SAIC Motor and Infineon Technologies are establishing a joint venture to manufacture power modules for the dynamically developing electric vehicle market in China.
SAIC Motor holds a stake of 51 percent of the JV, SIAPM (SAIC Infineon Automotive Power Modules (Shanghai) Co, Ltd., and Infineon 49 percent, respectively.
Headquartered in Shanghai; its new manufacturing facility is in Infineon’s site expansion in Wuxi. Volume production is scheduled to start in the second half of 2018.
“Infineon has established itself as a leader in all major markets for electric vehicles by providing cutting-edge semiconductor solutions. SAIC Motor is the largest OEM in China and thus an outstanding partner to further strengthen and expand our position,” said Jochen Hanebeck, member of the Management Board of Infineon.
“This perfectly combines with our broad and in-depth system-level expertise in electric vehicles. We are happy to jointly leverage our know-how with Infineon in the newly established joint venture,” said Mr. Zhixin Chen, SAIC Group President.
The joint venture SIAPM offers power solutions for electric vehicles in China. Infineon will continue to independently serve all other markets. The joint venture will focus on frame-based HybridPACK™ modules for the Chinese market. First generation automotive frame-based IGBT modules within the HybridPACK™ family were introduced by Infineon in 2006 and are widely used in plug-in hybrid and full electric vehicles worldwide.
The latest forecast of the market intelligence company IHS Markit expects the Chinese production of plug-in hybrid and full electric vehicles to reach 2.0 million units in 2020 and 4.3 million in 2024. In 2017, 794,000 units were produced in China, according to data from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
