Ideal automotive layout silicon carbide chip R&D will be established with Sanan Semiconductor joint venture company holding 70%

Economic Observation Network reporter Zhou Ju from the State Administration for Market Supervision and Administration of anti-monopoly department of the simple case of concentration of undertakings publicity shows that Beijing Chehejia Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as: Chehejia) and Hunan Sanan Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as: Sanan Semiconductor) will establish a joint venture.

The announcement was released on January 15 this year, and the reporter has not yet inquired about the establishment of the company on Qixinbao. According to the published transaction overview, Chehejia intends to jointly establish and operate a joint venture company with Sanan Semiconductor, of which Chehejia holds 70% of the equity of the joint venture company and Sanan Semiconductor holds 30% of the equity of the joint venture company. However, the parties to the transaction have joint control over the joint venture.

Chehejia was established in March 2021, the legal representative is Li Xiang, the founder of Ideal Automobile, which is 100% owned by Ideal Automobile's affiliate Leading Ideal HK Limited, and its business scope includes technology development, technology transfer, and the manufacture of new energy intelligent vehicles.

Sanan Semiconductor is a 100% controlled subsidiary of Sanan Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Sanan Optoelectronics), which has been listed on the domestic main board and is the industry leader in domestic LED chips.

In response to anti-monopoly demand, the company's remarks show that in the new energy passenger car drive motor controller SiC (silicon carbide) chip research and development market, both parties account for less than 5%. Based on this speculation, the joint venture between the two companies will mainly be engaged in the research and development of SiC chips for new energy passenger car drive motor controllers in the future.

In recent years, with the development of new energy vehicles, Sanan Optoelectronics has invested in the field of silicon carbide on a large scale, and recently, the first batch of silicon carbide diodes manufactured by Sanan Semiconductor have been selected into the "Recommended Catalogue for the Promotion and Application of Automotive Chips", marking the official "launch" of Sanan Semiconductor's vehicle-grade power devices.

According to the data, silicon carbide is an important module of a new generation of semiconductors, in new energy vehicles, silicon carbide chips have obvious advantages over the current main application of silicon material chips, its high pressure resistance, high temperature resistance and other characteristics make silicon carbide chips more efficient, lighter, can help new energy vehicles improve driving range. However, at present, the domestic silicon carbide industry is still in its infancy, and there are not many enterprises that have the ability to mass-produce silicon carbide power devices.

The establishment of a joint venture between Chehejia and Sanan Semiconductor means that Ideal Automobile has begun to lay out in advance in the silicon carbide industry in order to gain an advantage in future competition. At present, Tesla Model 3 and domestic BYD Han have taken the lead in applying SiC modules in motor controllers.

Silicon carbide has broad application prospects in new energy vehicles. At an industry summit at the end of last year, Chen Dongpo, deputy general manager of Sanan Optoelectronics, said that silicon carbide will be preferentially penetrated in long-range models, and it is expected that 80%-90% and even 100% of long-range vehicles in 2023-2024 will import silicon carbide devices.

According to the research report of Guosheng Securities, the market size of SiC (silicon carbide) power devices for new energy vehicles will reach 1.55 billion US dollars by 2025. And pointed out that the "golden decade" of vehicle SiC is about to begin.

It is worth noting that the cooperation between Ideal Auto and Sanan Semiconductor occurs in the context of the current continuous shortage of automotive chips. Ideal Car has also suffered from chip shortages and took the lead in launching lidar "first delivery, standby" solution last year. With the future chip materials may shift from silicon to silicon carbide, through the establishment of a joint venture with Sanan Semiconductor, Ideal Auto may have more initiative in chip supply. It is reported that with the production of Sanan Semiconductor, it is constantly receiving orders from the leading enterprises and OEMs in the field of automotive chargers.

According to the data, in June last year, the first phase of the Hunan Sanan Semiconductor Base project with a total investment of 16 billion yuan was officially put into operation, which is said to be the first vertically integrated production line of silicon carbide in China and the third in the world. According to the plan, after the Hunan Sanan Semiconductor Base is completed and put into production, it is expected to achieve annual sales of 12 billion yuan.

In addition to the planned joint venture with Sanan Semiconductor, Ideal Automobile has made frequent moves in recent days. On February 16, Chongqing Chezhixuan Technology Co., Ltd. was established, which, like Chehejia, is also wholly owned by Leading Ideal HK Limited, an affiliate of Ideal Automobile, and the business scope of the new company includes software development and technology development.

Prior to the establishment of Chezhixuan, Ideal Automobile also established Chongqing Chezhiyu Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. in December 2021, which is engaged in the manufacture of auto parts and accessories and land consolidation services.

A few days ago, according to the information of the Chongqing Public Resources Transaction Supervision Network, Chezhiyu won the A16-8 plot of the A division of the Water and Soil Group A of the Liangjiang New Area for about 431 million yuan. The use condition of the land is in the industrial category of transportation equipment manufacturing, and the transaction time is January 27, 2022. The industry speculated that this may mean that Ideal Automobile will build a production base in Chongqing, but Ideal Automobile did not comment on this.

Ideal Auto is one of the current top new car manufacturers, with a cumulative delivery of more than 90,000 vehicles in 2021, ranking third among new car manufacturers. In January this year, Ideal Delivery was 12,000 units, up 128.1% year-on-year.

Behind the frequent layout actions, the ideal car has a grand market goal. Ideal Auto CEO Li Xiang clearly proposed last year to achieve 20% of the new energy vehicle market share by 2025, becoming the number one intelligent electric vehicle company in China, and will become the world's first intelligent electric vehicle company in 2030.

According to Li Xiang's prediction that China will sell more than 8 million smart electric vehicles in 2025, the ideal annual sales volume will reach 1.6 million in 2025. Obviously, there is still a very large gap between the ideal current state and the goal.