The Increasing Popularity of Electric Vehicles Promotes the Wire Harness Integration in the Automotive Industry

A large number of wire harnesses are integrated into electric vehicles (EVs) because they have more electrical and electronic components than those driven by internal combustion engines (ICE). Electric vehicles need these wires to transmit electricity and a large amount of data generated by them. Therefore, the increasing adoption of electric vehicles in the United States, China, Germany and Japan, especially pure electric vehicles (BEV), will promote the adoption of wiring looms in the automotive industry in the next few years.

In addition, the installation of advanced functions in ICE-driven cars, especially passenger cars, will drive the automotive Wiring Harness market at a compound annual growth rate of 4.7% during the forecast period (2020-2030). In 2019, the market value was USD 42.8 billion, and it is expected to reach USD 59.3 billion by 2030. The demand for connection function, automatic driving system and advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) is increasing, including radar sensor, LiDAR sensor and speed sensor, which will drive the demand of automotive wiring harness.

The promotion part of automotive wiring harness market is divided into ICE and EV. In 2019, the ICE category occupied a larger market share due to the rapid integration of connection functions and electronic functions (e.g., thermal sensors and speed sensors) in ICE-based vehicles to improve the safety of passengers. In addition, since the production of diesel-powered vehicles still exceeds that of electric vehicles, it is expected that this category will maintain its dominant position in the forecast period.

Manufacturers of these vehicles use wiring harnesses in chassis, engines, speed sensors, car bodies and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. All these components are equipped with copper or aluminum wires, which are used to transmit current at different voltages. At present, due to the increasing integration of advanced electronic functions (such as HMI module) and passenger cars (mainly sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and cars).

According to P&S Intelligence, the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) dominates the automotive wiring harness market due to the mass production of automobiles in China, India, South Korea and Japan. In addition, the widespread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV) in China and Japan will boost the demand for automotive wire harness in the next few years. Due to the increasing automobile production in Mexico and other countries, Latin America, Middle East and Africa (LAMEA) market will witness the fastest growth in the foreseeable future.