Entering 2023, the AR HUD market has experienced explosive growth, and a number of local HUD manufacturers have begun to attract the attention of the capital market.
Recently, Shenzhen Qianhai Zhiyun Valley Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhiyun Valley") completed tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing. This round of financing was invested by investors such as Fresh Capital. Zhiyun Valley stated that the funds raised in this round will be used to expand investment in new technology research and development, expand smart factory production, and accelerate product delivery, thereby significantly increasing Zhiyun Valley's competitiveness and share in the AR HUD market.
Zhiyun Valley is one of the earliest companies in China to enter the HUD industry. It has successfully provided AR HUD (augmented reality head-up display) and media-free suspension imaging voice elf products to many domestic and foreign OEMs.
Currently, the automobile industry has entered the second half of the competition with "intelligent networking" as the main theme. As a key link in cockpit intelligence and experience upgrade, W/AR HUD has become one of the core selling points of intelligent connected cars and is expected to become a standard feature of passenger cars in the future.
Relevant data from the Gaogong Intelligent Automotive Research Institute shows that from January to June 2023, 904,900 units of standard passenger car front-end W/AR HUD were delivered to the Chinese market (excluding import and export), a year-on-year increase of 50.62%. Among them, 57,300 units of AR HUD pre-installed standard equipment were delivered, a year-on-year increase of 43.61%.
As of the end of June this year, more than 55 brands in the Chinese passenger car market have provided W/AR HUD as standard or optional equipment. Among them, more and more brand models such as Li Auto's various models and Changan Deep Blue S7 have begun to be equipped with W/AR HUD as standard.
AR HUD mass-produced by Zhiyun Valley (picture from Lantu official website)
However, if AR HUD needs to be withdrawn from high-priced vehicles and penetrated into low-priced models, and eventually become a "standard" feature of smart cars, it will also face many challenges such as cost and performance.
Zhiyun Valley leverages its accumulation in HUD display technology and innovative structure and optical path design to not only significantly reduce the overall size of the AR HUD, allowing it to be easily integrated into most vehicles, but also significantly improves the performance of low-cost TFT The brightness and heat resistance of the solution successfully solve the TFT sunlight backflow problem that plagues the entire HUD industry through patented technology.
Shi Qiang, CEO of Zhiyun Valley, said that Zhiyun Valley’s AR HUD products adopt a modular design solution, which can significantly shorten the development cycle and reduce costs of OEMs, thereby quickly promoting the implementation of differentiated mass production of AR HUD.
It is precisely because of its excellent product quality and highly competitive prices that in December 2022, Zhiyungu exclusively supplied AR HUD to Lantu light-chasing models and successfully mass-produced it, becoming the first domestically-produced AR HUD to be mass-produced. one of the suppliers. It is worth mentioning that unlike other models that are “optional” with AR HUD, all Lantu Light Chaser models are equipped with AR HUD as standard, which is the first time that a Chinese automobile manufacturer has equipped AR HUD as a trademark.
Shi Qiang introduced that in the second half of 2023, Zhiyun Valley’s AR HUD for a high-end new energy brand SUV model will also be mass-produced, and it will also be standard equipment for all series. In addition, Zhiyun Valley has also won the AR HUD project designation of a leading new car company. The designated model is its best-selling main model, which will be mass-produced in the second half of 2024.
In order to meet the delivery tasks of multiple existing customers and the explosive demand for AR HUD from car companies, the second phase of the Zhiyun Valley Smart Factory expansion project will be put into production in the second half of this year.
Obviously, Zhiyun Valley’s “low-cost + small size” AR HUD product solution has now entered the “fast lane” for large-scale mass production.