Relationship between the growth of the autonomous driving industry and the batte

● Relationship between the growth of the autonomous driving industry and the battery industry

Tesla is scheduled to unveil the robotaxi on Oct. 10. Recently, Tesla also announced a roadmap for full self-driving (FSD) production, which states that its plans to launch the product in Europe and China in the first quarter of next year only leave regulators' approval. Will self-driving finally become a full-fledged trend?

Tesla will complete its AI ecosystem through self-driving. Tesla collects a lot of data through Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), which are implemented through its own AI chips. Tesla improves self-driving performance by continuously learning and updating AI models through its own supercomputer, Dojo. These AI and self-driving technologies will be expanded by being connected to Tesla's Optimus. Tesla's electric cars will ultimately increase the penetration speed for self-driving. While the electric car market passes through the cash cow, Tesla has an advantage in increasing its share through mass production and sales. In bad circumstances, other automakers have to bear losses to increase production, but Tesla can cover its margins with software sales at the same time. Now, Tesla is all set to evolve into a software company.

From 2018 to the second quarter of 2024, Tesla has produced approximately 6.13 million units cumulatively. The growth rate has continued to be 930,000 units in 2021, 1.37 million units in 2022, and 1.85 million units in 2023. Due to the influence of Casm, 2024 is expected to be similar to 2023. However, it is expected that 2025 will be able to achieve high growth again as before. This is because the $25,000 cheap electric car, the Model 2, is expected to be released in the second quarter of 2025. Tesla is aiming for a solid position in the popular electric vehicle market through the Model 2. The annual production target of Model 2 is about 4 million, which is expected to grow into Tesla's flagship model. Although the specifications of the battery have not yet been determined, the domestic battery industry is expected to benefit from it except China. The possibility of the Model 2's success can be found at a low price point first, but it is very important that Tesla's autonomous driving technology can be used as it is. In other words, the success of the Model 2 will play a very important role in both the battery industry and the autonomous driving industry.

The global autonomous vehicle market is expected to grow 42.3% per year on average from $1.88 billion in 2023 to $38.78 billion in 2032. This growth will lead to the shared growth of the battery industry. The development of autonomous vehicles increases the need for high-performance batteries. Battery innovations such as increased energy density, shortened charging time, and improved cost-efficiency lead to extended driving distances and improved operational efficiency of autonomous vehicles. Self-driving cars are advantageous in electric driving methods due to high power consumption and the installation of various electronic devices. For example, if an additional 1000 W of power is consumed based on full self-driving, an additional increase in battery energy density of 20 to 30 KWh is required to maintain a 500 km mileage. Ultimately, electric vehicles will have to reach a driving distance of 1000 km, accordingly, it is necessary to increase the charging speed along with an increase in energy density. Therefore, in the long run, it is expected that all-solid batteries can be an alternative to comprehensively improve the performance, safety, driving distance, and charging speed of autonomous vehicles. Although it will take a lot of time due to the technology problem of mass production of all-solid batteries and high prices, it can be an important task for the domestic battery industry to survive the technology competition with China.

In the global automobile industry, software defined vehicle (SDV) technology is attracting more attention along with the increase of electric vehicles. At the center of SDV technology is autonomous driving. Electric vehicles are more advantageous in software integration than conventional internal combustion locomotives. Security becomes a very important issue because SDV is always connected to the Internet and needs to communicate with vehicles, infrastructure, and cloud services. Of course, batteries are also targets of communication and security. Therefore, amid the trend of SDV and autonomous driving, the domestic battery industry can be an opportunity to demonstrate competitiveness again in the global automobile industry except China. In order for the Korean battery industry to seize an opportunity in the upcoming trend of autonomous driving, not only cooperation with global automakers but also efforts to support national technology development will be very important.