Body Control Module Market Trends

Market Driver - Increasing Demand for Advanced Safety and Comfort Features in Vehicles

With rising disposable income and increasing technological advancement, consumers are demanding vehicles that offer enhanced safety, comfort, and convenience features. Automakers are recognizing this trend and are rushing to incorporate the latest driver-assist technologies in their vehicles. The body control module plays a crucial role in supporting these advanced features. Features like adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, and automatic emergency braking are increasingly being adopted to minimize risks of accidents.

At the same time, consumers are also demanding more infotainment and comfort features inside the cabin. Connected car technologies that provide navigation, entertainment, and remote access are becoming mainstream. With safety and well-being of occupants becoming a top priority, the demand for sophisticated driver-assist and connected car technologies is expected to surge tremendously. This will significantly drive the need for advanced body control modules with powerful central computing capabilities, eventually driving growth of the body control module market.

Market Driver - Rise of Electric Vehicles

Another key factor promoting the body control module market is the rapidly growing electric vehicle industry. Both hybrids and fully electric vehicles rely on sophisticated power management systems to efficiently operate the high-voltage batteries and electric powertrains.

Body control module plays a central role in overseeing and controlling the high-voltage systems. It monitors battery charge levels, supervises power transfer between the electric motor and batteries and ensures safety in operation of these high-voltage components.

Moreover, EVs require advanced temperature control functionalities for thermal management of their battery packs. The body control module is important for integration of the climate control system with the battery pack to regulate its temperature for optimal performance and extended life. With stringent emission norms and favorable government policies, automakers are heavily investing in electric drivetrains.

More automakers are also introducing hybrid variants of their popular models to transition to sustainable mobility. Rise in hybrids and EVs spells greater potential for optimized body control module market to efficiently manage the complex electric powertrain systems.

Market Challenge - High Cost Pressures Faced by OEMs

The body control module market faces significant cost pressures due to stringent regulations imposed by various governments and regulatory bodies. Traditional independent systems architecture with multiple standalone modules has become highly complex and expensive to manage with the integration of advanced driver-assistance and electric vehicle technologies.

Meeting stringent vehicle safety, emission, and fuel economy norms requires heavy investment in R&D and upgrading existing module designs. This increases part costs for OEMs who are already battling rising material and technology costs. Consolidating functionalities on a single centralized computer-like module could help reduce wiring harness size and complexity substantially.

However, modifying existing vehicle architectures poses integration challenges. OEMs also need to consider longer development cycles to validate functionality and safety of new designs. With mounting pressures to deliver affordable green vehicles, controlling system costs without compromising quality remains a major issue for the body control module market.

Market Opportunity - Development of Centralized Computing in Vehicle Architecture

The growing adoption of centralized computing platform presents significant opportunities for the body control module market. A centralized system-on-chip based architecture allows seamless integration of advanced driver-assistance, connectivity, and electrical powertrain functions. It facilitates flexible over-the-air updates and upgrades of electronic control units during the vehicle lifecycle. This could help OEMs rollout new features faster and realize deferred revenues from software/service subscriptions.

Manufacturers are also exploring domain controller concept to partition complex automotive applications and workloads. A centralized high-performance body control module has potential to serve as the main domain controller integrating capabilities from various domains including chassis, body, cockpit and safety. This provides opportunities for module suppliers to offer software-defined products and platform solutions leveraging automotive-grade system-on-chips. It may also encourage new technology partnerships and evolving business models in the automotive electronics industry.