From knock-off old-man's electric vehicles to industrial giant

Chapter 272 This is way too outdated.
"Mr. Xu, we can handle the automotive-grade certification standards and production issues, it just takes a little time."

Zhang Yu was slightly taken aback, then sat up straight!
In his view, if Xingchen Automotive is willing to place a purchase order, it will be a great support for BOE's automotive OLED business.

This is a new energy vehicle that has entered the luxury market, and it is representative in terms of both sales volume and brand.

The key is.

The car has a lot of big screens.

If Xingchen Automotive is willing to purchase BOE's automotive OLED displays, it will have a huge ripple effect.

“Mr. Zhang, you may have misunderstood. What we want is not just to meet the various standards of Samsung screens, but to do in-depth optimization and customization... joint research and development, automotive-grade packaging, touch accuracy optimization, and future exploration of flexible OLED screen functions.”

After a moment's thought, Xu Yi got straight to the point.

If we're going to do it, then of course we should aim to surpass it!
What kind of effort is it to benchmark against others?
However, Starry Sky will not be spending its time building a factory for the time being.

The production cost of this thing is simply beyond the reach of one or two companies.

The initial threshold for large-scale mass production of OLEDs is often tens of billions of yuan. Currently, the investment in equipment for a single production line of BOE's 6th generation line can reach 300-400 billion yuan. It also requires large-scale precision equipment such as vapor deposition machines, which is a level that would make even large groups hesitate.

However, not building your own factory doesn't necessarily mean you can't make your own good screens. Light-emitting materials, pixel arrangement, driving power consumption algorithm optimization, screen packaging, and even more advanced flexible screen bending and hinge technology are all areas where you can accumulate exclusive patents.

Even for patents jointly developed by both parties, there are agreements that stipulate that StarChip will exclusively use the screen patent for its own terminal products, while BOE can only use the patent for panels supplied to StarChip. This means that even if other companies hire BOE for OEM manufacturing, they will not be able to obtain the same customized screens as StarChip.

Unless written authorization is obtained from Xingchen.

This can also be considered a benefit of supporting the domestic supply chain. BOE has a large number of production lines in Luzhou, and the factories and R&D teams of both parties can have in-depth exchanges at any time.

If you're getting a custom screen from Samsung, you can't make so many demands; it would be good enough if they didn't raise the price.

“You guys are more familiar with how TFE is deposited, but we have accumulated complete data on the failure mechanisms of automotive damp heat shock and vibration coupling, and we also have a set of automotive-grade packaging edge design rules. As long as the panel is within our automotive-grade packaging window, we can ramp up the yield and obtain certification in the shortest possible time…”

Xu Yi asked his assistant, Xiao Zhou, to bring out a document.

They have their own set of reliability standards and have conducted sampling tests on screens from Samsung's supply chain, including 1000-hour aging tests, thermal cycling tests from -40 to 85°C, and vibration tests. They have also figured out automotive-grade packaging standards by disassembling the screens.

This data is particularly helpful for domestic OLED manufacturers that have not yet obtained automotive-grade certification.

As soon as he threw it out, Zhang Yu straightened his back even more.

"Mr. Xu, I didn't expect that you, as a car manufacturer, would attach such a high degree of importance to screen supply." He took the document and carefully confirmed that Xingchen Automotive was genuinely willing to form a team for in-depth joint research and development.

After reading it, I gradually came to understand Xingchen Automotive's true position, transforming it from a purchaser to a leading party in collaborative technology research and development.

But I was still quite surprised.

This level of investment is truly "unusual" compared to other car companies.

What is the current situation in the automotive market?
More than 97% of cars still use LCD screens. Even if high-end cars use OLED screens or curved flexible screens, the scale is still not large.

Xu Yi smiled and said, "We are optimistic about the future market for automotive-grade screens. I think that most cars in the future will be equipped with large OLED screens."

joke.

Currently, in-vehicle OLED applications are not widespread; only Starry Sky uses it for rear-seat TVs.

But things will be different in two years.

In the future, new energy vehicles, and even slightly more expensive gasoline vehicles, will be embarrassed to call themselves new-era smart cars if they don't have a large in-car infotainment screen!

People have only been discussing OLED screens for a short time.

Later on, they were completely immersed in the atmosphere of "big is good, good is big", and they were completely unaware of what the world was like.

Zhang Yu wholeheartedly agreed with this statement.

They've been supplying automotive-grade LCD screens step by step, starting with 8-inch and 10-inch screens, and now expanding to 13-inch and 15-inch screens. We haven't seen any consumers complaining that their screens are too big. On the contrary, some car manufacturers and mobile phone companies, in order to control costs, have resorted to cutting corners on screen size—a truly disheartening practice—and have been heavily criticized by the consumer market. Once people have used a good screen, there's really no going back.

The two sides quickly reached a consensus on the matter.

"BOE is pleased to work hand in hand with Xingchen Automotive to make progress."

……

The continued strong sales of the vivo X20 series have attracted the attention of several competitors, and the Polestar batteries they purchase have been the subject of in-depth research by relevant manufacturers.

Domestic Android manufacturers have spared no effort in pushing into the mid-to-high-end market this year.

Especially the flagship models, also known as the "all-rounder" models.

Not only must their strengths be strong enough, but they also cannot have weaknesses that are too weak compared to their competitors. This tests each company's control over the supply chain, which requires both tacit understanding and skillful execution.

Originally, batteries weren't a major focus for manufacturers, but once one company started emphasizing capacity and fast charging, others were forced to follow suit.

Moreover, Vivo's move has left everyone speechless.

Acupuncture test? What does that mean?

Are you deliberately trying to ride the coattails of the Samsung explosion controversy?

That's a great idea.

Why didn't our marketing department think of that?!
-

With both vivo and Xiaomi confirming that they have secured Xingchen as their battery cell supplier for the first half of the year, news has emerged.

Huawei is already considering the battery cells for this year's flagship phones and is in continuous communication with ATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited)'s battery division.

Starting in 12, ATL quickly became the world's largest supplier of polymer lithium battery cells. Zeng Yuqun spun off the internal power battery business unit to establish CATL, and the two companies separated and went their separate ways in business.

Moreover, before the advent of Polestar batteries, ATL's technological superiority had hardly faced any challenges in the industry.

"Polarstar batteries mainly utilize a new silicon-carbon anode technology, which increases the silicon content. In addition, they have a unique approach to electrolyte formulation, which is why they achieve such impressive battery capacity..."

Pei Ruitao, as the current head of ATL's Electromagnetic Business Unit, issued a research report addressing Hua Wei's one-sided questions.

But perhaps feeling that this was too much flattery, he added, "Actually, it's not a big deal. Although Polestar's silicon-carbon anode technology is differentiated, in order to meet the needs of flagship phones, we have also improved the cell energy density this year through formula and process improvements, which is 15% higher than last year."

ATL has the technological reserves, and in response to the cross-industry challenge from Xingchen, it had to prepare two extra tubes of toothpaste in advance.

Yu Chengdong listened to the other party's words and asked, "So, Xingchen's silicon-carbon anode technology isn't that advanced, is it? It's just that the approaches are somewhat different?"

Currently, Huawei's R&D accumulation in battery cells is still focused on fast charging protocol strategies, protection boards, and BMS control. Yu Chengdong is actually puzzled by the sudden emergence of battery cells with silicon-carbon anode technology in the industry.

"That's right. Silicon-carbon anodes can also be called silicon-based anode materials. We are also researching them internally. This material is quite important for the future development of consumer-grade battery cells, especially for significantly improving energy density. We plan to follow up on this next year."

"Why next year?!" Yu Chengdong was taken aback again.

"We haven't figured it out yet... uh, we're still working on the formula and process for this material. If we don't solve the volume expansion problem in the process, the cycle life will probably be significantly reduced, and bulging will appear after 300 charge-discharge cycles."

"..."

These starkly contrasting remarks left Yu Chengdong speechless.

They kept saying that Polestar batteries were no big deal.

On the other hand, technologies that others have already applied to the market are being followed by others only next year.

Isn't this way too outdated?!
(End of this chapter)