More than 20 production passenger car models were equipped with C-V2X, with a rising penetration.
According to our statistics, from January to June 2022, the production passenger cars packing C-V2X (Cellular Vehicle to Everything) technology reached about 46,000 units, with installation rate up to about 0.5%, the figures projected to reach 2 million units and 10% in 2026. We forecast installation rate growth based on following three considerations:
Consideration 1: Strategy for Innovation-driven Development of Intelligent Vehicles points out that by 2025, vehicle wireless communication networks (LTE-V2X, etc.) will provide regional coverage, and the application of new-generation vehicle wireless communication networks (5G+C-V2X) in some cities and highways will be phased in. This may be one of the reasons why automakers used more C-V2X modules in the past two years. In the future they can upgrade V2X functions over air (OTA) in the light of coverage of vehicle wireless communication networks.
In addition, China also has a plan for the penetration of autonomous driving. 5G+C-V2X is a crucial supplement to autonomous driving capabilities. Through the lens of technology development trends, OEMs also need to make some deployments ahead of time.
Consideration 2: in June 2022, Audi acquired China’s first “LTE-V2X Safety Warning Function Certification” at International Forum on Testing and Certification Technology for Intelligent Connected Automobile Products, indicating the application effectiveness of telematics warning function and powering OEMs in installation of C-V2X technology
In addition, the 2022 C-V2X Cross-industry Pilot Plugfest indicates first-stage application practices (e.g., safety warning function and traffic information prompt) and second-stage application verifications (e.g., cooperative lane change and roadside perception data sharing).
Consideration 3: the rising penetration of passenger car OEM 5G modules will facilitate the pre-installation of C-V2X. In August 2022, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology indicated its attempts to research and plan 5G-V2X frequency use in a timely manner, in a bid to promote coordinated development of current LTE-V2X and future 5G-V2X technological regimes. In the future the realization of autonomous driving is inseparable from 5G and C-V2X technologies. It is predicted that in 2024, the penetration of 5G in passenger cars will exceed 10%.
As a whole, by our conservative estimate the installation rate of C-V2X in 2024 will be around 3% and higher than 10% in 2026.
Our statistics show that since the mass production and installation of C-V2X in 2020, China has had more than 20 production models carrying C-V2X technology, of which the full range of quite a few models was equipped with it as a standard configuration: Hongqi E-HS9, HiPhi X, NIO ET7, Ford’s new-generation Mondeo, EVOS, Mustang Mach-E, Edge PLUS, etc.
In function’s term: in current stage, V2X technology is often used to enable basic safety functions such as traffic light signal push, green wave speed, green light startup alert, red light warning, intersection collision warning and road information broadcasting, still playing a minor supporting role in intelligent driving.
For now, automakers’ vigorous C-V2X deployments probably aim to provide sufficient redundancy for subsequent high-level autonomous driving systems, and to improve future V2X function upgrades via OTA.
Chinese players have built a complete C-V2X industry chain, providing technical support for mass production.
The C-V2X industry chain is long and involves multiple players. This report summarizes and analyzes the high-quality suppliers in the C-V2X industry chain, including top 15 suppliers of C-V2X vehicle terminals, top 14 suppliers of C-V2X modules, top 10 suppliers of C-V2X software stacks, top 10 suppliers of roadside units (RSU), top 10 suppliers of C-V2X solutions, and top 6 suppliers of C-V2X chipsets.
From the software and hardware layout, it can be seen that Chinese companies have built a complete C-V2X industry chain.
C-V2X chip: technology keeps iterating
As C-V2X chips pose a high technical barrier, currently only a few companies like Qualcomm, Autotalks, Huawei and Morningcore Technology have the capacity of mass production and supply. Although Chinese players have broken foreign monopoly, their market shares are still low. Most C-V2X modules on market still use chips from Qualcomm and Autotalks. Huawei HiSilicon chips are largely supplied for Huawei C-V2X modules. Besides private use, Morningcore Technology’s chips are also provided to Gaohong Zhilian, Mobiletek Communication, nFore Technology and Alps Alpine among others.
At present, Chinese and foreign companies are all working hard on C-V2X chip technology interaction to meet mass production and application requirements.
