Here is the English translation of the provided HTML text, with the original formatting tags preserved:
Automotive wire harnesses are generally divided into main harnesses and sub-harnesses. With the development of new energy vehicles (NEVs), they can also be categorized into low-voltage and high-voltage harnesses. Traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles primarily use low-voltage harnesses, whereas NEVs mainly rely on high-voltage harnesses.
The rapid growth of NEVs will drive the demand for high-voltage harnesses. According to estimates, the global market size for NEV high-voltage harnesses reached 4.69 billion RMB in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 41.4%, accounting for approximately 3% of the total automotive wire harness market. In the future, driven by governments and major automakers worldwide, the sales share of NEVs will continue to rise, and the high-voltage harness market is expected to experience rapid growth in the coming years.
Currently, global automotive wire harness manufacturers are mainly divided into four tiers. Tier 1 includes Yazaki and Sumitomo Electric; Tier 2 comprises Aptiv, Leoni, and Lear; Tier 3 includes Dräxlmaier, Kromberg & Schubert, Furukawa Electric, Yura, Kyungshin, and Fujikura; while Tier 4 consists of other smaller wire harness enterprises.
At present, the global automotive wire harness market is primarily dominated by the first three tiers, which have established stable supporting systems with major global automakers. Meanwhile, due to the immense growth potential of the Chinese market, international wire harness manufacturers are entering China mainly through acquisitions, wholly-owned subsidiaries, or joint ventures with local enterprises, to supply both joint-venture and domestic automakers.
As the localized procurement of automotive components continues to strengthen, some domestic wire harness companies have significantly enhanced their overall capabilities through long-term accumulation of product technology and concurrent development experience. Relying on timely and effective services, as well as reliable product quality, they are gradually integrating into the supply chains of international automakers.
With the increasing variety of vehicle functions, the demand for automotive wire harnesses has surged significantly. This has directly led to a substantial increase in the length and weight of wire harnesses, thereby raising the overall vehicle weight. Additionally, the complexity of wire routing has greatly increased. Therefore, it is imperative to optimize automotive wire harnesses from both a quality and routing perspective to meet the booming demand. We believe that automotive wire harnesses will primarily develop in the following directions:
Trend 1 in Automotive Wire Harness Development: Lightweighting
As a critical vehicle component, automotive wire harnesses account for approximately 5% of the total vehicle weight. With the push for vehicle lightweighting, the lightweighting of wire harnesses has become a key area of future development. Currently, there are three main approaches to achieving this: first, using thin-wall insulation for conductors; second, optimizing manufacturing processes to minimize the cross-sectional size of the harness; and third, adopting lighter-weight materials.
Trend 2 in Automotive Wire Harness Development: Optimization of Electrical/Electronic (E/E) Architecture Design
While lightweighting can reduce the weight of wire harnesses to a certain extent, fundamentally reducing the amount of wire harness material yields greater benefits for overall optimization. Therefore, adopting new E/E architectures is key to driving this optimization. New E/E architectures can simplify circuit designs and reduce the wiring required to support various vehicle functions. This not only reduces weight but also facilitates automated production, ultimately lowering costs.
Zhenda
