The road to reducing the burden of new energy vehicles

As the penetration rate of new energy vehicles continues to rise, the scale of lightweight and integrated die castings of automobiles will continue to expand, and companies that lay out lightweight and integrated die castings will benefit.

Text/Daily Earnings Report Liu Yuchen

Driven by the tightening of fuel consumption standards for fuel vehicles, the increase in the subsidy threshold for electric vehicles, and the pressure of new energy integration, vehicle and parts manufacturers urgently need new technical paths to achieve consumption reduction and energy saving.

Automobile lightweight and integrated die casting is an important way to reduce fuel consumption and improve endurance, and the penetration rate of automobile lightweight and integrated die casting will continue to increase driven by demand.

"Slimming down" is the trend of the times

Lightweight refers to the premise of ensuring the strength and safety performance of the car, as far as possible to reduce the curb weight of the car.

Studies have shown that if the fuel vehicle loses 10% weight, the fuel consumption will be reduced by 6-8%; if the new energy vehicle loses 100kg, the cruising range will be increased by 10-11%, while reducing the battery cost and daily loss cost by 20%.

For traditional fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles, lightweight technology can improve the efficiency of the power system, thereby reducing energy consumption and improving the endurance of the whole vehicle, and gradually become an important technical direction for major vehicle and parts companies.

Tesla uses integrated die casting technology on the basis of lightweighting, leading a new round of technological innovation.

Integrated die-casting technology can make the body one-time molding, eliminating the complex process of first split stamping and welding, greatly simplifying the manufacturing process; because there are only 1-2 large parts, the integrated die-casting technology can eliminate the cumulative error caused by the connection of a large number of parts, and the manufacturing accuracy can be improved, while saving a lot of financial and material resources, and further improving the degree of lightweight of the car.

Model 3 rear body baseplate adopts the traditional process, assembled from 70 parts; Model Y adopts integrated die-casting technology, the rear body baseplate as a whole is composed of 2 large castings, the connection point is reduced from 700-800 to about 50, the manufacturing time is reduced from 1-2 hours to 3-5 minutes, and the weight of the assembly body will be reduced by 30%.

According to Tesla's news, the next step is to use integrated die casting technology to manufacture a complete assembly of vehicle bodies, and to die cast about 370 parts into 2-3 large castings, and the weight will be further reduced by 10%, thereby increasing the cruising range by about 14%.

Under the leadership of Tesla, a number of domestic aluminum alloy die-casting parts companies began to lay out integrated die-casting technology, and purchased a number of giant die-casting machines for integrated die-casting in the fields of body structures.

Aluminum alloy is an ideal lightweight material for automobiles, improving vehicle safety and fuel economy while reducing carbon emissions throughout the life cycle of automobiles, and is widely used in chassis, body, power system and other fields.

As one of the core components of the car, the car chassis accounts for 27% of the total vehicle weight, second only to the body-in-white and powertrain. Compared with the body, the chassis lightweight technology and process are more mature and the cost is lower, and the chassis lightweight is an important area of vehicle lightweight.

At present, the main path of chassis lightweight is to replace steel with aluminum alloy, according to the data of the International Aluminum Association, the penetration rate of aluminum alloy in the power system is 90%, and the automobile chassis is still a blue ocean market compared with it.

The body is the part with the highest proportion of vehicle weight, and it is also the area with the greatest potential for lightweighting, and the traditional car can reduce the weight by about 11% with high-strength steel instead of ordinary steel, and about 40% by using aluminum alloy.

Compared with traditional cars, the new energy vehicle three-electric system will lead to an increase in the weight of the whole vehicle, which will affect the endurance For the same model, the three-electric system will cause the vehicle to increase the weight of an additional 200-300kg. The battery pack is the largest part of the weight, accounting for about 18-20% of the vehicle weight, of which the battery pack shell (battery box) accounts for about 10-20% of the weight of the battery pack, which is the component that weighs second only to the battery cell in the battery pack. After the improvement of battery energy density gradually entered the bottleneck period, battery box lightweight became the focus of new energy vehicles.

At the current stage, the best lightweight solution for the battery box that takes into account the cost performance and the lightweight effect is the combination of the extruded aluminum profile under the shell and the upper cover of the SMC, with the price of carbon fiber, magnesium alloy and other materials falling, the battery box lightweight scheme is expected to usher in further optimization.

High threshold, low concentration

According to the prospectus of Wencan shares, the number of related enterprises in the mainland die casting industry in 2018 was about 12,600, of which the number of enterprises producing die castings accounted for more than 70%, but most of the suppliers had low production capacity of lightweight die castings.

Domestic aluminum alloy die-casting enterprises are roughly divided into three categories: one is the aluminum alloy die-casting plant under the vehicle enterprise, such as the Seiko Automobile Die-casting Branch of Great Wall Motor, and the Seiko Center of Bydy's Fudi Power, which is currently the main supporting parent company. The second category is a joint venture between a domestic oem and a foreign die-casting company, such as SAIC Huayu Pierburg Nonferrous Parts (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., where HUAYU and Rheinmetall each hold 50% of the shares, supporting SAIC Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC-GM. The third category is a large number of third-party aluminum alloy die-casting suppliers, such as listed companies Wencan Shares, Guangdong Hongtu, Echodi, Tuopu Group, etc. Most of these enterprises are secondary suppliers, supporting ZF, Bosch, Valeo, WABCO and other transmission, brake, steering and other system suppliers.

Founded in 1998, Wencan co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in the research and development and production of precision die casting parts of automotive aluminum alloy. In 2020, the company completed the acquisition of the French listed company Bailian Group, which includes aluminum alloy castings in the fields of automotive brake systems, intake systems, chassis structural parts and other fields.

Wencan co., Ltd. is the forerunner of domestic aluminum alloy die-casting body structural parts, in 2014 the company successfully developed body structural parts, and in 2014 to achieve mass production of body structural parts. At present, the company's body structural parts for Tesla, Mercedes-Benz and Shanghai Weilai have entered the mass production stage, and are one of the few enterprises in China that can mass-produce aluminum alloy body structural parts. In 2021, the company ordered 7 large die casting machines, including 2 sets of 6000T die casting machines, for the research and development and manufacturing of integrated body structural parts, and the layout of integrated die casting is faster.

Guangdong Hongtu has also entered the supporting system of Xiaopeng Automobile, and the two sides will simultaneously develop integrated structural parts. The latest news shows that the company's 6800T new energy vehicle super large integrated aluminum alloy rear floor die-casting structural parts products (hereinafter referred to as "integrated structural parts") were successfully trial-produced on January 17, 2022.

In addition, Chervon Automobile, Tuopu Group, Echodi and other die-casting enterprises have also carried out corresponding layout planning in the field of integrated die-casting, which will further enhance the company's product and technical strength in the future.

In September 2021, Tuopu Group ordered 21 die-casting units, including 7200T, 4500T and 2000T die-casting equipment of different scales, which is expected to increase the production capacity of integrated die-casting parts; the 2700T die-casting machine of Chervon Automobile Nanjing headquarters has entered the state of mass production and realization of supply, the 5000T die-casting machine is expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter for mass production, in addition, the company has purchased a number of large-scale die-casting equipment at the Ma'anshan production base, and the Hungarian factory will also lay out die-casting equipment. In order to lay a solid foundation for the release of production capacity, Aikodi announced in January 2022 that it intends to issue 1.6 billion yuan of convertible bonds, of which part of the funds raised will be used to introduce medium and large precision die casting units ranging from 800T to 8400T at home and abroad.

As the penetration rate of new energy vehicles continues to rise, the scale of lightweight and integrated die castings of automobiles will continue to expand, and companies that lay out lightweight and integrated die castings will benefit. Entering the capacity release stage, the increase in capacity utilization will promote the improvement of profitability, and investors can continue to pay attention.