In 2023, the global automotive PCB output value will reach $10.5 billion, an increase of 14%

On July 17, the "Global Automotive PCB Market Outlook" report released by market research institution TrendForce recently showed that in the context of the continued decline of global consumer PCBS, the automotive PCB market has maintained the trend of growth.

According to the report, consumer electronics applications PCB in the entire PCB industry accounted for more than half, the current consumption of terminal market demand has not yet significantly warmed, which also led to the PCB industry affected by some other components of the market impact more. The global PCB output value is estimated to be about $79 billion in 2023, a decline of 5.2% from 2022.

Compared with the decline in the consumer PCB market, the automotive PCB market has benefited from the continuous increase in the global penetration rate of electric vehicles and the increase in the rate of vehicle electrification, and the automotive PCB market has bucked the trend of growth. It is expected that the output value in 2023 will increase by 14% year-on-year, reaching $10.5 billion, accounting for the proportion of overall PCB output value increased from 11% last year to 13%. It is expected that the output value of automotive PCB is expected to grow to $14.5 billion in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 12% from 2022 to 2026, and the proportion of overall PCB output value will further rise to 15%.

TrendForce said that the growth of automotive PCB output value is mainly from the increase in the penetration rate of electric vehicles, the average PCB value of pure electric vehicles (BEV) per vehicle is about 5 to 6 times that of traditional fuel vehicles, and the highest PCB value content in the car is the electronic control system, accounting for about half of the vehicle PCB value. Electronic control System BMS (Battery Management System, battery management system) using wiring harness connection, in the trend of electric vehicle lightweight, the future will gradually adopt FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit, soft printed circuit board), increase the PCB value of the electronic control system.

With the continuous improvement of automatic driving level and penetration rate, the average number of electronic products such as cameras and radars per car is also increasing, and the vehicle PCB is mainly based on 4 to 8 layers, and the automatic driving system mainly uses the HDI board (High Density Interconnect) with a high unit price, and the price is about 3 times that of 4 to 8 layers. The HDI price of more than L3 self-driving systems with LIDAR (LIDAR, Light Detection and Ranging) can reach tens of dollars, and it is also the main source of future automotive PCB output value increase.

In terms of type, it is estimated that in 2023, automotive PCB mainly uses 4-8 layers of board accounting for about 40% of the overall proportion, which will drop to 32% in 2026, and the proportion of HDI board with higher unit price will rise from 15% to 20%; FPC board increased from 17% to 20%, thick copper board and RF board increased from 8% and 8.8% to 9.5% and 10.8% respectively, and the unit price of single-double layer board decreased from 11.2% to 7.7%.