Driven by intelligent driving technology, the application and demand for ball screws in linear actuators within chassis systems are growing. The continuous progress of current intelligent driving technology places stricter requirements on vehicle chassis systems, especially in key application scenarios such as steer-by-wire, brake-by-wire, and active suspension.
The market demand for linear actuators composed of motors, ball screws, and sensors is expected to grow significantly, specifically reflected in the following aspects:
1) Steer-by-wire: The current mainstream technology is EPS (Electric Power Steering), where R-EPS (Rack-mounted EPS) can use ball screws. When the motor position is closer to the steering gear, the efficiency of power assist transmission is significantly improved. R-EPS is known for its low noise, fast power assist response, and large power assist output. Although relatively costly, it is very suitable for medium, large, and extra-large vehicles.
2) Brake-by-wire: Ball screws are used in EMB (Electro-Mechanical Brake). The core difference between EMB and traditional braking systems is that it needs to convert the rotary motion of the motor into the linear motion of the brake pad, which can usually be achieved through various transmission methods such as ball screws, linkages, and electro-hydraulic combination. Ball Screws, especially planetary roller ball screws, with their excellent load capacity, large equivalent reduction ratio, high transmission efficiency, high transmission accuracy, excellent synchronization performance, and transmission reversibility, are expected to be widely used in EMB.
3) Active suspension: Ball screws are used as actuator components in active suspension systems. In this application, ball screws can convert bidirectional rotation into unidirectional rotation of the motor shaft and effectively increase the motor speed, thereby avoiding the high-frequency forward and reverse rotation issues of regenerative motors and thus improving energy recovery efficiency. Additionally, this mechanism has many advantages such as a wide damping force adjustment range, high structural reliability, high transmission efficiency, and low cost.
The automotive ball screw market has broad prospects, expected to exceed 7 billion yuan by 2025. Based on the strong demand for ball screws from new energy vehicles, we calculate the automotive ball screw market with the following assumptions:
1) According to data released by the CPCA for 2023, passenger car annual sales reached 21.7 million units, of which new energy vehicle sales were 7.74 million units. The passenger car market will maintain a stable annual growth of 1%.
2) Only consider the application of ball screws in new energy vehicles, mainly using ball screws and planetary roller ball screws.
3) Regarding price, we assume the unit price of planetary roller screws is 1500 yuan, and the unit price of ball screws is 400 yuan, expecting these prices to decrease year by year.
Overall, the automotive ball screw market shows strong growth potential. It is expected that by 2025, the total market size will exceed 7 billion yuan.