Frost & Sullivan releases the 'Charging Pile Power Device Driver Industry Report'

A charging pile refers to a supplementary energy facility that provides electric power supply for electric vehicles through charging methods. Charging piles ensure power supply for various models of electric vehicles according to different voltage levels and charging methods, and belong to a new type of urban infrastructure.The accelerated construction of charging piles is of great significance for effectively extending the driving range of electric vehicles and promoting their popularization and development. It is one of the key investment and financing areas that the country pays close attention to.

Electric vehicles use removable external DC power sources such as dry batteries, lithium batteries, and storage batteries to provide energy for their own operation. When the DC power source discharges, lithium atoms in the negative electrode decompose into lithium ions and electrons. The electrons travel along the external circuit to reach the positive electrode, while the lithium ions pass through the separator to reach it. Lithium ions form lithium atoms when they meet electrons at the anode. Conversely, during charging, the direction of movement of lithium ions is different; lithium atoms on the positive electrode decompose into lithium ions and electrons, which then travel through the external circuit to reach the negative electrode, with the lithium ions passing through the separator to reach it. At the negative electrode, lithium ions meet electrons and turn into lithium atoms. Therefore, the charging process of electric vehicles is essentially a chemical reaction where the active material in the power battery (DC power source) undergoes a chemical change due to the input of current, reducing the electrolyte and ultimately achieving charging replenishment.

From an electrochemical perspective, electric current is divided into direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC). AC current has a wide range of applications in fields such as household life and industrial production. The wall-mounted electrical appliances in daily life use commercial AC power supply. Generally, the domestic voltage for AC current is 220 volts, while the general industrial voltage is 380 volts. It is worth noting that since the magnitude and direction of AC current change periodically, using AC current to directly charge DC power supply equipment is equivalent to causing the power supply equipment to recharge and discharge at high frequencies repeatedly. In this state, the power supply equipment will quickly heat up and burn out, so AC current cannot be used directly for energy replenishment of power supply equipment. On the contrary, the direction of DC current does not change over time. Therefore, DC current can directly charge portable external DC power supply devices such as dry batteries, lithium batteries, and storage batteries.It can be seen that when electric vehicles are charging for energy replenishment, whether it is a DC charger or an AC charger, the lithium battery can only be charged using direct current.

Globally, the United States, Europe, and China are the main demand regions for charging piles in the world. Charging piles are an important part of the supporting industries for the new energy vehicle industry. The charging pile industry generally develops synchronously with the new energy vehicle industry but is also relatively lagging behind. In terms of development types, the leading direction of the charging pile industry shows a trend of first alternating current and then direct current.At the current stage, the construction and implementation of large-scale, distributed new infrastructure charging stations have become one of the important factors driving the further expansion of the new energy vehicle industry.

From the perspective of Europe and America, the construction of public charging stations in the United States is relatively lagging behind, with a high ratio of vehicles to charging stations. According to statistics from the US Department of Energy, in 2022, there were approximately 131,000 public charging stations and 3.3 million new energy vehicles in the United States. Over the past 11 years, the public vehicle-to-charging station ratio has risen from 5.1 to 25.1. Currently, AC slow charging remains the mainstream in North American charging stations. As the sales of new energy vehicles further increase, the contradiction between vehicles and charging stations in the United States may intensify further. Similar to the United States, most charging stations in Europe are still private facilities, with relatively lagging construction of public charging stations and a low proportion of fast charging stations.

From the perspective of China, it is the largest market for new energy vehicles globally and has a dense population. Currently, the vast majority of charging stations in the world are located in China, and the majority of the charging station industry is also concentrated there.The development of China's charging pile industry has gone through three stages:

(1) The cultivation period from 2006 to before 2015,Private enterprises such as BYD have begun to try building charging stations. However, at that time, the number of electric vehicles in use was still low, and the market demand for charging stations was small. The investment and construction of large public charging stations were mainly led by state-owned enterprises such as the State Grid and China Southern Power Grid, and most were used for public transportation, resulting in a relatively small overall market scale for charging stations.

(2) The outbreak period from 2015 to 2019,Around 2015, with the introduction of the 'Guidelines for the Development of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (2015-2020)', large state-owned enterprises such as the State Grid took the lead in introducing social capital to participate in the construction of electric vehicle charging and swapping stations. At the same time, local governments introduced subsidy policies to implement these guidelines. Under the incentive of subsidies, many private enterprises have entered the market, actively investing in the construction of charging piles.

(3) The critical development period from 2020 to the present,As charging piles are included in the 'new infrastructure', driven by the sales of new energy vehicles, the revenue sources of charging pile companies have gradually shifted from policy subsidies to operational profitability. DC charging piles, due to their strong profitability and high investment returns, have seen a significant increase in proportion.

Charging piles belong to the new energy vehicle charging and swapping equipment industry and are an important part of the supporting industries for the new energy vehicle sector. The upstream of the new energy vehicle charging and swapping equipment industry chain includes equipment components and parts, mainly comprising charging modules (including power devices, magnetic materials, capacitors), relays, contactors, monitoring and metering equipment, charging cables, main controllers, communication modules, and other parts. Market participants mainly include enterprises such as Huawei, ZTE, Inovance, Shenghong Co., Ltd., Tonghe Technology, Shenzhen Yingfeiyuan Technology Co., Ltd., and Shenzhen Yonglian Technology Co., Ltd.

Among them, the charging module is mainly applied to DC charging equipment and is a core component of DC charging devices. Power devices are key components of the charging module, serving to use the driving chip to manage a series of operations such as rectification, voltage stabilization, switching, and frequency conversion, helping the current flow safely from the charging pile end to the battery end.

The midstream of the new energy vehicle charging and swapping equipment industry chain mainly consists of charging piles, including AC charging piles, DC charging piles, and wireless charging piles. Among them, the pain point technology of DC charging piles has been continuously broken through in recent years. New technologies emerge in an endless stream, with a sharp increase in shipments and a continuous rise in investment enthusiasm. The downstream is dominated by charging station operators, with some charging pile component manufacturers and charging pile equipment manufacturers also participating in downstream operations.In summary, the current industrial value of charging piles mainly lies in upstream areas such as power devices, semiconductor ICs, and charging modules.

In terms of application scenarios, charging piles can generally be divided into: public piles, such as those found in public buildings, commercial complexes, shopping malls, and public parking lots; dedicated piles, such as brand-specific charging stations and large-scale electric vehicle charging stations; and private piles, such as parking lots in residential communities and private gardens. Different application scenarios usually correspond to the type of charging pile that suits their technical characteristics.

On March 16th, the China Consumers Association released the 'Investigation Report on New Energy Electric Vehicle Consumption and Public Charging Station Usage' (hereinafter referred to as the 'Report'). This survey collected questionnaires through both online and on-site methods, totaling 13,425 valid responses, covering a wide range of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government.The report shows that consumers have a significantly higher demand for fast charging than slow charging.

As a supporting industry for the new energy vehicle industry, the charging pile industry will directly benefit from the development of the new energy vehicle sector.A complete charging pile mainly includes a charging system, monitoring system, metering and billing system, etc. Its input end is directly connected to the AC power grid, and its output end is equipped with charging plugs for charging new energy vehicles. With the rapid development of new energy vehicles, charging equipment, as an important part of the infrastructure construction for new energy vehicles, has received increasing attention from many countries and regions including the Chinese mainland. The market scale is expected to achieve rapid growth.

Overall, the unit price of DC charging piles accounts for a significant proportion of the total charging pile market value. Therefore, the incremental value of the charging pile market scale is mainly reflected in the increase in high-power DC charging piles. According to Frost & Sullivan data, the market size of China's charging pile market is expected to reach 311.4 billion yuan in 2027, with an average annual compound growth rate of 46.44% from 2023 to 2027; among them, the market size of the DC charging pile market will reach 262.9 billion yuan in 2027, with an average annual compound growth rate of 47.1% from 2023 to 2027.

The charger power device driver, also known as the charger power device driving chip, refers to the chip used to drive power devices such as MOSFETs, IGBTs, SiC, and GaN in charging modules. The driving chip can control the logic signals of the chip (MCU), including amplifying voltage amplitude and enhancing current output capabilities, to achieve rapid on and off of power devices. Charger driving chips have very strict requirements for electrical isolation, high voltage resistance, high integration, and reliability.

In the field of charging piles, the power device driver mainly adopts isolated gate drive chips. In the usage scenario of charging piles, the gate driver can receive logic level control signals generated during system control processes and provide the driving signals required to drive the power switch gates. It also works with an isolation system to achieve isolation, separating the high voltage signal on the live side of the system from users and sensitive low voltage circuits on the safe side, ensuring safety in human activity scenarios.

Based on the current demand for driver modules in charging pile stations, isolated drive solutions generally use non-isolated drives paired with pulse transformers. As shown in the diagram, the MD18624 driver mass-produced by Maorui Chip is used as a non-isolated drive at both the front-end Vienna PFC stage and the rear-end LLC stage of new energy vehicle DC charging pile station modules. At the same time, it is equipped with a pulse transformer at the rear-end LLC stage to achieve isolated drive.

As charging piles develop towards high current and high-voltage overcharging, the technical requirements for the development of intelligent isolation gate driver chips also rise. Only a few domestic semiconductor companies, such as Maorui Chip, are capable of mass-producing dual-channel parallel gate driver chips with strong reliability, ultra-high voltage resistance, excellent performance, and high integration.

As one of the raw materials in the charging pile industry, the development of power device drivers for charging piles is positively correlated with the development of the DC charging pile industry.Taking a charging module with a power of 20 kW as an example, it generally requires the deployment of 6 - 10 charger power device drivers.With the rapid development of new energy vehicles and the widespread promotion of DC charging piles, the market for power device drivers, as a key component of charging modules for these piles, is expected to experience rapid growth.According to Frost & Sullivan's estimates, the market for power device drivers in China is expected to reach a scale of RMB 574 million in 2027, with an average annual compound growth rate of 55.0% from 2023 to 2027.

China's chip industry started later than developed countries, and some high-end industrial chips still need to be imported to meet demand. According to Frost & Sullivan data, the market scale of China's analog chip market accounts for more than 50% of the global market scale. The market capacity is huge, but it mainly comes from foreign giants such as Texas Instruments, Synopsys, and STMicroelectronics. The self-sufficiency rate of domestic chips urgently needs to be improved. With the escalation of international trade frictions, the domestic market has generated more demand for domestic chips, accelerating the pace at which domestic customers introduce local analog chip manufacturers.

In addition, to address the 'bottleneck' problem caused by international trade frictions, domestic policies have continued to be strengthened. For example, the 'Notice of the State Council on Printing and Distributing Several Policies to Promote the High-quality Development of the Integrated Circuit Industry and Software Industry in the New Era' issued in 2020 has further promoted industry prosperity and accelerated the process of domestic substitution. In summary, the domestic rise of power device drivers for charging piles has become an inevitable trend.

Currently, the domestic new energy vehicle market has significant growth potential. According to data from the Ministry of Public Security, the number of new energy vehicles in Mainland China increased from 2.61 million at the end of 2018 to 13.1 million by the end of 2022, with an average annual compound growth rate of 49.7%. Frost & Sullivan predicts that by 2027, the number of new energy vehicles in Mainland China will reach 73.95 million. In terms of public DC charging piles, with the increasing demand for fast charging of new energy vehicles and the development of charging equipment technology, it is expected that by 2027, the number of public DC charging piles in Mainland China will reach 6.656 million. The high power of DC charging piles is achieved through stack charging modules, hence there is a positive correlation between charging power and the number of charging modules. The minimum safety design requirement for charging modules specifies the use of six charger power devices as drivers.

In summary, the continuous expansion of the domestic new energy vehicle market scale will drive the development of charging piles, especially the development of ultra-fast charging DC charging piles. As the shipment volume of charging modules surges along with the proliferation of ultra-fast charging piles, it has become an inevitable trend for the shipment volume of power device drivers for charging piles to continue growing.

In order to seek greater market capacity and profit margins in the industrial sector, build competitive barriers for sustainable operations, and simulate this, leading chip manufacturers are trying to launch more high-end, integrated, and diversified products.

The supercharging of charging piles has increased the demand for the number of isolated drive chips and the requirements for isolation technology. The increase in charging power density has led to an increase in charging operating voltage, which also results in higher operating temperatures. This requires drive chips to have high voltage resistance characteristics and meet automotive-grade temperature requirements. In addition, the simplification of internal design in charging modules requires digital isolation chips to have high integration levels. Isolation chips that integrate interfaces, drives, sampling, and other functions have more application advantages. In summary, the demand for high integration, high temperature resistance, and ultra-high voltage resistance in the drivers of charging pile power devices has become an established trend.