Automotive connectors are distributed in the corners of the car, affecting the structure of the vehicle, handling performance and other aspects. For the car, the seemingly inconspicuous connectors are nerves, transmitting signals to the end effector, blood vessels, connecting all the components in the car, and joints, which play a key role in each connection node.
There is such a company, since taking root in China, insisting on the "micro" place, using a small connector, connecting the huge automobile industry, and with its own development, leveraging the entire Chinese market. On April 2, a reporter from China Automotive News met with Sun Xiaoguang, vice president and general manager of TE Connectivity's automotive division in China, in Shanghai. As the leader of TE Automotive in China, Sun Xiaoguang himself is very humorous and talkative, and in the hour-long exchange, he introduced several important stages of development since TE entered China, and the breakthrough creation brought by TE Automotive under the guidance of social values.
01
Enter: Rooted in the five localizations
There are many types of connectors and large quantities, and seemingly simple parts play a very important role in the car. TE is a global technology company specializing in connectivity solutions, and a global advocate that entered the Chinese market as early as 1988 and has been developing in China for more than 35 years. As a world-renowned connector supplier, TE has participated in almost all important processes of the development of China's automotive industry and plays an important role in promoting it.
"We should be the foreign-funded enterprises that are most like private enterprises," Mr. Sun joked. TE's automotive division in China can be divided into three stages of development, TE began to set up the automotive division in 1993, at this time mainly using the CKD assembly model, that is, production abroad, and then import to China for assembly, China is only used as a sales place. By 2006, China entered the 2.0 era, and China began to become an important "localized" market for TE, successively building local factories and providing local production and process services.
From 2018 to 2020, TE's development stage in China entered the 3.0 era, and local self-research capabilities gradually emerged. With the outbreak of the new energy market, China's automobile industry has played an unprecedented role in promoting the global automobile industry, and the demand for electrification, intelligence and networking of parts and components has also reached an unprecedented height, and the market pattern centered on Chinese demand is being reshaped. "From CKD to local self-development, TE is not only a strategic change in the Chinese market, but also a microcosm of the development of China's automotive industry. In the past, it was produced abroad and sold domestically, but now it is the domestic self-developed products that are sold abroad, or even produced abroad. In the process of constant change, TE Automotive has also gradually deepened its local process. "Localization is a very important thing for TE Automotive Division. Since more than ten years ago, we have been fully localized, and now we have formed a mature concept of 'five localizations', namely localized team, localized decision-making, localized production, localized R&D and localized supply chain. ”
In fact, the all-round localization strategy also brings a strong guarantee for TE Automotive to resist the global crisis. In the past few years, the epidemic and trade frictions have had a certain impact on the security of the supply chain, and TE Automotive Division has effectively avoided the impact in the process of localization. For example, Sun Xiaoguang pointed out that in addition to manufacturing, TE Automotive has developed new upstream raw material suppliers locally to replace overseas materials, created a local supply chain, and achieved deeper localization.
At present, the localization rate of TE Automotive Division has exceeded 90%, and the successful localization has also prompted TE Automotive Division to continue to inject large-scale investment in China.
02
Development: Industrial road pioneer
"At a time when the world was underestimating China's development, TE saw the huge potential of the Chinese market, and in 2009 did a very famous thing 'GO China,' which means that we will open our arms to welcome factories from all over the world who are willing to exchange with China." At that time, TE's global CEO made it clear that the Chinese market is the fastest growing market in the future, and we called on more multinational companies to come to China to create value. Sun Xiaoguang is still pleased to mention TE's journey into China.
With this global mindset, TE Automotive has developed a blend of diverse cultures and values. Around 2014, the TE division proposed to thoroughly promote localization, not only to localize production, but also to localize the team and management. Behind this concept is trust and empowerment in the corporate culture, which can be said to be the core of TE's localization. Today, TE's automotive division is almost entirely made up of local talent, and unlike other foreign companies that have many overseas managers, TE is, as Sun Xiaoguang said, "the most home-like foreign company".
In addition to being a practitioner committed to localization, TE is also an industry pioneer from scratch. It is understood that before 2006, the design and manufacturing system of the domestic connector industry were rarely artificial, and basically pursued the "take-it-ism", but TE changed this situation. In the early days, China's connectors lacked standard automotive connector design, manufacturing, management system and corresponding talents, while TE's continuous investment in local R&D and incubation and training of local talents injected new vitality and opportunities into the vigorous development of China's automotive connector industry. Especially in recent years, under the wave of new energy, the connector market has grown steadily. According to Bishop & Associates data, China's connector market has grown from US$12.8 billion in 2012 to US$25 billion in 2021, with an average annual compound growth rate of 5.63% and 7.71% in China, which is higher than the growth rate of the global market.
Electrification has doubled the growth of connector circuits. According to Sun, at least 2,000 more circuits have been added to each electric vehicle, which brings huge market opportunities not only to TE Automotive Division, but also to the entire market.
It is undeniable that the development of the new energy vehicle industry is not only an opportunity for car companies to overtake in corners, but also an opportunity for overtaking in the system industry and parts industry, but the upgrading of vehicle architecture and high-voltage platform put forward new requirements for connectors. According to reports, TE Automotive Division began to lay out new energy business at the beginning of the development of the new energy vehicle industry in 2008, and took into account the demand for high-voltage platforms in the development in 2009.
"It is easy to develop regardless of the cost, but we want to face the entire automotive industry, and everyone needs to be able to afford and use it for value, so how to improve production efficiency and reduce product costs was an important problem faced by TE at that time. Sun Xiaoguang shared a small story. Today, TE's star product, the Quarry Rock series, has experienced "life and death difficulties" when it was first developed. Because of the high cost and low efficiency, the high-voltage connector did not have much market after it was first developed, but TE was determined to restructure and optimize this product. At that time, the situation of being attacked from many sides and embattled but having to continue to move forward reminded Sun Xiaoguang of the battle in 1161 AD. Yu Yunwen, a minister of the Southern Song Dynasty, led the army and civilians in a river defense battle to stop the Jin army from crossing the river and advancing south in Caishi (southwest of present-day Ma'anshan City, Anhui Province). In the end, the Song army won a complete victory, so that the Jin army could not cross the Yangtze River from Quarry Rock to the south as expected. A similar circumstance made Sun Xiaoguang feel a sense of mission, and the project was named "Quarry Rock" by him. Of course, the ending is also like history, Sun Xiaoguang led the team to gnaw this hard bone, improve the process and redevelop the Quarry Rock series, which has been well received, and is now widely popular in the global market and has become a well-deserved trump card product of TE. At the same time, TE Automotive Division also ushered in a historic turning point and successfully turned over, and since then, TE Automotive Division has always maintained a leading position in the industry in the road of continuous innovation.
03
Value: Walk the road to benefit the world
Opportunities and challenges coexist, and changes and new situations coexist. With the improvement of technology, TE Automotive realized that the product entered a new stage of integration and optimization. "On the one hand, we need to do addition, so that the product can add functions and performance, on the other hand, we must also do subtraction, reduce weight, reduce costs, reduce carbon emissions, and create more value for users through continuous optimization," Sun Xiaoguang said, "We have noticed that due to the increase in wiring harnesses and terminals, the amount of copper used in the vehicle has increased significantly, which not only increases the weight of the vehicle, but also is not conducive to reducing carbon emissions." Therefore, providing users with lightweight connection solutions has become the next direction that TE is aiming for. ”
On March 16, at the 2024 International Connectivity Technology Conference, TE Automotive officially released an epoch-making lightweight solution for automotive connection systems - 0.19mm win-win composite cable, which is expected to reduce copper by about 5kg for a single vehicle wiring harness on the existing basis, and promote the automotive industry to further achieve technological change in the direction of sustainable development such as weight reduction and carbon reduction.
The name "win-win" was also chosen by Sun Xiaoguang, but this time it is not from allusions, but points to the future. Sun Xiaoguang told reporters that although the current car companies are "flying", he said that he does not want the connector industry to be like this. Market pressure has been transmitted to all terminals, and the entire industry is facing the same problem, there is no way out, and working together for a win-win situation is the long-term solution. According to Sun Xiaoguang, as a fully self-developed product, TE Automotive Division has opened the independent innovation of 0.19mm composite wire technology to enterprises in multiple industries for free, aiming to break the "wall" between products and products, so that everyone can share products and share value.
"China is the world's largest copper user, with 77% of copper imported, with a total volume of about 10,000 tonnes, which is a huge market gap. Among them, the automotive industry uses 10% of the total, close to 1 million tons. In the past, 0.35mm copper wire was mainly used in the car, but if 0.19mm is used instead, the amount of copper used per wire will be reduced by nearly 50%, and the preliminary estimate is that the industry will be able to save 150,000 tons of copper a year, and for OEMs, it can save 20% of the cost," Sun Xiaoguang said bluntly, "Weight reduction is money reduction, but also carbon reduction!"
Why is this design that is good for itself, good for car companies, and good for the entire industry, but TE does not "enjoy it alone", but spreads out the circle of friends? In this regard, Sun Xiaoguang said sincerely: "We believe that enterprises must have social responsibility, not only consider themselves. If we do this by ourselves, it may be a drop in the bucket, but only when we do it together can we have greater significance for the entire automotive industry. We also hope to call on more companies to shoulder their social responsibilities and jointly promote the automotive industry to enter sustainable and healthy competition. ”
Text: Zhang Yahui Editor/Layout: Wang Kun
Add a chicken leg to the editor!