Automobile IC vendor NXP Semiconductors and ODM Inventec recently announced their partnership to create an industrial ecosystem in Taiwan for automobile electronics products. The setup is claiming to target five modules, ultra-wideband smart car access systems, central gateways, vehicle-grade servers, e-cockpits, and vehicle-grade wireless chargers. Inventec chairman Tom Cho said Inventec will concentrate on electric controllers to create “Server in Car,” converting cars into mobile offices.
Elton Tsang, sales director for Greater China at NXP, stated that collaboration between the two companies has been slick. In spite of being the world’s largest server motherboard maker and the fourth largest notebook ODM, Inventec has had a tough time attracting automobile buyers. Inventec vice president of the automotive electronics R&D centre Rai-Jin Li expressed Taiwan’s electronics industry is actually well set in the automobile electronics sector. However, Taiwanese manufactories are not well-known in this field. The cooperation with NXP will help Inventec and other Taiwanese makers gain recognition.
NXP brings to the coalition its extensive background in the automobile market, which will be greatly beneficial due to the complexity of automobile-grade specifications and certifications. Following the statement of their cooperation with Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) and now Inventec, the market is interested to see who NXP will work with next. Tsang said NXP is discussing many different plans and will definitely continue to expand cooperation and investments in Taiwan. Not only will NXP continue to increase upstream and downstream partnerships, but it will also invest more resources into manufacturing and design, while also expanding capacity and its workforce.
Li pointed out that “Inventec’s production bases in Taiwan, Shanghai, Chongqing, Mexico, and the Czech Republic have all made considerable progress in applying for automotive-related certifications, including ISO 26262, ISO 21434, and ISO 21448, VDA 6.3, and Automotive SPICE. Inventec’s China factories in Shanghai and Chongqing will focus on local customers, while the Mexico factory will service American automakers and the Czech factory European automakers. The Taiwan factory will focus on new product introduction (NPI) and two-wheeled vehicles. The company is also setting up production lines and is expected to start producing automotive electronic products in 2022. Inventec already has 400 automotive-related R&D engineers, with plans to expand to 600.”
