The EV market is poised to enter a decade of robust growth starting 2021 amid the maturing infrastructure for new energy vehicles, prompting Taiwan's automotive PCB vendors including Chin-Poon industrial to step up deployments in the segment, particularly the markets in the US and Europe, according to industry sources.

Global EV sales are likely to reach a maximum of 14 million units in 2025, compared to only two million in 2020 that account for only 2% of total global car sales, the sources said, citing estimates from research bodies. The sales growth for EVs will be much higher than that for the entire car market in the next few years, the sources added.

Chin-Poon opined that the Europe EV market will see the most promising prospects, given that automakers in the region, after making total investments of EUR60 billion in the EV segment in 2019, are ready to carry out 2021 EV production plans that will see total output volume four times that of 2019.

It is natural for Taiwan automotive board makers to deepen deployments in the US and Europe markets, as they have built close partnerships with traditional automakers in the regions and can more easily obtain PCB orders for EVs they are planning to produce, the sources said. Additionally, new EV vendors in the US usually rely on first-tier automotive components suppliers, who have long sourced PCBs from Taiwan partners, the sources added.

China's EV market is developing at a faster pace than other regions under the subsidy policy of the government, but the policy has also led to adoption of more components by homegrown suppliers while fueling price-cutting competition. As a result, Taiwan automotive PCB makers can hardly secure profitable shipments if they want to tap the China market, the sources noted.

Total value of PCBs used in an EV is estimated at over US$100, compared to around US$60 for a traditional car, and thick copper boards will be massively needed for EV applications to support high heat dissipation and power capacity requirements, apart from traditional multi-layer rigid boards as mainstay offering, the sources said.