What is drving market for electrical motors in automotive?

WELLINGBOROUGH, UK: Light vehicles are an important market for suppliers of electrical motors. According to a new report from IMS Research, the average vehicle featured over 30 electrical motors in 2008. In the same year, 66 million vehicles were produced.

Overall, the market for electrical motors in automotive applications is forecast to grow at an average rate of around 7 percent over the next seven years (although the market will shrink in 2009 as the downturn will mean lower vehicle production volumes). However, the report finds that demand for electrical motors in some applications will grow much faster than the average rate.

So, which applications will drive growth? According to report author, Jon Cropley: "A range of powertrain applications are becoming more common and this is partly due to stricter standards on emissions and fuel economy. Many of these powertrain applications use electrical motors. Examples include exhaust gas recirculation valves, dual-clutch transmissions, automated manual transmissions and electric power steering systems."

IMS Research forecasts the market for motors in electric power steering systems will grow by an average of over 12 percent a year, over the next seven years.

The trend to hybrid and electric vehicles is also driving growth in demand for motors. Motors are required for vehicle propulsion, for the air conditioning compressor pump and, in hybrids, for engine cooling pumps.

Many convenience and comfort applications that use electrical motors are also becoming more popular, bolstering the growth of sales for electrical motors, particularly those applications using multiple motors. One example is hard-top electric roof systems and these tend to feature around six motors.

Another example is climate control systems which use motors for controlling air mix doors. Furthermore, climate control systems are becoming advanced. Some of them feature automatically moving air outlet grilles. Some high-end vehicles now also feature a separate climate control system in the rear of the vehicle.

Not that the market for motors in every type of automotive application is growing. Demand is stagnant for some; for others, motor suppliers are only able to charge commodity prices. Nevertheless, the report finds that there are opportunities. Suppliers just need to have the right products for the right applications.

Automotive relays to reach around 2.3bn units in 2009

BEIJING, CHINA: Himfr.com, one of China's leading B2B search platforms with more than 30 B2B industry websites to its name, discusses the auto relay market demand.

Relays are a major electronic automotive component, and their application volume in the automobile is inferior only to electronic sensors. Car comfort and safety's continuous improvement will inevitably lead to demand for automotive relays rising.

Relays are an important electronic automotive component; they are widely used to control vehicle starters, pre-heating, air conditioning, lighting, fuel pumps, anti-theft devices, audio, communications, navigation, electric fans, cooling fans, electric windows, airbags, ABS, various instrumentation and the fault diagnosis system.

Their application in the automotive industry is second only to automotive electronic sensors. As people increase their requirements for car comfort in recent years, the usage for automotive relays has shown a rapid upward trend.

In recent years, as automotive electronics, electrical products and automotive relays have also been developing by leaps and bounds, the world's automobile production and sales of relays have seen an upward trend.

It is expected that over the next few years, automotive electronics will continue to enhance their level and the automotive industry's demand for automotive electronic and electrical appliances will also be increasing.

Automotive relays can be roughly divided into two categories: automotive relays and plug-in PCBs (printed circuit board). The plug-in vehicle assembly in the central control box with wiring harness is easy to install and replace. PCB relays do more for automotive electronics modules. Compared to plug-ins, it is smaller and has a lower cost. Market demand for automotive products, relays and developing miniaturization grows.

Himfr.com's analyst forecasts that the global demand for automotive relays in 2009 will reach around 2.3 billion units with the PCB automotive relay carrying about 55% of the share. As people gradually improve requirements for car comfort, the proportion will continue to increase.

At the same time, automotive consumers will demand more safety, comfort, entertainment and other ever-increasing requirements that car designers will have to improve or redesign through the existing automotive electronics and electronic circuit modules, creating new performance requirements for PCB relays.