New Automotive Report Forecasts that More than 17 million Cars will be Hybrid or Electric by 2015

PR Log (Press Release) – Nov 04, 2009 – Report Buyer, the online destination for business intelligence for major industry sectors, has added a market report

According to the report “Power Electronics in Electric and Hybrid Cars” available at http://www.reportbuyer.com/go/YOL00118 Toyota, the worlds leading car producer, has been dominant on the hybrid market up to now, but this niche market is becoming a must for car makers as the focus on car C02 emissions intensifies. Hybrid is defined in different levels: micro, mild, full, and plug in hybrid

Micro hybrid will see the highest growth due to its low cost and easy integration, specifically in Europe. Mild and full hybrid will continue their strong penetration in the US market. Plug-in hybrid is a bridge to EV technology, and uses the same high voltage battery technology and plug-to-grid for recharge.

EV car business will really ramp up in 2010 with the arrival of big car makers (Mitsubishi, Renault, GM, Ford, Daimler). Limited drive range (40 miles) and high cost, are still issues, but it is expected that huge investments in new Li-Ion batteries will increase the performance/cost ratio of EVs.

The report forecasts that globally, more than 17 million cars will be hybrid or electric in 2015 and suggests sales will reach 50 million units in 2020, meaning half of the cars produced.

Power electronics are a key technology for hybrids and represent 20% of the material costs. It is even bigger for EV cars. HEV/EV power devices are used in DC/DC converters and DC/AC inverters.

There are various configurations depending on the hybrid version and car makers' choices.
For instance, Inverters are roughly the same for full hybrid, plug in hybrid and EV cars with an average power of 50 kW. This application alone represents 74% of the total power module market for HEV and EV cars in 2009.

The HEV/EV power module market stands at $300M in 2009 and is expected to grow strongly until 2020 at a growth rate close to 30% to reach $5B in 2020. Today, the power module market is mainly dominated by Toyota who manufactures the module internally. With the near universal involvement of other car makers, semiconductor companies (Infineon, Fuji, Mitsubishi, STM) will enter the market and will take a big market share in the power device pie.

As HEV and EV remain expensive, car makers and tier one suppliers want to cut the cost. Power modules represent about 50% of the inverter and converter cost so power module cost reduction is the main goal of all the market players. It is expected that the power module average cost will be reduced by more than 25% in the coming years.

The report “Power Electronics in Electric and Hybrid Cars” is available from Report Buyer at:
http://www.reportbuyer.com/automotive/cars/hybrid_electr ...

Report Buyer product ID: YOL00118

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