Key Findings 

It is expected that the in-vehicle motor market continues to grow in 2008. The total number of in-vehicle motors is expected to increase, as the number of motors used per vehicle increases, and offsetting the possible decrease of the number of passenger cars manufactured in Japan.　

Environment and safety systems are driving the market. Especially, hybrid system is trusted to drive the market growth as it requires additional 5-6 motors per vehicle compared to the conventional gasoline engine vehicles.　

In 2009, the in-vehicle motor market is expected to shrink, due to the considerable decrease in the number of passenger car production. In the long run, however, steady growth can be expected as the number of motors used per vehicle will increase due to the increased use of environment protection and safety improvement systems as well as user comfort and convenience improvement systems, and the recovery of passenger car production. The in-vehicle motor market in 2014 is expected to grow to 538.57 million units in volume and 624.1 billion yen in value.

Until 2008, the in-vehicle motor market has been growing in volume as well as in value supported by the increase of motor driven devices and systems installed on the passenger cars. The in-vehicle motor market for the domestic production passenger cars in 2008 has been estimated to be 428.4 million units (Y/y increase by 4.3%) in volume, and 505.3 billion yen (Y/y increase by 4.8%) in value.

Recently, the installation of newly developed motor driven devices and systems has been increasing in response to the increasing social demands for environment preservation (fuel economy improvement) and safety improvement. By replacing a conventional hydraulic drive system with the electronic control, motor drive system, it becomes possible to operate and control the system at the optimum efficiency. Thus, various new systems are being developed and launched into the market, such as a system to reduce energy loss, to support safety driving, and to avoid vehicle collision. This tendency will continue from now on and the number of motors used per vehicle will continue to increase.

It is especially likely that the hybrid vehicle lineup will be enhanced and the production volume increased, increasing the market size of hybrid system motors. On the hybrid system, expensive drive motors, high durability brushless motors for water and oil pumps will be required, in addition to the various devices and systems installed on the conventional vehicles, and attracting public attentions as a major driver for the growth of in-vehicle motor market in value as well as in volume.

On the conventional gasoline engine vehicles as well, increased use of motor drive devices and systems is expected regardless of the vehicle models or grades. On the luxury cars, the installation of environment and safety systems such as electronic control engine valves and active stabilizer, as well as user comfort systems such as separately control air conditioner will be increased. On SUV and middle class models, features and devices which used to be available only on luxury vehicles, such as AFS (Adaptive Front-lighting System) and Power Seat are expected to become available. On light cars and compact cars, there is a trend to offer power slide-door or power seat for differentiation, or to install motor drive turbo charger on a small engine to achieve high output power and fuel economy at the same time.

In addition, automakers are reviewing the possibility to install further motor drive systems such as EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) for fuel economy improvement and motor drive steering locking system coupled with keyless push start system on all models and grades. Thus, it is estimated that the increase of the number of in-vehicle motors will continue in the future.

In 2009, the in-vehicle motor market is expected to shrink, by 7-8 percent against the preceding year, due to the considerable decrease of domestic passenger car production, especially big impact on the luxury models, which use many in-vehicle motors.

In the meantime, the movement such as a series of new hybrid vehicle model launches and increase of sales, increased use of motor drive systems for environment and safety issues is likely to continue in the future as well. Based on these market conditions, the in-vehicle motor market in 2014 is estimated to be 538.57 million units in volume and 624.1 billion yen in value.