The car of tomorrow will be a computer on wheels: autonomous driving, greater connectivity and an electric powertrain will accelerate this development. As a result, the importance of electronic components and software in vehicles is steadily increasing – with drastic changes for the entire industry. This is the key finding of Roland Berger’s study “Computer on Wheels / Disruption in Automotive Electronics and Semiconductors.”
“The triumphant advance of the software-driven car is leading to dramatic changes along the entire value chain,” says Falk Meissner, Partner at Roland Berger and co-author of the study. “All players in the industry are affected: while OEMs, for example, will have to spend considerable resources on module integration in the future, semiconductor manufacturers are increasingly becoming software providers as well.”
Costs for electronic components increase dramatically
The experts at Roland Berger assume that the cost share of electronic components in relation to all components will grow from currently around 16 percent to around 35 percent by 2025. The financial outlay for electronic modules in a typical premium car is currently US$3,145. In the case of the “computer on wheels” – a semi-autonomous, electrified car – the cost per vehicle will already be US$7,030 by 2025.
About a quarter (US$725) of the costs can generally be attributed to digitalization. However, more than half of the increase (US$2,235) is due to powertrain electrification. This makes electromobility the central cost driver. In autonomous driving, the additional funds required for automotive electronics (US$925) are largely accounted for by computing power and sensor technology. “Autonomous driving requires not only a shift from human decision-making to artificial intelligence, from memory to map and from the senses to sensors, but also investment in the technologies required for this,” says Meissner. About half of the cost increase must be spent on cameras, LIDAR, radar and ultrasound sensors. The rest goes to the AI-controlled central processing unit that receives and analyzes all sensor data and determines the vehicle’s actions.
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SOURCE: Roland Berger
