Demand for Automotive Busbars Highest in Asia-Pacific

A Story by rahul gautam

Rising Preference for Electric Vehicles Steering Busbar Use in Automotive Industry

As per the United Nations (UN), already in 2018, almost 55% of the people on earth lived in cities and this percentage will likely increase to 69% in 2050. One of the clearest effects of this is being witnessed in the rising sale of automobiles, which is, sadly, worsening the problem of air pollution. As a result, efforts are being taken around the world to encourage people to shift to electric vehicles (EVs), as they have an electric motor instead of a petrol (gasoline) or diesel engine, therefore are non-polluting.

The number of electric cars in operation around the world reached 7.2 million in 2019, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Therefore, P&S Intelligence expects the automotive busbar market size to reach $177.1 million by 2030 from $17.4 million in 2020, at a massive 24.6% CAGR between 2021 and 2030 (forecast period). This will be because busbars are rapidly replacing conventional wire-based conductors to ferry current to the various electronic systems of EVs and the motor from the battery.

Of low- and high-power busbars, more number of low-power busbars are utilized, as they are needed to ferry electricity from the charging stations to the battery modules and from there to the various electronic systems of the vehicle. In contrast, high-power busbars are only required to transfer power from the battery to the primary traction motor of the automobile and in powertrain inverters and AC/DC converters, which is why fewer of those are required per EV.

Based on conductor, aluminum and copper are the bifurcations of the automotive busbar market, of which the copper bifurcation held the larger share during the historical period (2015�"2020). This was because of copper’s long-standing presence as a preferred electricity conductor. Moreover, the metal is non-magnetic, easily machinable, and corrosion-resistant. During the forecast period, the faster growth will be witnessed in the aluminum bifurcation owing to aluminum’s lower molecular weight and inexpensive nature.

APAC is already the largest automotive manufacturer in the world, enabled by the cost-effective availability of raw materials and labor and less-stringent environmental regulations. As busbars are used in conventional vehicles as well, the status of APAC as the largest automobile manufacturer has led to a high-volume consumption of such materials. Further, many of the manufacturers of conventional automobiles in the region are transitioning to EVs, which will lead to an even higher demand for automotive busbars in the region in the years to come.

Hence, with the growing focus on EVs, the consumption of automotive busbars will rise too.

Source: P&S Intelligence