Passenger Car Intelligent Steering Industry Report, 2023

Passenger Car Intelligent Steering Industry Report, 2023 combs through and studies the status quo of passenger car intelligent steering and the product layout of OEMs, suppliers, and supply chains, and predicts the future development trends of passenger car intelligent steering.

1. The penetration rate of electric power steering (EPS) in the passenger car market almost hits the peak, and the iteration and upgrading of products reflect the current development direction.

From 2020 to 2023, the penetration of EPS in the Chinese passenger car market remained at a high level. In the next stage, EPS will head in the direction of high performance.

By the installation position of booster motor, EPS can be divided into four types: column EPS (C-EPS), pinion EPS (P-EPS), rack EPS (R-EPS) and dual pinion EPS (DP-EPS). In terms of transmission efficiency from high to low, the ranking is R-EPS/DP-EPS > P-EPS > C-EPS. As mid-to-high-end smart electric vehicles boom, the steering system is being upgraded from C-EPS to R-EPS and DP-EPS. The content-per-car value of the latter two is higher than that of C-EPS, and the iteration of the EPS product structure brings value increment.

2. In the process of upgrading from EPS to SBW (steer-by-wire), redundant EPS and rear wheel steering become the transitional form.

L3 driving assistance requires EPS to still have a certain power-assisting capability in the event of a single point failure. Under this requirement, redundant EPS becomes the key component of L3+ intelligent driving systems.

At present, OEMs and suppliers have made related product layout:

Bosch HASCO's HE3r B3, which was rolled out in April 2023, adopts a 50%+50% redundancy solution. The two control loops have independent power supplies and communication modules and work together. If a functional failure occurs on either of them, 50% of the steering force can cover most working conditions and ensure constant driving.

T-RES, a redundant electronically controlled steering system of Trinova, integrates dual winding motors, dual drive circuits, dual sensors and dual power management systems to meet the redundancy requirements of L3 autonomous driving.

The fully redundant DP-EPS of NASN has the maximum rack force of 13.5KN, suitable for medium SUVs, large SUVs, MPVs, pickup trucks and other pan-passenger vehicles. The whole series uses 6-phase dual winding motors to satisfy the requirements of ADAS and L3+ autonomous driving.

HYCET under Great Wall Motor is about to mass-produce dual redundant EPS with the maximum thrust of 14kN to enable L3+ autonomous driving.

Redundant EPS will become a core technology in L3+ intelligent driving scenarios before mass production and application of steer-by-wire.

Rear wheel steering, as a supplement to front wheel steering, was originally used in large luxury cars and SUVs, such as BMW 5/7 Series and Audi Q7/8. On the one hand, rear wheel steering technology based on electrical operation is easier to implement on an all-electric platform. On the other hand, electric vehicles on an all-electric platform generally have a long wheelbase (the battery must be placed between the front and rear axles) which increases the turning radius, while rear wheel steering technology offers much higher flexibility. In recent years, as electrification has become widespread rapidly, rear wheel steering has landed on more models such as Xpeng X9, AITO M9 and IM L7.

3. Suppliers and OEMs quicken their pace of deploying steer-by-wire, with more production models.

OEMs:

• Toyota and Tesla have submitted patent applications for steer-by-wire technology.
• Great Wall Motor and Changan adopt their self-developed steer-by-wire products to deploy steer-by-wire.
• bGeely and Hella have jointly developed a steer-by-wire (SBW) system which is production-ready.
• NIO and ZF cooperate on steer-by-wire products.

Suppliers:

• Nexteer Automotive has secured steer-by-wire system orders from two OEMs.
• Bethel Automotive Safety Systems, together with Chery's subsidiary Ruizhi Lianneng, acquired Wanda Auto for a layout shift to steer-by-wire R&D.
• JTEKT’s steer-by-wire system was available to Toyota bZ4X in 2022 and will land on Lexus RZ in 2024.

At present, many OEMs and suppliers make many deployments in steer-by-wire, but with a low product penetration. Nexteer Automotive forecasts that it is difficult for steer-by-wire to gain pace in the next 2 or 3 years.

The policy environment has become more relaxed in recent years. The development of steer-by-wire is driven by the demand for intelligent chassis and stimulated by policies. From the implementation of the new national automotive steering standard to the release of Steer-by-wire Technology Roadmap, steer-by-wire has been production-ready in terms of policies.

On January 1, 2022, the new national automotive steering standard was officially implemented, deleting the 20-year-old requirement that full-power steering mechanisms should not be installed (steer-by-wire is full-power steering);

In April, 2022, the exposure draft of the Steer-by-wire Technology Roadmap was officially released. The overall goal is to realize the world’s leading steer-by-wire for L3+ and L4+ autonomous driving in 2025 and 2030, with the penetration of steer-by-wire up to 5% and 30% and the autonomy rate of core components (controller, motor, etc.) higher than 20% and 50%, respectively.

In June 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four ministries further proposed that 'the automotive industry should focus on steer-by-wire'.


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