The modern vehicle architecture has evolved over the years with the amount of electronics increasing across the powertrain, body, chassis, safety and driver information domains. As the number of ECUs across the various domains has increased, so has the amount of data generated. In addition, the need to interconnect the data generated across the various domains has also become a core requirement. Complicating this interconnectivity, however, is the fact that there are several network technologies (CAN, LIN, MOST, Flexray, Ethernet) used in the vehicle to transport the data, with each network solution designed to accommodate different data rates depending on the functionality that needs to be supported.

Automotive gateway modules serve as bridges across the disparate domains and communications protocols in a vehicle E/E (electronic/electrical) architecture, translating data and allowing the various ECUs in a vehicle to share and use information across the powertrain, body, chassis, safety and driver information domains.

The Strategy Analytics Powertrain Body Chassis and Safety (PBCS) service report, “Gateway Module Market Outlook 2018 - 2027: Evolving Vehicle Architectures to Dictate Performance Focused Requirements (http://sa-link.cc/1rC)” finds that the use of central automotive gateway modules has grown in line with the growing complexity of vehicle electronics, serving to increase global penetration of central automotive gateway modules to almost 100% by 2027.

While new technology trends in the automotive industry typically start with penetration at premium marques, the implementation of automotive gateway modules is being driven by volume-focused OEMs such as Ford, Toyota and VW, and is seen as an investment that will enable service-oriented offerings and help vehicles to be made more efficiently and cheaply. Over the next several years, this emphasis combined with a range of other factors will coalesce to push gateway module computing from MCU (microcontroller)-based to SoC (system-on-chip)-based processing.

While the traditional E/E distributed architecture will continue to be underpinned by legacy heterogeneous automotive network technologies, the push towards higher bandwidth will be enabled by Ethernet serving as the backbone.

Infineon, NXP, Renesas, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments are the leading suppliers of MCUs and SoCs, and together with automotive grade Ethernet PHYs and switches from Broadcom and Marvell, serve to support automotive gateway module suppliers such as Bosch, Continental, Denso, FEV Europe Group, HiRain Technologies, Hitachi Automotive Systems and Huawei.

The “Gateway Module Market Outlook 2018 - 2027: Evolving Vehicle Architectures to Dictate Performance Focused Requirements” report profiles these system and semiconductor suppliers as well as detailing the market outlook for gateway modules and associated semiconductor demand.

Gateway module system shipments are forecast to grow at a CAAGR of 23.5% over 2019 – 2024 with the associated semiconductor demand growing to $2.5 billion by 2027. 

As the automotive gateway module becomes the central focal point for increasing volumes of data, issues of security including cybersecurity and the use of software and hypervisors will also become central to the automotive gateway module offering. Looking beyond the legacy architectures employed presently towards centralized architectures does not necessarily mean a diminishing role for the central gateway either, and as vehicle architectures embrace the concept of domain-based and location-based controllers, the role of the gateway module will also evolve.

Check out the report “Gateway Module Market Outlook 2018 - 2027: Evolving Vehicle Architectures to Dictate Performance Focused Requirements” (subscription required) for the full analysis and thanks for reading!

Feel free to contact me to discuss this post and the underlying questions raised. For more information on Strategy Analytics’ extensive coverage of the automotive industry, take a look at the PBCS (Powertrain, Body, Chassis & Safety), AVS (Autonomous Vehicles Service), AIT (Automotive Infotainment and Telematics) and ACM (Automotive Connected Mobility) services.