The Development Status Of Electric Motors In Today's Society

The electric motor industry is experiencing a period of rapid technological iteration and expanding application areas, with efficiency, intelligence, and integration as core development directions. The following will review the development status of the electric motor industry from the perspectives of market size, technological trends, competitive landscape, challenges, and opportunities.

1. Market Size and Growth

The market of China electric motors has maintained steady growth, primarily driven by energy efficiency upgrades under the "dual carbon" goals, innovations in smart manufacturing scenarios, and global opportunities brought about by the Belt and Road Initiative.

Industrial electric Motor Market: China's industrial motor market is projected to exceed 220 billion yuan by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8%-10%.

Overall Motor Market: Data indicates that China's motor market will reach approximately 300 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of approximately 7.73%, and is expected to exceed 350 billion yuan by 2025. Another report indicates that China's motor market will exceed 1.2 trillion yuan in 2024.

Growth in Subsectors: Demand for high-performance motors continues to grow in emerging sectors such as new energy vehicles and industrial robots. The control motor segment, in particular, is experiencing significantly higher growth than the industry average, reaching 15%.

2. Technology Development Trends

Motor technology is undergoing a transformation from a "mechanical device" to a "digital terminal," primarily reflected in the following aspects:

High Efficiency: The proportion of high-efficiency motors meeting IE4 and IE5 energy efficiency standards continues to rise, projected to increase from 5% in 2025 to 30% in 2030. This directly impacts the operating costs and carbon emissions of downstream users. For example, a single high-efficiency motor can save over 2,000 kWh of electricity annually.

Intelligence & Integration: Intelligent motors integrate sensors and edge computing capabilities, enabling fault prediction (with up to 95% accuracy) and adaptive control (reducing energy consumption fluctuations to as little as ±3%). "Three-in-one" electric drive systems (integrating motor, reducer, and controller) are becoming mainstream, reducing size and improving transmission efficiency.

Expanding Application of Brushless DC Motors (BLDC): BLDC motors, due to their advantages such as high efficiency, high torque density, low noise, and long life, are seeing increasing adoption in home appliances, consumer electronics, industrial automation, and new energy vehicles, becoming a key development trend in the motor industry.

New Materials and Processes: The application of new materials such as amorphous alloy cores and nanocrystalline soft magnetic materials can help reduce iron losses (by up to 50%), while high-performance permanent magnet materials such as neodymium iron boron can improve motor power density and efficiency.

3. Competitive Landscape

China's motor industry exhibits a multi-tiered and multi-layered competitive landscape, with market concentration continuing to rise. Technological iteration and global expansion are key variables.

International giants such as Siemens motor, ABB, Teco and Nidec maintain technological and brand advantages in the high-end market, leading the trend toward high efficiency, energy saving, and intelligent systems.

Domestic leading companies such as Wolong Electric hold a significant domestic market share (approximately 4.5%) in electric drive system solutions and have considerable influence in the global market. Inovance also has strong capabilities in industrial automation control and new energy vehicle electric drives.

The new energy vehicle motor market segment: This is a rapidly growing key sector. Fudi Power (a subsidiary of BYD) leads the market in installed capacity by a significant margin, leveraging its strong sales of its own models. Although Huawei does not manufacture cars, its motors have also achieved significant installations, ranking at the forefront of the market. Inovance United Power is also a key player.

Numerous small and medium-sized enterprises: These are primarily concentrated in traditional mid- and low-end product areas, where competition is fierce. However, some specialized and innovative companies, such as Sankyo Motor, have also established advantages in specific niches (such as micro motors and robotic servo motors).

4. Challenges and Risks

The development of the industry is also accompanied by certain challenges and risks:

Raw material price fluctuations: Major raw materials such as copper and rare earths account for a high proportion of the cost (can exceed 60%), and these price fluctuations directly impact company profitability.

Risks of Technological Upsurge: The emergence of new technologies, such as silicon carbide (SiC) power devices, could have a disruptive impact on existing electronic control technologies, requiring companies to maintain high levels of R&D investment (for example, some companies maintain a stable R&D investment ratio of 3.5%-3.7%).

Regional Concentration and Market Development: Many domestic companies' businesses remain highly concentrated in economically developed regions such as East China and South China. Expanding into central and western markets and accelerating global expansion are key to balancing risks and achieving growth.

International Trade Barriers: Technical and trade barriers such as EU carbon tariffs and US anti-dumping investigations may impact exports, requiring companies to proactively address them, such as by considering localized production overseas.

5. Future Outlook

By 2030, China's industrial motor industry is expected to exhibit the following characteristics:

Increasing Market Concentration: The industry's CR5 (market share concentration among the top five companies) is expected to rise to 55%, and two or three globally influential companies with market capitalization exceeding 100 billion yuan may emerge.

Green and Intelligent Popularization: The penetration rate of smart motors and high-efficiency energy-saving motors is expected to exceed 80%, and carbon emissions over the product lifecycle will decrease by 35% compared to 2025.

Value reconstruction: The business model has shifted from "single equipment sales" to providing comprehensive solutions such as "energy efficiency management + carbon services", and the proportion of service revenue is expected to exceed 30%.