Beijing Jingwei HiRain Technologies Co., Inc. (“HiRain”) and Anhui YOFC Advanced Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (“YASC”) recently signed a strategic partnership agreement. In the future, the companies will fully leverage their respective resource strengths in automotive powertrain and silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors to jointly drive automotive-grade certification, mass production and delivery of homegrown SiC modules, therefore fostering high-quality development of the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry.
With the broad application and popularization of 800V high-voltage platforms over recent years, the automotive SiC market has continued to grow rapidly. However, there are challenges in relevant areas, such as technological gaps, patent barriers and difficulties in automotive-grade certification, although China’s SiC industry has accelerated localization with the policy support. The next few years (2025-2030) will be a critical period of explosive growth for China’s SiC industry, driven by both the policy and market demand.
In the cooperation, the companies will work closely to forge a strategic partnership featuring complementarity, resource sharing and common development that capitalizes on HiRain’s multi-year technology expertise and mature product experience in automotive powertrain, and harnesses YASC’s vertical integration advantages in SiC power semiconductors. They will take concerted efforts to develop high-performance SiC power modules, and jointly drive optimization and improvement, productization and commercialization, automotive-grade test and certification, mass production and delivery of the modules.
“In the backdrop of rapid iterations of NEVs, the high-performance SiC power modules have become the high ground in industry competition. The vertical technology integration capabilities of YASC, one of the leading SiC semiconductor companies in China, are highly complementary to the system-level development experience, delivery capabilities and global automotive customer resources of HiRain in NEV powertrain,” said Ji Yingcun, Chairman of HiRain. “The partnership represents a strong synergy of our technological capabilities, setting the bar for collaborative innovation in the upstream and downstream across the domestic automotive supply chain. Together, we will define the performance boundaries of automotive-grade SiC modules, and through rapid validation and production capacity coordination, we are committed to providing global automakers with solutions that combine technology leadership and supply chain resilience.”
“HiRain, one of the leading automotive electronics system technology service providers in China, has accumulated profound experience and considerable industry influence in automotive powertrain,” said Zhuang Dan, Executive Director and President of YOFC and Chairman of YASC. “The cooperation holds great strategic significance. YASC will take this opportunity to further boost technological innovation, accelerate breakthroughs in core technologies for homegrown automotive-grade chips, collaborate with industry partners to improve product quality, and promote coordinated development of automotive and chip industries.”
About HiRain
Founded in 2003, HiRain (688326.SH) focuses on providing customers in automobile and unmanned transportation fields with electronic products, R&D services and overall solutions for high-level intelligent driving. Headquartered in Beijing, HiRain has established modern production plants in Tianjin, Nantong and Malaysia, forming a perfect R&D, production, marketing and service system. Based on the concept of “value innovation and serve customers”, the company adheres to the strategies of “professional focus”, “technology leadership” and “platform development”, and is committed to becoming a world-class comprehensive electronic system technology service provider, a full stack solution supplier for intelligent connected vehicles and a leader in high-level intelligent driving MaaS solutions.
About YASC
YASC is an IDM company specializing in the development and manufacturing of silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductor products. It has the full manufacturing capabilities of epitaxial processing, product design, wafer fabrication, assembly and testing. YASC owns the best class 6”/8” production line equipment and advanced supporting system. It offers a full range of SiC SBD and MOSFET products from industrial grade to automotive grade, covering wide applications for new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, energy storage, power supply, charging station and smart grid.
