FPCWith the advantages of being lightweight, highly integrated, bendable, and machinable, the scene and demand for FPC in new energy vehicle power batteries will continue to grow. Flexible circuit board (FPC) is a type of circuit made of flexible copper-clad laminate as the substrate, which can be used as a medium for signal transmission and is applied to the connection of electronic products. It can generally be divided into single-layer FPC, double-layer FPC, multi-layer FPC, and soft hard combination board. With the development of electrification and intelligence in automobiles, the advantages of FPC circuit boards in terms of flexibility, weight reduction, and automation have been further demonstrated. In the past, there were not many places where traditional fuel vehicles used FPC, with a single vehicle value of about $10. In the era of new energy vehicles, the advantages of FPC have been fully reflected. According to the Zhanxin PCB Industry Research Institute, the usage of FPC per vehicle will exceed 100 pieces, including screens, headlights, and other scenarios. Among them, the demand for FPC for power batteries will increase significantly.

In the field of power batteries, FPCFlexible boardMainly used for replacing traditional wiring harnesses in the Pack process, assisting in the collection of information for battery packs. Traditional wire harnesses are mainly made of copper wire wrapped in plastic, with each wire harness connected to an electrode. Power battery packs generally require multiple wire harnesses to cooperate, which takes up a lot of space. Compared to traditional power battery wiring harnesses, FPC flexible boards have significant advantages in terms of safety, lightweight battery packs, process flexibility, and automated production. In addition, FPC has the ability to be printed, and integrates NTC, fuses, etc. to monitor the temperature and voltage of the power battery pack in real time. The collected data is fed back to BMS. When it exceeds the set safety range, the fuse of the acquisition board will be blown in a timely manner to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the power battery.
The penetration rate of FPC battery soft boards will continue to increase. With the excellent performance demonstrated by FPC and the cost reduction and efficiency improvement brought by large-scale production, the trend of FPC replacing traditional wire harnesses is becoming increasingly evident. Since 2018, CATL and BYD have started to apply FPC in bulk in the pack process. Now, FPC solutions have become the main choice for new energy vehicle models. In the future, with the continuous launch of new models and the increasing proportion of new models, FPC battery soft boards will have greater permeability and development space.

With the power batteryFPCThe usage, value, and penetration rate of bicycles have increased rapidly, and the market size is expected to reach over 35 billion RMB by 2025. We assume that FPC will gradually replace wiring harnesses in new energy vehicle power batteries, with a penetration rate of 80% by 2025. The value of FPC per vehicle will gradually increase from 500 yuan to 1000 yuan, and the value of CCS per vehicle will be between 1000-2000 yuan. It is expected that the market size of FPC/CCS for new energy vehicle power batteries will exceed 35 billion yuan by 2025 and reach 80 billion yuan by 2030, with rapid growth in market size.
The entry barrier for power battery FPC is relatively high, and traditional soft board manufacturers will still occupy an advantageous supply position. On the one hand, due to the issue of electroplating environmental protection, it is difficult for new entrants to obtain pollution discharge quotas. On the other hand, battery modules integrate numerous components, and double-layer and multi-layer boards have high technical difficulties. Due to the long length of battery soft boards, roll to roll processes are required, as well as investment in new factory equipment. Soft board manufacturers also have certain thresholds for scale and funding. As domestic power battery manufacturers expand their production and gradually increase their market share, domestic power battery FPC manufacturers will also expand their production capacity, actively layout automotive electronics, and usher in a broader growth space.