The "Heart" Game of New Energy Vehicles: Upgraded Competition and Value Discovery in the Drive Motor Industry

Recently, Hainachuan, a subsidiary of BAIC Group, successfully challenged a single rotor of an electric vehicle drive motor to reach an ultra - high speed of 55,000 revolutions per minute and obtained certification from an authoritative institution. Meanwhile, GAC Group's self - developed Quark Electric Drive 2.0 won the only "Global New Energy Vehicle Innovation Technology Award" in the power system field with its amorphous - carbon fiber electric drive technology, boasting the highest efficiency and power density in the industry. Behind this series of technological milestones lies the increasingly fierce dimensional competition in the field of drive motors, the "heart" of new energy vehicles.

Over the past decade, driven by both policies and the market, the drive motor industry has achieved a large - scale leap from scratch. Now, with the reduction of subsidies, the popularization of technology, and the intensification of competition, the industry is bidding farewell to extensive growth and entering a new stage centered on "value creation". On the one hand, advanced technologies such as 800V high - voltage platforms, silicon carbide devices, and flat - wire motors are being implemented at an accelerated pace, constantly breaking the performance boundaries. On the other hand, the fierce price war is spreading upstream, and cost control has become the bottom line for enterprises to survive.

This game around the "heart" is not just a technological competition but also a comprehensive contest in the supply chain, scale, and system innovation. The self - supply systems of vehicle manufacturers and third - party professional suppliers are competing on the same stage. Under the dual pressures of "cost reduction" and "performance improvement", they are redefining the industrial ecosystem and value distribution. Companies that can build performance barriers through technological innovation and achieve extreme cost control are becoming the focus of capital, driving the profound transformation of the industry from "scale expansion" to "value discovery". Based on this, this article will conduct an in - depth analysis of the following aspects:

Current drivers: The trio of policies, the market, and technology in the new stage of the industry

Core issues: In - depth analysis of the two key dimensions of "technology" and "cost"

Ecosystem competition: The survival logic of enterprises with different business models and the deduction of the future competitive landscape of the industry

The new stage of the industry: From "scale expansion" to "value creation"

The new energy vehicle drive motor industry is undergoing a profound market transformation. Over the past decade, policy subsidies and the market boom have driven the industry to achieve a scale leap from "zero to one". Now, with the reduction of subsidies, the popularization of technology, and the intensification of competition, the industry is shifting from extensive "scale expansion" to the lean "value creation" stage. This chapter will analyze the internal driving forces behind this transformation, reveal the core contradictions in the current industry, and lay the foundation for understanding the future competitive landscape and value distribution.

(I) Evolution of growth drivers: The trio of policies, the market, and technology

The development of China's new energy vehicle drive motor industry is a history of continuous transformation of driving forces. It has successively experienced policy subsidy - driven and market penetration - driven stages and is now fully moving towards a new stage driven by "technological iteration" and "cost - efficiency".

Policy subsidy - driven stage (before 2020): In this stage, with top - level designs such as the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021 - 2035)" as the guiding principle, the industry was directly stimulated by financial subsidies to form an initial scale. The industry's focus was on meeting the subsidy thresholds, and capacity layout was the focus of competition.

Market penetration - driven stage (2020 - 2023): As the acceptance of new energy vehicles increased, the market replaced policies as the core engine. The sharp increase in the sales of new energy vehicles in China led to a surge in the market demand for drive motors. The competitive landscape began to diverge, but the expansion of "quantity" remained the main theme.

Technology/cost dual - driven stage (since 2024): This is a crucial game before the industry enters the mature stage. In 2024, the market scale of China's new energy vehicle drive motors reached 5.017 billion yuan, but the growth rate slowed down, and the competition intensified. The change in driving forces is directly reflected in the extreme pursuit of technological paths and cost control. On the one hand, permanent magnet synchronous motors have a market share of up to 96% due to their advantages of high power density and energy - efficient operation, becoming the absolute mainstream. On the other hand, technological iteration is accelerating, and advanced technologies such as 800V high - voltage platforms, silicon carbide devices, and flat - wire processes are being rapidly introduced into mass production. Cost - efficiency has become the bottom line for survival. The fierce price war is spreading upstream, forcing enterprises to dig deep into cost - reduction opportunities in every production detail.

(II) Current core contradiction: The dual pressures of "cost reduction" and "performance improvement"

Currently, vehicle manufacturers are passing on the extreme market competition pressure to motor suppliers without reservation. "Cost reduction" and "performance improvement", these seemingly contradictory dual goals, have become the core issues in the industry and completely reshaped the selection criteria for suppliers.

On the one hand, cost control has become the "admission ticket" for supply chain cooperation. The cruelty of the new energy vehicle price war has forced vehicle manufacturers to put unprecedented pressure on component costs. This pressure has been transformed into "hard targets" that suppliers must achieve internally. Some domestic enterprises have set goals to reduce costs by millions of yuan in non - raw material areas every year and have achieved significant cost optimization through process innovation and material substitution.

On the other hand, performance improvement is the "lifeline" for product differentiation competition. While demanding price cuts, vehicle manufacturers are increasing their requirements for motor performance. The rotational speed has generally increased from over 10,000 revolutions in the past to over 20,000 rpm, and the 0 - 100 km/h acceleration within 2 seconds has become a selling point for high - end models. At the same time, integration has become an irresistible trend. The "multi - in - one" electric drive system can effectively reduce volume, weight, and improve efficiency. The share of high - integration solutions such as seven - in - one and eight - in - one is constantly expanding.

These dual pressures have led to a profound change in the selection criteria for suppliers: Merely having a large scale or a low price is no longer sufficient to win orders. Vehicle manufacturers prefer partners who can provide "cost - effective" solutions, that is, suppliers with technological leadership, excellent supply chain management, and lean manufacturing capabilities. The ability to simultaneously drive the technological frontier and the cost boundary has become the touchstone for testing an enterprise's core competitiveness.

(III) Technological advancement and cost game determine the future

China's new energy vehicle drive motor industry has bid farewell to the era of inclusive growth. The evolution of driving forces marks that the industry is entering the mature stage, and the core contradiction between "cost reduction" and "performance improvement" has set the stage for a new round of dimensional competition. In this competition, factors such as production capacity and customer relationships, which were important in the past, are becoming less important. Instead, the speed of technological innovation, the ability to control costs, and the global layout are becoming the key factors determining the future fate of enterprises.

Wanchuang Investment Bank believes that the industry's valuation system is undergoing a fundamental reconstruction. The past "quantity" - based logic that focused on production capacity and market share is giving way to the "quality" - based logic that values technological barriers and profitability. Companies that can quickly respond to customers' customized needs through modular platforms, achieve performance leadership through core technologies, and achieve extreme cost control throughout the production and manufacturing process will receive the greatest premium in this round of value re - evaluation. They are not only cost leaders but also definers of technological standards and are expected to dominate the next round of industrial integration.

Technological advancement: Cutting - edge trends build performance and efficiency barriers

Drive motor technology is being iterated and upgraded at an unprecedented speed, becoming a key factor determining the performance, range, and cost of electric vehicles. This chapter will conduct an in - depth analysis of the current competition situation at the technological high - point, look forward to the prospects of next - generation technologies, and reveal how technology - leading enterprises build insurmountable moats.

(I) Analysis of the current technological high - point: Pillars for performance breakthrough

Flat - wire motors, oil - cooling technology, and multi - in - one deep integration have become the core pillars of current drive motor technology, jointly promoting significant improvements in the range, power density, and reliability of electric vehicles.

1. Flat - wire motors: Redefining the boundaries of power density

Flat - wire motors achieve a revolutionary improvement compared with traditional round - wire motors by using copper wires with rectangular cross - sections for winding. The slot fill factor is a key indicator for measuring motor efficiency. Flat - wire windings increase the slot fill factor from about 40% of round wires to over 75%, which means that more conductive materials can be accommodated in the same volume, thereby significantly improving power density.

Changan Qiyuan was the first in the world to apply the 10 - layer Hairpin flat - wire oil - cooling motor technology to the hybrid vehicle field, enabling its motor to reach a peak power of 158 kW, a power density of up to 7 kW/kg, and a maximum efficiency of 97.8%. These figures have exceeded the industry targets of 5.7 kW/kg in the United States and 5.0 kW/kg in China for 2025, demonstrating the leading position of Chinese enterprises in the field of flat - wire motors. The P3 motor in Lynk & Co's EM - P solution also uses flat - wire winding technology, with a power density of 6 kW/kg, better than the industry average.

The technological advantages of flat - wire motors are not limited to power density improvement. Due to the reduction of internal gaps and the increase of the contact area between wires, the heat dissipation performance is significantly improved. At the same time, the better magnetic flux characteristics brought by the flat - wire structure, combined with the low - cogging torque design and the unique V - shaped skewed - pole design of the rotor's magnetic steel, effectively suppress torque ripple and high - frequency noise, improving the vehicle's NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) performance.

However, flat - wire motors also face challenges in manufacturing processes. As the number of layers increases, the difficulty of welding points and insulation treatment increases exponentially, posing extremely high requirements for production accuracy and process control. Behind these technological innovations is the precision manufacturing ability and quality control system that enterprises must master.

2. Oil - cooling technology: Solving the problem of thermal attenuation

The thermal management problem during continuous high - load operation of motors has always been a bottleneck restricting the performance of motors. Traditional water - cooling technology mainly conducts indirect cooling through the housing, with limited effectiveness. Oil - cooling technology, on the other hand, achieves more efficient heat dissipation by directly contacting the heat source.

Lynk & Co's EM - P solution uses a full - oil - cooling solution for the motor and the gearbox, actively spraying oil for lubrication and cooling through a built - in oil pump, significantly improving the overall system efficiency.

Magnuson's new - generation electric drive system has gone a step further by developing an intelligent thermal management system with active fluid control, which can adjust the distribution ratio of cooling oil in the rotor shaft, winding ends, and gearbox in real - time based on torque requirements, narrowing the temperature fluctuation range of the winding ends to ±3°C.

The core advantage of oil - cooling technology is that it can enable the motor to maintain continuous high - power output. Traditional motors often have to reduce power operation due to temperature rise after a short - time peak power output, while oil - cooled motors can extend the continuous power output time by more than 50% through effective temperature control. This is of great significance for scenarios such as high - speed cruising and continuous climbing, effectively solving the "thermal attenuation" problem that users generally care about.

3. Multi - in - one deep integration: System - level optimization creates value

The "multi - in - one" electric drive system realizes the miniaturization, lightweight, and cost optimization of the entire drive system through the deep integration of components such as the motor, electronic control, and reducer. This trend is evolving from "three - in - one" (motor + electronic control + reducer) to "multi - in - one".

The P4 motor in Lynk & Co's EM - P solution integrates an OBC on - board charger, an on - board AC/DC converter, and a PDU high - voltage distribution box, using a multi - layer concentric wave - wound flat - wire design to make the overall structure more compact. This high - level integration not only reduces the system volume and weight but also reduces the energy transmission loss between components, improving the overall efficiency.

Changan Qiyuan's solution of highly integrating the hybrid - specific P1 motor and the clutch changes the 4 - shaft 8 - gear transmission system structure commonly used in the industry to a 3 - shaft 6 - gear structure, saving one shaft and a pair of gears, which not only reduces weight but also eliminates the meshing loss of this pair of gears. This structural innovation reflects the multiple benefits brought by integrated design.

Another advantage of integration is the improvement of intelligence level. The multi - in - one system provides a hardware foundation for more complex control strategies.

For example, Changan Qiyuan's globally original iEM intelligent driving management mode allows the vehicle to intelligently adjust the energy distribution strategy according to road conditions, driving habits, and battery status. In the emergency mode, when the vehicle is short of fuel and electricity, the vehicle can travel 10 - 15 km more by adjusting the power distribution through intelligent power - saving technology,