Electromechanical braking: the next battleground
"The drive-by-wire chassis is a market of 100 billion yuan, and independent parts suppliers are expected to usher in a historical opportunity period. In terms of key product selection, the electronic mechanical brake (EMB) system may become an important entry point for new market participants." Huang He, partner of Northern Light Venture Capital, said that EMB plays an important role in automotive technology innovation. Since the beginning of this year, from the brewing of regulatory standards, to the acquisition of project sites, to the construction of production lines, the EMB field has been reported frequently, and it seems to have entered the countdown to mass production, and a new "track" is just around the corner.
Standard promotion and mass production preparation are synchronized
"EMB is a leading technology in the world. It is a product of the automotive supply chain that China may be in the first echelon in terms of cost, scale, and landing speed. It is very "friendly" to startups. From 2025 to 2026, EMB faces a very good market explosion opportunity." He Yuhua, founding partner of Hegao Capital, believes.
Since the beginning of this year, domestic and foreign standard work related to EMB has continued to advance. At the beginning of the year, the "EMB Passenger Car Standard Kick-off Meeting" led by the Automobile Braking System Professional Committee of the Standards and Regulations Working Committee of the China Automobile Association discussed the two standards of "Performance Requirements and Bench Test Methods for Passenger Car Electronic Mechanical Brake Caliper Assemblies" and "Durability Performance Requirements and Bench Test Methods for Passenger Car Electronic Mechanical Brake Caliper Assemblies", and planned to be released within the year.
On April 8, China Automotive Research Institute China Automotive Standardization Research Institute also organized an industry communication meeting on wire control brake standards and has begun drafting relevant standards. The European ECE R13/R13H revised standard on EMB has completed the draft version and will be submitted for review this year and officially released in 2025. The gradual clarity of the standards means that EMB is on the "eve" of mass production.
At the same time, EMB suppliers are waiting for opportunities. On April 9, Jingxi Group and ThyssenKrupp signed a cooperation agreement to accelerate the joint development of EMB. It is reported that the two parties will ensure efficient mass production and full delivery of EMB-an advanced automated production line will be built in 2025, and mass production and delivery will begin in 2026.
At the end of March, Coordinate System Intelligence, which is positioned as Tier 0.5 (Tier 0.5 supplier of components) for wire-controlled chassis, held the "EMB Achievement Release and Factory Delivery Ceremony". The company invested in and built the world's first mass-produced pure electromechanical brake EMB intelligent factory in Suzhou Industrial Park, and introduced the world's first fully automatic assembly production line for EMB systems. According to the information, Coordinate System Intelligence has carried out strategic cooperation on mass production projects with Dongfeng Fengxing and Dongfeng Lantu, and the first generation of wire-controlled brake system EMB will be officially mass-produced by the end of 2025.
Starting from the first generation of EMB prototypes in 2021, Jiongyi Electronics has spent 3 years on multiple rounds of product iterations. According to the plan, the company will be able to complete the functional safety certification of EMB by the beginning of 2025, and prepare for the large-scale mass production of products. It is also understood that Huashen Ruili, which also focuses on EMB, has completed the design and sampling of multiple products in the entire series of passenger cars, with a part mold opening rate of more than 80%, and completed EMB performance testing, durability testing and sample loading.
In addition, the control strategy of EMB is similar to that of electronic hydraulic brake (EHB), so independent suppliers with experience in mass production of EHB also have certain advantages in this regard. Companies such as Nasen Technology, Tongyu Technology, Gelubo, and Qiangu Technology are actively reserving EMB-related technologies.
At present, compared with independent EMB, the research and development of integrated (four-wheel) EMB is more difficult and is still in the initial stage of development. International parts suppliers such as ZF are accelerating their layout.
According to reports, the chassis of a wire-controlled car is mainly composed of wire-controlled steering, wire-controlled braking, wire-controlled shifting, wire-controlled throttle and wire-controlled suspension. The wire-controlled chassis is the combination of autonomous driving and new energy vehicles, and is the key carrier for realizing unmanned driving. Among the wire-controlled braking system solutions, only EMB is fully electronic, and it is also easier to integrate with other electronic control systems of the car, thereby realizing more functions.
Some industry insiders believe that as the "ultimate" product of the intelligent braking system, EMB will be the "must-fight place" for future automotive wire-controlled braking. Driven by the continuous penetration of new energy smart cars and the leading effect of leading car companies, EMB is expected to gradually open up market space.
In the process of the evolution of the electronic and electrical architecture of the whole vehicle, car companies are thinking about how to make "software-defined cars" achieve the best effect, and the decoupling of software and hardware has become a universal demand. EMB will lay the foundation for the development of the next generation of electronic and electrical architecture of the whole vehicle, and truly realize the separation of software and hardware. Relevant market research predicts that by 2035, EMB will contribute 13% of the global automotive brake market.
Cai Xudong, founder and CEO of Huashen Ruili, believes that although EHB can also achieve software and hardware separation at present, it is still a "black box" that cannot be opened for car companies because it is concentrated in the hands of a single system supplier and software and hardware are sold together. Therefore, many car companies are actively seeking new braking products.
In the view of some industry insiders, EMB will replace EHB at an unstoppable speed in the future. First, EMB supports software and hardware decoupling, which can meet the demands of car companies. Secondly, EMB has a shorter response time (80-100 milliseconds, compared with 150 milliseconds of EHB), is more friendly to autonomous driving, and has higher safety. It has overwhelming advantages in terms of vehicle weight, energy consumption and system cost.
Alan Lee, an engineer at Jingxi Group, said that EMB technology represents a major technological innovation in the automotive chassis system. As a forward-looking intelligent automobile braking technology, EMB does not require any oil, while providing precise control and zero drag; it is very environmentally friendly and makes it easier to develop many new functions based on EMB; most importantly, EMB is plug-and-play, which is easy for car companies to assemble, making the entire system structure design simpler, freeing up more space for other purposes, thereby improving driving comfort.
Alan Lee said: "From a safety perspective, EMB is better than the current hydraulic brake. If one (device) of the current hydraulic brake system fails, the two wheels will not brake. But even if EMB fails, only one caliper will lose the brake, and the remaining three will still be there. Of course, we are also further improving the safety design to meet the future market's higher safety requirements for vehicles."
Independent suppliers are expected to stand out
According to the "Electric Vehicle Intelligent Chassis Technology Roadmap" released by the China Society of Automotive Engineers, my country should complete the integration optimization and bench verification of passenger car EMB system samples and complete system technology pre-research in 2025; in 2030, the integration optimization of passenger car EMB system should be completed, mass production should be achieved, and system commercialization should be realized.
However, judging from the mass production schedule planned by some suppliers, EMB will usher in large-scale application from 2025 to 2026, which is earlier than expected. Although current Chinese regulations do not support the application of EMB systems in passenger cars, it is expected that in the near future, relevant departments will combine the development progress of domestic and foreign suppliers to promote the establishment and revision of relevant regulations and provide support for EMB vehicle installation and application.
Huang He, partner of Northern Light Venture Capital, judged: "As the next-generation solution for wire-controlled braking, the EMB system has entered the pre-research stage of major global automakers. Since it cancels the hydraulic module that has been used for decades, we believe that there are opportunities for new companies in this 'track'." Looking back, in the traditional hydraulic braking field, 70% to 80% of the market share of electronic parking brake (EPB) systems is occupied by foreign companies; in the EHB market, Bosch iBooster's global market share in 2020 is as high as about 90%. Unlike the EPB and EHB markets, which are dominated by foreign parts suppliers, Chinese and foreign manufacturers are almost at the same starting line in the research and development of EMB. Chinese companies with forward-looking research and development capabilities are expected to stand out in the new competition. Industry insiders pointed out that the EMB braking system has a promising future, but it also inevitably faces many challenges such as technology maturity, cost control, regulatory standards, reliability requirements, and harsh working environment. For example, EMB needs to work in a harsh environment with high temperature and high vibration, which places high demands on the design and materials of the system; the promotion and application of EMB technology also needs to reduce costs, which requires optimizing the structure from the vehicle level to achieve cost-effectiveness, etc.
EMB is not only a revolution in automotive braking technology, but also faces many non-technical games. For example, EMB is likely to be integrated with the drive. If the drive intervenes in braking and the drive motor replaces part of the braking function, many brake component manufacturers and relevant departments of car companies will face challenges, so the implementation resistance may be large. At the same time, domestic suppliers need to break the monopoly of foreign technology and patents and obtain the support of supporting car companies. Most domestic EMB manufacturers are start-ups, and how to gain the trust of downstream partners and have more say in the whole-part cooperation is also a difficult problem.
