photo = REUTERS
Tesla gets its parts from all over the world. In Korea, it is known that several companies are supplying various parts including headlamps. However, none of the companies have officially mentioned the delivery of Tesla. It’s because they’re watching Tesla. However, there are products that hold Tesla, which is called the super powerhouse of each component maker. That’s a semiconductor. Tesla was no exception to the global automotive semiconductor shortage.
Musk: “Semiconductor shortage is the biggest wave in Tesla’s history”
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO. yunhap news
According to foreign media reports such as Reuters on the 9th, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in an internal email sent to employees recently, “In order to achieve the vehicle delivery target in the third quarter, we need to overcome the semiconductor supply shortage and raise the production of electric vehicles to the maximum limit. do,” he emphasized. He said, “Since we suffered from a severe shortage of parts in the beginning of the third quarter, the height of the parts shortage is exceptionally high,” he said, worrying that the delivery of customer vehicles could be disrupted. Regarding the supply and demand shortage of semiconductor parts, he said, “It is the biggest wave in Tesla’s history, but we have to make it through to the end.”
Volkswagen and Daimler also suffered production disruptions due to shortage of semiconductor chips
Major global automakers such as Volkswagen and Daimler are forecasting that semiconductor shortage (shortage in supply) may continue until 2023. Executives from major automakers met with CNBC reporters at the Munich Motor Show in Germany on the 6th (local time) and said that it was difficult to say when the semiconductor supply shortage would be resolved. “We expected the semiconductor shortage situation to improve after the summer vacation, but it is taking longer than expected,” he said. He also confessed that production disruptions continued as factories were closed due to the recent re-spread of Corona 19 in Malaysia, where Volkswagen suppliers are concentrated.
“The third quarter will be the hardest hit,” said Ola Kelenius, CEO of Daimler in Germany. He predicted that the structural problem of supply and demand for semiconductors “will have an impact until next year and can only be alleviated in 2023.”
More analog semiconductors are needed for electric and autonomous vehicles
French startup Navya’s self-driving electric bus is being tested in Munich, Germany. photo = REUTERS
Experts say that the longer-than-expected shortage of automotive semiconductors is also related to the increase in electric vehicle sales. Electric vehicles are equipped with an average of 2.5 times the amount of semiconductors for vehicles compared to internal combustion locomotives. When ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System), which is called the prior technology of autonomous driving, is applied, it increases up to four times.
Gunnar Hermann, chairman of Ford’s European board of directors, also diagnosed that “the paradigm shift towards electric vehicles is exacerbating the supply shortage situation” at the Munich Motor Show. “It takes 300 semiconductors to make one Ford Focus car, but 3,000 semiconductors are needed to produce an electric car,” he explained.
Ironically, however, as the era of future vehicles such as electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles approaches, the demand for analog semiconductors among automotive semiconductors is gradually increasing. Analog semiconductors play a role in converting various analog signals in the natural world, such as light, sound, pressure, and temperature, generated in daily life into digital signals that can be recognized by a computer.
It is known that analog semiconductors account for about 60% of the total automotive semiconductors. Autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles use more analog semiconductors than this. This is because there are many sensors that accept various analog signals such as temperature and pressure as well as external visual information and convert them to digital in both electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles.
Intensifying competition in the analog semiconductor industry
As the market grows, competition among analog semiconductor companies is also intensifying. In the securities industry, voices calling for attention to analog semiconductor companies are growing.
Shinhan Investment Corp. recently announced that “analog semiconductor companies will benefit from the US$1 trillion infrastructure investment promoted by the US Joe Biden administration.” The infrastructure investment budget includes an investment of $7.5 billion in electric vehicle charging infrastructure. President Biden signed an executive order to replace 50% of new cars sold in the U.S. with eco-friendly cars by 2030.
M&A among analog semiconductor companies is also active. Analog semiconductor company Analog Devices (ADI) announced on the 27th of last month that it has completed the acquisition of Maxim Integrated Products (MXIM), a similar company. ADI announced that it would acquire Maxim for $21 billion in July of last year, and completed the merger on the same day after obtaining approval from the relevant national authorities.
ADI (9%), the second-largest company in the analog semiconductor market, acquired the seventh-placed Maxim (4%), bringing its market share closer to that of Texas Instruments (TI), the industry leader, with 19%. An official from the securities industry predicted, “Analog semiconductor companies will be able to enjoy the growth of the semiconductor market due to the expansion of US infrastructure investment.”
Reporter Park Shin-young nyusos@hankyung.com
