5202-DFNT-MCM4 As the 2024 Shanghai Electronics Show in Munich approaches, Sun Xiaoguang, vice president and general manager of TE Connectivity’s automotive business unit in China, is getting busier.
In recent years, the automotive industry has undergone tremendous technological change, the most obvious performance of electrification and intelligence, which is also TE’s main connector product innovation. The Swiss company, which manufactures more than 213 billion products annually and has sales of $16 billion in 2023, has been in the Chinese market for more than 35 years. By establishing a research and development center, production base and sales network in China, TE can not only better meet the needs of Chinese customers, provide platform and customized solutions, but also start to go overseas with the experience of advanced manufacturing in Chinese factories and Chinese local suppliers.
“We understand the importance of the Chinese market and have always made localization one of our core strategies.” Referring to the Munich Electronics Fair, Sun Xiaoguang said that “in addition to innovation, the most important thing to show is the spirit of our team.”
Win-win with the industrial chain
The automotive electronics industry has developed very fast in recent years, which makes many people fe5202-DFNT-MCM4 el “volume”, but Sun Xiaoguang has a different opinion, “What is volume?” It is to lower your head and only do what is in front of you, and think too little from the manufacturing value dimension of the entire industry.”
TE’s business success story in China can be summarized in the automotive division as deepening localization services, growing together with Chinese Oems, and achieving a win-win industry chain.
He took the 0.19mm multi-win composite line at this exhibition as an example to show that differentiated competition is the starting point to deepen localization services, and this product, which is jointly developed and verified with domestic mainstream car companies, is still an excellent case to reflect the mentality of multi-win to solve industry problems.
According to the ICSG International Copper Research Association, China accounts for 54% of global copper demand, and 77% of copper demand depends on imports. In the automotive low-voltage wiring harness signal circuit, 0.35mm copper wire is still the mainstream solution of the vehicle signal circuit, accounting for about 80% according to the prediction of TE electronics.
Although copper wire has better power performance, the weight of copper wire with the same performance param5202-DFNT-MCM4 eters is about 1.3-1.4 times that of aluminum wire. The extra weight is already a factor that has to be considered for the mileage that will be contested in the mile, not to mention the higher price of copper. As a result, TE’s latest multi-win composite wire solution, launched in 2024, addresses the pain points of existing low-voltage wire solutions.
With a fully verified terminal crimping scheme, the 0.19mm multi-win composite line follows the mature production line and process, and minimization of industry chain investment, ideally it can successfully reduce the copper of the low-voltage wire harness of the entire vehicle by about 60%, reduce the weight by 37%, and reduce the carbon emissions of the bicycle by about 20kg per year (based on the total estimate of the production end and the annual driving of about 10,000 km). Bring significant cost savings.
“We found that the biggest difficulty of aluminum-replaced copper products is welding, and welding in the automotive industry requires higher technical requirements. With tens of millions of cars leaving the factory every year, we need to make sure that every component works properly and that if something goes wrong, it can be fixed quickly.” Sun Xiaoguang therefore requires the display of products at the same time also show the entire ecosystem, including welding suppliers, so that customers’ cognition from the purchase of a connector product to expand to the technology and safety behind, and promote the entire automotive industry chain to energy-saving and low-carbon.
Strengthen confidence in investing in China
The ability to attract the attention of the global management is inseparable from the flexible changes of the Chinese automobile market faced by TE Automotive Division in China for more than 30 years, and the adherence to the “local team, local decision-making, local production, local research and development, local supply chain”. In response to the development of intelligent electronics in the automotive industry, TE Automotive Division actively develops and applies TE high-voltage connector CSJ series products and second-generation automotive charging socket series products, which have been accepted and used by overseas customers.
By working with local suppliers, TE is able to better control costs, improve product quality and shorten lead times. This enabled TE’s China team to achieve significant results in product quality, operational efficiency and cost management, and to promote Chinese raw material suppliers to the Japanese and Korean markets. TE’s global executive team is also increasingly choosing to hold global operations meetings in China, want to visit the management experience on site, and hold innovation conferences in the electric vehicle industry in China to be close to customers, these practical actions expand the influence of the China team globally
