Automotive connectors are distributed in every corner of the car, affecting the structure and handling performance of the whole vehicle. Thousands of miles of mountains and rivers are built on tiny stones. For cars, seemingly inconspicuous connectors are nerves that transmit signals to the end effector; they are blood vessels that connect all parts in the car; they are joints that play a key role in every connection node.
There is such a company that has been rooted in China and has insisted on starting with "micro" places. It has connected the huge automotive industry with small connectors and leveraged the entire Chinese market with its own development. On April 2,2024, a reporter from China Automotive News met Sun Xiaoguang, vice president and general manager of TE Connectivity's automotive business unit in China in Shanghai.
As the leader of TE's automotive business unit in China, Sun Xiaoguang is very humorous and talkative. In the one-hour exchange, he introduced several important development stages since TE entered China and the breakthrough creations brought by TE's automotive business unit under the guidance of social values.
Start: Rooted in five localizations
Connectors are of many types and used in large quantities. Although seemingly simple components, they play a very important role in the car. As a global industry technology company specializing in providing connection solutions, TE is also a company that advocates globalization. It entered the Chinese market as early as 1988 and has a history of more than 35 years in China. As a world-renowned connector supplier, TE has participated in almost all important processes of the development of China's automobile industry and played an important role in promoting it.
"We should be the foreign-funded enterprise that is most like a private enterprise," Sun Xiaoguang joked. The development stages of TE's automotive division in China can be divided into three stages. TE began to establish an automotive division in 1993. At this time, it mainly adopted the CKD assembly model, that is, it was produced abroad and then imported to China for assembly. China was only used as a sales location. By 2006, it entered the 2.0 era, and China began to become an important "localization" market for TE, gradually building factories locally and providing local production and process services.
From 2018 to 2020, TE's development stage in China entered the 3.0 era, and gradually developed local self-research capabilities. With the outbreak of the new energy market, Chinese automobiles have played an unprecedented role in promoting the global automobile industry.
Sun Xiaoguang emphasized, "Localization is a very important thing for TE's automotive division. We have been completely localized for more than a decade, and now we have formed a mature concept of 'five localizations', namely localized teams, localized decisions, localized production, localized R&D, and localized supply chains."
In fact, the all-round localization strategy also provides strong protection for TE's automotive division to resist the global crisis. In the past few years, the epidemic and trade frictions have had a certain impact on the security of the supply chain, and TE's automotive division has effectively avoided the impact in the process of localization. Sun Xiaoguang pointed out that in addition to manufacturing, TE Automotive Division has developed new upstream raw material suppliers in China to replace overseas materials, build a local supply chain, and achieve deeper localization.
At present, the localization rate of TE Automotive Division has exceeded 90%. The success of localization has also prompted TE Automotive Division to continue to inject large investments in China. In recent years, TE Automotive Division has successively put into production bases in Suzhou, Kunshan, Nantong and other places, and its production capacity has quickly completed the ramp-up period.
Development: Pioneer of the Industrial Road
"When the whole world underestimated China's development, TE saw the huge potential of the Chinese market and did a very famous thing in 2009, 'GO China,' which means that we will open our arms to welcome factories around the world that are willing to communicate in China. At that time, TE's global CEO made it clear that the Chinese market is the fastest growing market in the future, and we call on more multinational companies to come to China to create value." Sun Xiaoguang still feels gratified when talking about TE's entry into China.
Under such a global concept, the development of TE's automotive division integrates diverse cultures and values. Around 2014, TE's division proposed to thoroughly promote localization, not only localizing production, but also localizing the team and management. Behind this concept is trust and authorization in corporate culture, which can be said to be the core of TE's localization. Today, TE's automotive division is almost entirely local talent. Unlike other foreign companies that have many overseas managers, TE is, as Sun Xiaoguang said, "the foreign-funded enterprise that is most like a local enterprise."
In addition to being a practitioner committed to localization, TE is also an industry pioneer from scratch. It is understood that before 2006, the design and manufacturing systems of the domestic connector industry were rarely man-made, and basically pursued "take-it-as-it-is", but TE changed this situation. In the early days, Chinese connectors lacked standard automotive connector design, manufacturing, management systems and corresponding talents, and TE's continuous investment in local research and development and incubation and training of local talents have injected new vitality and opportunities for the vigorous development of China's automotive connector industry.
Especially in recent years, under the wave of new energy, the size of the connector market has grown steadily. According to Bishop & Associates data, China's connector market has grown from US$12.8 billion in 2012 to US$25 billion in 2021, with a global average annual compound growth rate of 5.63% and China's growth of 7.71%, which is higher than the global market growth rate.
The development of electrification has doubled the growth of connector circuits. According to Sun Xiaoguang, each electric car has at least 2,000 additional circuits, which not only brings huge market opportunities to TE's automotive division, but also brings huge opportunities to the entire market.
It is undeniable that the development of the new energy vehicle industry is not only an opportunity for car companies to overtake others, but also an opportunity for the system industry and the parts industry to overtake others.
However, the upgrade of the vehicle architecture and the high-voltage platform have put forward new requirements for connectors. According to reports, TE's automotive division has begun to lay out new energy business since the beginning of the development of the new energy vehicle industry in 2008, and took into account the demand for high-voltage platforms in the development in 2009.
Value: Great Road Benefits the World
Opportunities and challenges coexist, and changes and new situations coexist. With the further improvement of technology, TE Automotive Division realized that the product has entered a new stage of integration and optimization. "On the one hand, we have to do addition, so that the product has more functions and performance; on the other hand, we also have to do subtraction, reduce weight, reduce costs, and reduce carbon emissions, and create more value for users through continuous optimization," said Sun Xiaoguang. "We have noticed that the increase in wiring harnesses and terminals has greatly increased the amount of copper used in the whole vehicle, which not only increases the weight of the whole vehicle, but also is not conducive to reducing carbon emissions. Therefore, providing users with lightweight connection solutions has become the direction TE is aiming for next."
On March 16, at the 2024 International Connection Technology Conference, TE Automotive Division officially released the epoch-making lightweight solution for automotive connection systems-0.19mm multi-win composite wire. The solution is expected to reduce copper by about 5kg for a single vehicle wiring harness on the existing basis, and promote the automotive industry to further achieve technological changes in sustainable development directions such as weight reduction and carbon reduction.
The name "multi-win" was also taken by Sun Xiaoguang, but this time it was not from an allusion, but pointed to the future. Sun Xiaoguang told reporters that although the competition between car companies is fierce, he does not want the connector industry to be like this. Market pressure has been transmitted to each terminal, and the entire industry is facing the same problem.
There is no way out, and win-win cooperation is the long-term strategy. In fact, it is more accurate to say win-win, which should be "win-win for all". According to Sun Xiaoguang, as a fully self-developed product, TE Automotive Division has opened its independently innovated 0.19mm composite wire technology to multiple industry companies for free, aiming to break the "wall" between products and allow everyone to share products and value.
"China is a major copper consumer in the world. 77% of copper is imported, with a total of about 100 million tons. This is a huge market gap. The automotive industry uses 10% of the total, nearly 1 million tons. In the past, 0.35mm diameter copper wire was mainly used in cars. If 0.19mm is used, the amount of copper used per wire will be reduced by nearly 50%.
It is preliminarily estimated that the industry can save 150,000 tons of copper a year. For vehicle manufacturers, it can save 20% of costs," Sun Xiaoguang said bluntly, "Weight reduction means saving money and carbon reduction!" Why does TE not "enjoy it alone" for this design that is good for itself, car companies, and the entire industry, but instead sends it to friends?
In this regard, Sun Xiaoguang sincerely said: "We believe that companies must have social responsibilities and cannot only consider themselves. If we do this alone, it may be a drop in the bucket; only when everyone does it together can it have greater significance for the entire automotive industry. We also hope to call on more companies to shoulder their social responsibilities and jointly promote the automotive industry into sustainable and healthy competition."
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