-distance transportation field globally, with a market share of up to 65% in mid-to-high-end electric motorcycles priced above 7,000 yuan.

Disi Technology Industrial Park

Seemingly simple vehicle lighting actually has complex technical support, mainly including Adaptive Front-lighting System (AFS), Adaptive Driving Beam (ADB), Adaptive Light System (ALS), Intelligent Surface Display Tail Light Technology (ISD), Digital Light System (DLS), Global Light System (GLS), etc.

On the basis of mastering the above key technologies, Disi Technology has also invented the SIRIUS Optical Headlamp Optical System. This technology has obtained 7 patents, of which two invention patents have been authorized.

"The SIRIUS optical technology increases the light efficiency of LED headlamps by 22%, the width by 25%, the brightness by 35%, and saves 75% of the cost, truly achieving energy conservation and consumption reduction." Wang Shuang said.

After achieving an advantageous position in the short-distance transportation field, Disi Technology is actively laying out its second curve - new energy vehicles. Wang Shuang said that Disi attaches great importance to research and development innovation, with an annual compound growth rate of R & D investment reaching 92%. In the future, the company will continue to increase R & D and production investment, striving to become a core supplier in the field of new energy vehicles.

02

Based on Material Technology to Help Improve the Quality and Efficiency of the Industry

If the new energy vehicle industry is compared to building a house, then the upstream new material technology is the bricks and cement. The better the building materials, the higher the production efficiency is often.

In this new energy vehicle sub-competition, many start-up companies focus on the upstream and bottom-level material innovation of the industrial chain, and thereby promote the improvement of the quality and efficiency of the new energy vehicle industrial chain.

Guna Technology was established in 2022, focusing on the research and development and application of multifunctional nano-films, and is a technology-based enterprise with core independent intellectual property rights.

The company was incubated at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and has overcome the impossible triangle problem of "thickness, strength, and porosity" that is difficult to balance in the thin and strong development of membrane materials. The ultra-thin and strong film products it produces can be widely used in consumer electronics, new energy, medical and other fields.

"Guna Technology is committed to providing top-performance films at a lower cost." Song Shuo, the COO of Guna Technology, said that the membrane industry has a wide range of application scenarios, and the market size can reach hundreds of billions by 2030. The company will base itself on the core membrane technology, continuously increase production capacity and expand industry coverage, and build a high-end membrane ecosystem.

Another company that also focuses on material innovation is Xingsheng New Materials, which focuses on another type of subdivided material: high-purity temperature-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials.

High-purity temperature-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials are one of the indispensable materials in the manufacturing of semiconductor equipment, and are widely used in equipment components such as lithography machines, deposition equipment, semiconductor etching equipment, and ion implanters. With the continuous expansion of the domestic third-generation semiconductor market, the demand for high-performance coatings is also growing rapidly. Currently, foreign manufacturers occupy more than 95% of the domestic market for high-purity temperature-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials used in the semiconductor field, and import substitution is urgent.

Xingsheng New Materials has been rooted in coatings and ceramic matrix composite materials for more than two decades, mainly providing temperature-resistant, corrosion-resistant, high-purity components and consumables for key equipment such as MOCVD equipment, PECVD furnaces, single-crystal SiC furnaces, single-crystal CaN furnaces, and third-generation semiconductor epitaxial furnaces, oxidation furnaces, and etching machines in the LED, photovoltaic, semiconductor, and lithium battery industries.

In terms of the team, Li Guodong, the founder and chief scientist of Xingsheng New Materials, is the responsible professor of the Interface Materials Discipline at Central South University, an academic and technical leader, and one of the early scholars in China to carry out the coating preparation technology of CVDSiC and CVDTaC. Relying on his close cooperation with many industry experts, Xingsheng New Materials has developed a coating preparation process and equipment suitable for actual production, and mastered the core technologies of CVDSiC coating, TaC coating, and ceramic matrix composite material production.

Deng Junwang, the general manager of Xingsheng New Materials, said that the company has developed a "double-gradient coating" preparation technology, which can break through the problem of easy cracking due to thermal expansion of different materials, and has taken the lead in achieving the preparation of 6 - 9N high-purity coatings in China. Its achievements have been successfully applied in the aerospace, semiconductor and other fields, and are deeply favored by customers and the market.

In the next step, Deng Junwang said that the company will further expand the production capacity of silicon carbide and tantalum carbide coatings, and actively promote the mass production and batch supply of silicon carbide and tantalum carbide coatings. At the same time, it will also deeply cultivate research and development innovation, and use high-performance materials to help the application upgrade and efficiency improvement of multiple downstream industries.

In order to achieve carbon neutrality, the transportation industry urgently needs a green and low-carbon transformation and upgrading. By reducing the use of fossil fuels and promoting the popularization of renewable energy, new energy vehicles play a crucial role in helping the world achieve the goal of sustainable development, and the trend of electrification is unstoppable.

In the trillion-level new energy vehicle track, new opportunities are constantly emerging. The start-up newcomers represented by Yinci New Materials, Disi Technology, Guna Technology, and Xingsheng New Materials have already embarked on the journey, exploring the new future of the industry with innovative technologies. And the "Double Carbon Star Species" competition jointly held by 36Kr, Orient Securities and its subsidiaries Dongzheng Innovation and Dongzheng Capital will be their consistent and firm companion.

In the golden autumn of October, the "Double Carbon Star Species" final will be held as scheduled. At that time, the Top 12 enterprises including the above four companies will gather in the final competition. What kind of an innovation feast will these excellent carbon-neutral pathfinders bring? Let's wait and see together!