The importance of integrated circuits (ICs) in modern vehicles has been clear ever since the production disruption caused by shortages in 2021/22. Today, an electric vehicle (EV) could contain up to 3,000 semiconductors—between three- and ten-times more than an equivalent internal combustion engine model. The global automotive IC market, valued at US$54.6bn in 2024, is expected to reach US$120.6bn (+121%) by 2031, according to Verified Market Research.
As EV architectures become increasingly complex, more semiconductors will likely be required. However, some chip companies experienced setbacks in 2024, as new trade policies and dips in consumer EV uptake caused automotive demand for ICs to decelerate. To regain the market, manufacturers have a three-fold task: prove their offerings can save automakers money, improve EV functionality, and build more attractive products.
Focus on efficiency
The majority of industry stakeholders consulted by Automotive World concluded that batteries are the single key technology that could take EVs into the mainstream. As such, optimising this vital component is a logical focus point for IC developers.
A battery management system (BMS) monitors the cells and modules that make up an EV battery. It plays a vital but challenging role: ensuring the safety, reliability, and overall health of the powertrain. A BMS does this by actively optimising performance, estimating a battery’s operational state, and relaying important information to other devices within the vehicle. As battery technology evolves, BMS advancement is needed in tandem.
Naomi Smit, Vice President and General Manager of BMS at NXP, notes that these systems are becoming increasingly complex, yet legacy automakers must balance this with the desire for faster time-to-market and stringent safety requirements. Meanwhile, competition is heating up: “New players in the space are accelerating the development model while still keeping BMS costs low and maintaining vehicle margins.” Therefore, established manufacturers must seek new solutions to keep up with the market.
Instead of a siloed issue, she encourages automakers to consider BMS enhancement from a holistic perspective. The drive for greater efficiency is becoming a call to arms among many EV component suppliers—one that could ultimately help remedy prevalent issues concerning range, production cost, and system reliability. In this wider context, redefining BMS technology through IC innovation could be transformational in terms of EV performance, safety, and desirability.
The value of IC-level integration
In September 2024, NXP introduced the MC33777, which it claims as the first battery junction box IC to combine “sense, think, and act” capabilities on a single device. These enable continuous battery monitoring cycles every eight microseconds, allowing the chip to detect and react to overcurrent scenarios up to ten times faster than previous generations of ICs. Across the life of an EV, NXP’s product can help prevent incidents of melting fuses, which present a danger to drivers on the road and are often highly costly for automakers and Tier 1s.
“The MC33777 represents a shift from passive to active reaction speeds,” says Smit. “The decision to activate a pyro-fuse during a high-voltage event is made instantly.” Pyro-fuses facilitate the shutdown of electrical currents in safety-critical situations, and NXP designed the chip in collaboration with partners who wanted to incorporate them. Prior to creating its own, NXP could not find a pyro-fuse driver on the market. Rather than create a singularly dedicated IC for this purpose, which would be cost inefficient and add system complexity, the company decided to combine it with temperature and voltage sensor functions.
By adopting this approach, the MC33777 combines several monitoring and remediation functions in one, reducing the number of BMS components overall by 80%. Although she cannot quantify cost or time-to-market improvements, as these will inevitably vary according to each automaker’s existing technology, Smit does state they could be significant. “Fewer components means fewer things to consider at the design, test, and validation stages.”
A consolidated chip also means more available space on the printed circuit board. Since many modern EV batteries are “highly congested”, Smit suggests this could increase design flexibility. Furthermore, by running BMS software functions on the MC33777 instead of alongside it, automakers can save R&D costs in a discipline that many are struggling to integrate with their legacy organisational structure.
The future of consolidation
IC-level consolidation is becoming a common theme across the automotive industry—there are parallel discussions also occurring in the software-defined vehicle (SDV) space. At the same time, Smit states that these efforts must still be considered carefully. “There are clear benefits, but it depends on specific functionalities. Significant investment is required from IC players, and product flexibility can be limited in some ways. If something is integrated, customers have less choice when purchasing.”
ICs help expand the field of innovation, but it’s going to take the entire ecosystem working together to take EVs into the mainstream in every market
However, she emphasises that battery safety and communication capabilities will almost certainly benefit from consolidation. Standardising the “logic” of how these operate on an industry level will save costs by mitigating complexity and streamlining vehicle platforms. Notably, these are also areas where EV and SDV development currently intersect: how EV systems are streamlined is part of the ongoing transition from domain to zonal architectures, as automakers must reconcile new features with a limited power supply.
While Smit stops short of calling IC-driven consolidation the silver bullet for growing EV adoption, she notes that the impact potential is compelling. “The main barriers to growing the EV market are range, the availability of charging infrastructure, and cost. IC players are tackling two of those: extracting as much performance from the battery as possible and enabling system cost reductions that also accelerate time-to-market. However, we can’t do it alone. ICs help expand the field of innovation, but it’s going to take the entire ecosystem working together to take EVs into the mainstream in every market.”
