Nearly 200,000 sets (195,600 vehicles), a year-on-year increase of more than 2 times (222.88%), this is the answer sheet of the air suspension system in the Chinese passenger car market from January to May this year. At the same time, more suppliers are entering this explosively growing market segment.
According to the monitoring data of Gaogong Intelligent Automobile Research Institute, in 2022, the Chinese market (excluding imports and exports) will deliver 280,100 standard air suspensions for passenger cars (most of them are equipped with 4 air springs for single vehicles, and some models are equipped with 2), a year-on-year increase of 142.3%.
From the perspective of price range distribution, the average price of new cars with pre-installed standard air suspension will drop from 575,200 yuan in 2021 to 553,300 yuan in 2022, and some models have dropped to 300,000 yuan.
In terms of suppliers, at present, the main core components of the air suspension system include air springs, air suspension controllers, air supply units, air storage tanks, suspension height sensors, and CDC continuous damping control systems.
Based on the statistics of the vehicle loading data from January to May this year, domestic suppliers have taken the lead in breaking through the air spring track, the air supply unit is still in the monopoly of foreign suppliers, and the control system part has begun to be outsourced for hardware. research trends.
At the same time, considering that the air suspension track is still in the early stage of development, the current supplier structure is not really stable, especially the entry of more suppliers, the subsequent price wars, system integration, product line expansion and other factors are still relatively large. variable.
In May of this year, Ruima Precision (002976) announced that it plans to indirectly acquire and increase the capital of Planid (valued at 1.6 billion yuan) through the issuance of shares and cash payment. The latter's main business is the design of automotive air suspension , research and development, production, sales and service.
The announcement shows that through this transaction, Ruima Precision will enter the field of automotive shock absorbers and expand the main business of listed companies, including rubber air springs, electronic composite shock absorbers and air supply units.
At present, Planid is the only supplier of air suspension systems for Rivian, a new American car maker. In 2021 and 2022, Planid's operating income from Rivian, the largest customer, will be 56.7731 million yuan and 493.9833 million yuan respectively. , which accounted for 56.74% and 92.85% of the current main business income respectively.
According to the plan, after Rima Precision acquires Planid, the two parties will land in China based on Planid’s years of experience in air suspension system integration development, production and assembly, and carry out specific improvement and debugging of the product according to customer needs.
Another listed company, Tuopu Group (601689), also released application documents for issuing stocks to specific targets. Among them, the intelligent driving R&D center project (with a planned investment of 300 million yuan) will mainly develop automotive steering-by-wire systems and air suspension systems. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ningbo Yuxiang Zhixing Technology Co., Ltd.
According to public data, as of November 2022, the company's air suspension system has added 7 official fixed-point projects, including front air spring assembly, rear air spring assembly, integrated air supply unit (air pump, valve body, ECU integrated It is expected to be delivered in batches in Q3 of 2023.
Previously, in November 2021, Tuopu Group's first air suspension system factory was completed. The total investment is about 600 million yuan, and it will be officially put into production in June 2022, mainly for the production and manufacture of air suspension. After the factory is fully put into production, it can achieve an annual output of 2 million air suspensions, which can meet the needs of 500,000 vehicles per year.
At the same time, the number of entrants continues to increase, including entry from the commercial vehicle market and many other new players.
Meichen Ecology (300237), which is engaged in rubber non-tire and landscaping business , disclosed this year that the company has reserved a full range of air suspension structures, and has done sufficient matching design verification, which can effectively improve air suspension products. service life.
At the same time, the air spring, which is the core and key component of the air suspension product, has more than 10 years of experience in air spring technology, and has rich experience in formula design and structural design, which can provide customers with high cost performance and high stability. The product.
At present, Meichen Ecology has the conditions for mass production of air suspension products, and is actively communicating with relevant customers. In addition, commercial vehicle air suspension has completed the research and development reserve of the current mainstream structure, and the company has project cooperation with Jining Commercial Vehicle, Shaanxi Automobile, Foton, and Qingling.
In addition, air suspension also drives financing in related fields of the industrial chain.
In December last year, Shanghai Shijia Technology announced the completion of tens of millions of Pre-A rounds of financing, mainly developing two-in-one products including air spring controllers and shock absorber controllers; integrated eight-in-one suspension One-Box products; And future-proof fully active suspension.
In May of this year, Ningbo Yili Electromagnetic, a manufacturer of solenoid valves for air suspension systems, announced the completion of a round A financing of tens of millions of yuan. The funds will be mainly used for the continuous research and development of solenoid valve products for air suspension systems and the improvement of production capacity. At present, the company has successfully designated a number of models of several domestic mainstream automakers, and will start mass production in 2023.
According to public information, Yili Electromagnetic was established in October 2017, focusing on the R&D, production and sales of solenoid valve products for automotive air suspension systems. The products include gas distribution valves, multi-chamber solenoid valves, CDC solenoid valves, and pressure maintaining valves. And valve pump integration, complete coverage of air suspension system solenoid valve related product line.
And Baolong Technology (603197), which has entered the stage of large-scale delivery, also recently disclosed a plan to issue convertible corporate bonds to unspecified objects . Replenish working capital.
Among them, the intelligent manufacturing project with an annual output of 4.82 million air suspension system components plans to increase the production capacity of air suspension system components through adaptive transformation of existing workshops and new production lines.
The air spring intelligent manufacturing project plans to increase the production capacity of air springs by purchasing land, building new factories and production lines; in addition, increasing the production capacity of automobile vibration reduction system accessories by building new factories and production lines.
AMK, a subsidiary of Zhongding (000887), which has entered the air supply unit market through overseas acquisitions, has obtained orders from many new domestic car manufacturers and traditional independent brand leading enterprises. Up to now, AMK China has received orders with a total output value of 7.314 billion yuan .
At the same time, the company is continuing to promote the implementation of other hardware self-produced projects such as air springs and gas storage tanks. In addition, based on the joint development of binocular stereo vision perception technology, the promotion of the magic carpet suspension business will be accelerated.
In the view of Baolong Technology, under the background of consumption upgrade, the improvement of the driving comfort of the car by the air suspension system has been widely recognized by consumers. More and more OEMs are configuring the air suspension system to enhance product competitiveness and customer satisfaction.
At the same time, as the air suspension system is gradually distributed from high-end passenger cars to models with a price range of 300,000 yuan, in order to reduce costs and reduce dependence on a single supplier, domestic OEMs have begun to split the fixed-point and promote the domestic air suspension supply chain. At the same time, the technological trend of decoupling software and hardware further promotes the formation of the "split procurement" model.
At present, OEMs tend to split the air suspension system into air supply units, air spring shock absorber assemblies, air springs, sensors and other products, which are supplied by different parts suppliers, which provides flexibility in the system and quick response Local air suspension manufacturers with cost advantages and single-point breakthroughs bring opportunities.
At present, the core components of air suspension mainly include air springs, air supply units, shock absorbers, and control system ECUs. The overall cost is around 10,000 to 15,000 yuan; , the cost of each component continues to decline.
In the view of Gaogong Intelligent Automobile Research Institute, as the control-by-wire chassis gradually becomes a new incremental track in the market, it will focus on multiple fields such as brake-by-wire, steering-by-wire, and suspension-by-wire (air suspension is the main form). The demand for upgrades will further promote the coordinated control of the X, Y, and Z directions of the car body and the integration with intelligent driving solutions.
For example, when binocular stereo vision technology is extended to chassis control, a brand new subdivision track is created: magic carpet chassis (based on binocular stereo vision + air suspension), so as to realize the reuse of intelligent driving system and improve vehicle comfort performance.
In terms of car companies, the concept of cloud car technology launched by BYD this year is based on binocular stereo vision technology, integrating damping control, height control, stiffness control, four-wheel linkage and other technologies to achieve fully active control of the chassis.
According to the plan, the cloud car technology will be gradually applied to multiple sub-brands such as BYD Dynasty, Ocean series hot-selling models, Tengshi, Yangwang and other sub-brands. Technology, accurately realize road surface feature recognition, and all-terrain monitoring and other functions.
Among them, Yuan Oak Technology is one of the few suppliers in China that can highly integrate L2+ and magic carpet, which can provide complete safety and comfort functions. At present, the company's "Active Suspension Road Preview System" has already won the pre-installation designation of many first-tier passenger car companies in China, and it is also the first domestic mass production of an active suspension road preview system based on binocular stereo vision. .
At the level of intelligent driving, this solution supports the intelligent adaptive driving of high-level roadblocks such as speed bumps, manhole covers, and pits within the range of 0 to 120km/h, which greatly improves the driving comfort and stability of vehicles on urban roads.
At the same time, the system can also pre-identify the type of road, combined with the air suspension and chassis-related ECU, it can also adaptively adjust parameters such as body height, chassis power, tire grip, etc. Provide smarter solutions for driving comfort and safety under road conditions.
With the accelerated mass production of domestic suppliers in China, increased localization of foreign suppliers, and the bright support of air suspension for new car marketing, it is expected that the annual delivery scale of passenger car air suspension systems in the Chinese market is expected to sprint to 3 million units in 2025.