The "Body (Zone) Domain Controller and Chip Industry Research Report, 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Body (Zone) Domain Research: ZCU Installation Exceeds 2 Million Units, Evolving Towards a 'Plug-and-Play' Modular Platform

The body (zone) domain covers BCM (Body Control Module), BDC (Body Domain Controller), and ZCU (Zone Controller). From the perspective of the control systems they manage, the functional integration is becoming increasingly high:

BCM controls body auxiliary electrical appliances such as doors, windows, lights, rearview mirrors, and wipers, and can generally directly drive actuators. The number of BCMs in a vehicle ranges from 1 to 2.

BDC drives lower-level modules, such as lighting modules, door modules, seat modules, thermal management modules, etc. Different manufacturers have different body control strategies, so the functional integration is not completely consistent. Some will integrate functions such as air conditioning thermal management, gateways, TPMS, etc., while others exist in the form of separate body domain controllers and gateways. The number of BDCs in a vehicle varies from 1 to 3.

ZCU is a zone controller divided according to physical location. In addition to body control functions, it can also integrate gateway, power distribution, and some chassis domain and powertrain domain functions across domains, replacing the original ECUs with a single MCU with strong computing power. According to the current plans of various OEMs, the number of ZCUs in a vehicle ranges from 2 to 4.

As a key role in the transformation of automotive electronic and electrical architecture (EEA), ZCU is leading the industry to a new stage of development. It integrates the functions of multiple originally scattered electronic control units (ECUs) and centrally manages and controls related systems according to the physical zones or functional domains of the vehicle.

According to the publisher, in 2024, the market size of the body (zone) (including traditional BCM, BDC, and ZCU) domain in Chinese passenger car market will exceed 15.62 billion yuan. Among them, in 2024, the penetration rate of ZCU has reached 8.83%, with an installation of over 2 million units and a market size of 3.93 billion yuan. In the future, ZCU will become the largest market growth driver.

Under the trends of reducing costs and increasing efficiency of the entire vehicle and automotive intelligence, zone controllers have become an inevitable trend. The main development directions of zone controllers include:

Trend 1: MCU Less Technology

• Hardware Integration: Replace scattered low-end MCUs with multi-core high-performance MCUs. The cost of a single multi-core MCU is 40% lower than that of multiple low-end MCUs. For example, the MCU Less intelligent drivers of Marelli/Texas Instruments/STMicroelectronics have completely migrated the headlight control software to the domain controller, supporting OTA updates of dynamic lighting scenes.
• Power Consumption Reduction: Integrated design reduces redundant circuits, and energy consumption decreases by 20%.
• Software Definition: Dynamically schedule atomic services by the central HPC through the SOA architecture, reducing the dependence on local MCUs and supporting OTA seamless upgrades.

Trend 2: Edge AI Computing

• Edge Computing: The main control MCU of the zone controller is equipped with an AI acceleration core (such as ARM CMSIS-NN) to achieve localized image recognition and decision-making.

Trend 3: Smart Power Devices such as SmartFET

• Functional Integration: Replace traditional MOSFETs, integrate overcurrent/overheat protection and current monitoring, and be used for power management of ZCU (such as LED lighting, motor control).
• Scene Adaptation: Support three types of loads: inrush current (bulbs), flyback voltage (motors), and precise current detection (LEDs).

Trend 4: Real-time Performance and Safety Redundancy

• Cross-domain scheduling requires microsecond-level response and supports AUTOSAR Adaptive/Classic dual stacks.
• Multi-core MCUs need to meet ISO 26262 ASIL-D certification, and hardware redundancy design increases costs (such as lockstep core technology).

Trend 5: Plug & Play, ZCU Modularization

• Through 'hardware abstraction layer' of zone controller, 'one set of software adapts to all vehicle models' is realized, and the zone controller becomes a 'plug-and-play' module, shortening the vehicle model development cycle to 12 months.
• Infineon and Flextronics (Flex) cooperate to plan to launch a modular zone controller platform, with a series of solutions such as optimized power distribution, gateway, and motor control.
• Plug & Play, a general modular assemblable and pluggable zone optimization controller, including a central processing module and pluggable modules. The central processing module includes a central processing unit, a storage unit connected to the central processing unit, and several slots. Among them, each slot with hardware identification function can identify by reading the built-in information and encryption key of the chip of the pluggable module to prevent illegal installation and access.

Trend 6: Introduction of 10BASE-T1S

• 10M in-vehicle Ethernet can be applied to most vehicle functional systems such as power systems, chassis systems, body systems, audio systems, and ultrasonic radars. After the technology matures, it will replace the existing vehicle CAN bus system and promote the disappearance of some edge MCUs.
• OEMs are gradually forming a vehicle E/E architecture design framework of central computing + zone, continuously reducing the number of ECU controllers, reducing the weight of wiring harnesses, increasing the number of SOA atomized packages, and shortening the OTA function development cycle.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Definition and Deployment of ZCUs

• Definition and Deployment of Zonal Control Architectures
• Definition and Classification of Automotive EEAs
• Evolution of Automotive EEA
• EEA Deployment and Trends in the Next Five Years
• BCM vs BDC vs ZCU in Functions
• Comparison among BCMs, BDCs and ZCUs in Hardware Architectures
• ZCU Hardware Frameworks
• ZCU Hardware Composition
• Definition and Deployment of BDCs
• Main Integrated Functions of BDCs
• Solutions of Integrating BDCs with Air Conditioning Systems
• Functional Integration of BDCs of Tier 1 Suppliers
• Feature 1 of BDC Hardware Platforms: Output Control
• Feature 2 of BDC Hardware Platforms: Input Acquisition
• BDC Load Driver IC Selection
• BDC Hardware Design Based on SemiDrive G9X

2 Shipments and Market Share of BDCs and ZCUs

• ZCU Shipments and Market Share of Suppliers
• ZCU Installations in Passenger Cars in China, 2024
• OEM Market Share of Passenger Car ZCU Suppliers in China, 2024
• ZCU Installations in Passenger Cars, 2023
• ZCU Installations in Passenger Cars in China, 2023-2030E
• ZCU Installations in OEM Models
• ZCU Installations in OEM Models
• Comparison of OEMs' ZCU Solutions
• ZCU Solution of Xiaomi EEA1.0 (SU7), EEA1.5 (YU7)
• ZCU Solution of Leapmotor "LEAP3.5" Architecture
• ZCU Solution of Voyah "Tianyuan" Architecture
• ZCU Solution of FAW Hongqi "FEEA3.0" Architecture
• ZCU Solution of IM Motors "Z-ONE Full-stack 3.0"
• ZCU Solution of Changan Automobile "SDA" Architecture
• ZCU Solution of GAC "X-soul" Architecture
• ZCU Solution of Huawei Smart Selection "Jie"
• Shipments and Supplier Market Share of Vehicle Body Domain
• Content-per-car Value of BDCs
• China Passenger Car Body Market Size Assumption Base, 2020-2030E
• Market Size of China's Passenger Car Body Domain (Traditional BCM/BDC/ZCU), 2020-2030E
• Pre-installed Market Share of BCM (including BDC) Suppliers for Chinese Independent Brand Passenger Cars, 2023-2024

3 ZCU Deployment Solution of OEMs

• Xiaomi Auto
• Xpeng
• NIO
• ONVO
• Voyah
• FAW Hongqi
• Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA)
• Huawei
• AITO
• Leapmotor
• Li Auto
• BYD
• Chery
• Changan
• Deepal
• Avatr
• GAC
• Geely
• Zeekr
• SAIC
• IM Motors
• Tesla
• BMW
• Volkswagen

4 ZCU Solutions and Supply Chain Analysis

• Continental
• UAES
• Infineon
• OFILM
• Aptiv
• Jingwei Hirain
• NXP
• TI (Texas Instruments)
• G-Pulse Electronics
• AutoChips
• Marelli
• STMicroelectronics (ST)
• ZLG
• Broadcom
• Marvell
• ZQWL
• Motorcomm
• Onsemi
• ADI (Analog Devices)
• BMW
• Microchip
• Bosch
• Volvo
• SIT
• Rsemi
• Sony
• ICatch Technology
• Valens
• Inova
• ROHM
• Silergy
• Norelsys
• VelinkTech
• Novosense Microelectronics
• AIM DHL
• Tesla
• Xpeng
• NIO
• SAIC
• Xiaomi Auto
• KKChips
• Sillumin Semiconductor
• Chipanalog
• Changan Automobile

5 Research on Chinese ZCU Solution Players

• Huawei
• Joyson Electronics
• H&T
• Jingwei Hirain
• Steelmate
• ATECH
• G-Pulse
• FMT
• Desay SV

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/sf15f4

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