The development of new energy vehicles opens up a new blue ocean for FPC growth. The reporter from the Financial Associated Press learned from various interviews that under the current trend of lightweight, intelligent, and electrified automobiles, FPC is gradually increasing in the automotive field due to its characteristics of lightness, thinness, foldable bending, and high wiring density. Applications have been extended to automotive electronic control units, battery management systems, multimedia systems and other devices. In addition, as the process of FPC replacing traditional wiring harnesses in new energy vehicle power batteries accelerates and the demand for consumer electronics rises, the FPC market is expected to further expand.

Zhou Hua, chief analyst of CINNO Research, said in an interview with a reporter from the Financial Associated Press that compared with consumer electronics, automotive FPCs have higher requirements in terms of technical difficulty and reliability. Both capacity and capital strength have higher requirements.

According to data from market research firm Prismark, the global auto market is expected to reach US$266 billion in 2023, with a year-on-year growth of 5.6%, and a compound annual growth rate of 5% from 2022 to 2027.

"In the future, with the increase in the penetration rate of the new energy vehicle market and the development towards intelligence and electrification, the advantages of FPC bending, light weight, and high degree of automation will be further reflected. The trend of FPC replacing copper wire harnesses is clear. Public information shows that Tesla Enterprises such as LA, Guoxuan High-Tech, AVIC Lithium Battery, Tafel, Sunwoda, and Funeng have all started to apply it. The usage scenarios include car lights, display modules, three major power control systems, sensors, and smart cockpits. It is expected that FPC for bicycles will The amount will exceed 100 pieces, and the demand for FPC in future cars will be 5 to 8 times that of traditional cars, which will drive a substantial increase in the demand for automotive FPC."

Under the wave of automotive electronics, traditional automotive wiring harnesses that are bulky, complicated and cumbersome can no longer comply with the development trend of the continuous increase in the number of electronic components in new energy vehicles, and the advantages of FPC, CCS and other products are prominent. At present, the FPC connection solution has become the main solution in the power battery of new energy vehicles, and manufacturers have also successively deployed integrated product CCS.

The reporter learned from relevant manufacturers that CCS combines FPC, aluminum bars, signal acquisition components, and insulating materials through thermal pressing or riveting to realize series-parallel connection between cells and signal acquisition and transmission of temperature and voltage. It has the functions of monitoring the voltage and temperature of new energy power battery cells, connecting data acquisition and transmission, and having its own over-current protection function; protecting automobile power battery cells, and automatically disconnecting abnormal short circuits.

Looking at the market, FPC still has development opportunities. Zhou Hua told reporters that in addition to the vehicle field, under the dual carbon goals, FPC for energy storage lithium batteries in the energy storage field will also become a new growth driver in the future. In addition, in the field of consumer electronics, including wearable devices, XR emerging markets, smart The iteration of mobile phone functions and technologies is also expected to create new growth points for FPC.