Freescale, Chery agree to collaborate

June 5, 2008
Freescale and Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. plan to establish a joint automotive lab aimed at co-developing silicon, software, and system-level solutions

Freescale and Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. plan to establish a joint automotive lab aimed at co-developing silicon, software, and system-level solutions for use in Chery vehicles for Chinese and export markets.

Freescale and Chery have worked together on powertrain and engine control projects and plan to explore joint development in body electronics, hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and in-vehicle entertainment electronics. The collaboration is expected to involve a range of Freescale MCU platforms including 32-bit Power Architecture MCUs, 16-bit S12X, and 8-bit S08 devices, as well as analog power management ICs.

The two companies, in concert with third-party partners, plan to co-develop electronic control unit (ECU) hardware and low-level drivers, high-level software interface and modeling tools, demonstration boards, in-vehicle networking solutions, body control modules, and HEV control units.

Chery recently developed its own EMS using Freescale’s S12XE MCUs for the entry-level automotive market. This EMS will be used in Chery vehicles manufactured in production volume. Chery plans to migrate its next-generation EMS to 32-bit MCU technology and is eyeing Freescale’s MPC55xx family of Power Architecture MCUs.

Automotive manufacturing in China – the world's second largest automotive market after the United States – grew by more than 22% in 2007 to 8.8 million vehicle units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (www.caam.org.cn). China exported 413,500 finished vehicles, including cars, buses and trucks, in the first 10 months of 2007, up 64% from the same period of 2006, according to Commerce Ministry figures. The majority of China’s automotive exports target developing nations. According to the auto research firm J.D. Power and Associates (www.jdpower.com), China could overtake the United States as the world’s top automotive market some time after 2015.

Sponsored Recommendations

Highly Integrated 20A Digital Power Module for High Current Applications

March 20, 2024
Renesas latest power module delivers the highest efficiency (up to 94% peak) and fast time-to-market solution in an extremely small footprint. The RRM12120 is ideal for space...

Empowering Innovation: Your Power Partner for Tomorrow's Challenges

March 20, 2024
Discover how innovation, quality, and reliability are embedded into every aspect of Renesas' power products.

Article: Meeting the challenges of power conversion in e-bikes

March 18, 2024
Managing electrical noise in a compact and lightweight vehicle is a perpetual obstacle

Power modules provide high-efficiency conversion between 400V and 800V systems for electric vehicles

March 18, 2024
Porsche, Hyundai and GMC all are converting 400 – 800V today in very different ways. Learn more about how power modules stack up to these discrete designs.

Comments

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Electronic Design, create an account today!