[Nai3t]

From CNBC: Bosch says the semiconductor supply chains in the car industry no longer work

"Electric cars need very powerful and efficient semiconductors in order to to get more range out of each kilowatt hour of battery, he added.​

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"UBS analyst Francois-Xavier Bouvignies told CNBC last week that cars with internal combustion engines typically use around $80 worth of semiconductors in the powertrain, but electric vehicles use around $550 worth."​

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I wonder what goes into this stat. Are processors used in EVs simply more expensive because they're newer designs, more complex, or manufactured in lower quantities?

There's no way an EV has 7x the number of chips in it. Is there?

I get that battery management, motor controllers, and regen braking are all processor-intensive tasks that aren't present in ICE vehicles, but what else is in play that explains this difference? ICE cars have a ton of microprocessors, too,

 

[TPG]

Think of power transistors etc. that pass a lot of current and have to be efficient.

 

[wtatun]

Right, more expensive chips, not necessarily the number of chips is 7x.

 

[Nai3t]

Good points, not just new and processor intensive, but CURRENT intensive! Yet still, that's quite the jump.

 

[Tinman]

Analyst is probably also bringing Teslas into his consideration.

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

One of expensive parts on the EV are motor controller.....AC-DC inverter....DC-DC converter and bunch of small modules.......infotainment screen and etc.
Being motor controller is most expensive peace and software development.

 

[Eddy Kilowatt]

Yeah... these are hundred-kilowatt class power semis... big chunks of silicon... and in any recent designs (Tesla for sure), made with wide-bandgap materials like silicon carbide that are still a ways up on the cost curve. The traction inverter will be a 150-400 kW piece of hardware, and the battery chargers are mostly being designed bidirectional (for V2G), requiring power stages on both sides of the transformer in the 100-200 kW range. The DC-DC that powers the 12V bus is just a few kW, but that's a few hundred amperes, so again, more of that expensive glassy stuff. FETs aren't patterned as finely as processors, but as finely as possible given the economics and performance benefits, and undoubtedly require some pretty advanced fab work on dedicated lines.