According to the company's information, recently, Ideal Motors has established a new company, Sichuan Ideal Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. The company's business scope includes integrated circuit chip design and service, road motor vehicle production, auto parts and accessories manufacturing, sales of electrical accessories for new energy vehicles, and sales of complete new energy vehicles.

　　According to the equity penetration chart, Ideal Zhidong is wholly-owned by Leading Ideal HK Limited, an affiliated company of Ideal Auto, with a registered capital of 100 million yuan, and the legal representative is George Li. It is understood that George Li is also the general manager of Faurecia (Changshu) Auto Parts Co., Ltd. In addition, supervisor Feng Weili is also a supervisor of a number of Li Auto related companies.

　　This may mean that Li Auto may be developing its own automotive chips, which will be used in subsequent models.

　　Ideal Zhidong Technology Industrial and Commercial Information, Image Source: Qichacha

　　From an ideal perspective, as early as 2020, Wang Kai, the CTO of Ideal Auto, once said: Whether or not to develop a self-developed chip is a matter of data, not a forehead decision.

　　Previously, Li Auto also encountered a shortage of millimeter-wave radar chips due to the impact of the epidemic. New cars had to be reduced in delivery, and the terminal sales of products were also greatly affected. Because of this, Li Auto has a deeper appeal for self-developed chips.

　　At the same time, the choice of self-research may also be based on the degree of freedom to a certain extent. After all, Huawei’s restrictions on the chip level in the Sino-US trade friction are enough to serve as a lesson for the future.

　　So, what kind of chip does the ideal car want to make? Most likely an autonomous driving chip.

　　In fact, self-developed chips by car companies have become a key option for intelligent layout. And what the ideal car wants to do may be to establish a closed loop of self-driving capabilities like Tesla.

　　In 2016, former AMD chief architect Jim Keller joined Tesla as vice president of hardware engineering for Autopilot. In just three years, Tesla launched its self-developed self-driving chip, completing the transition from a supplier model to self-developed. Each Tesla is equipped with two chips, and the AI ​​computing power of a single chip reaches 36TOPS. It is also these two autopilot chips that have established the industry benchmark status of Tesla's L2-level autopilot function.

　　Tesla's self-developed chip, picture source: Tesla

　　At the same time, Tesla, which ran the road of self-developed chips, once again stirred up this blue ocean. Other OEMs have seen the future of intelligence, and at the same time hope to further break the limitations of software and hardware, create a closed loop of autonomous driving capabilities, and achieve a real "qualitative change" at the level of autonomous driving, especially those like Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal. A highly sensitive new force car company.

　　Taking Weilai as an example, as early as 2020, there were media reports that Weilai Automobile was planning to develop a self-driving chip, which was personally promoted by the founder Li Bin. According to people familiar with the matter, last year, Weilai also dug Hu Chengchen, who was the director of Xilinx’s Asia-Pacific laboratory, and Bai Jian, the former general manager of Xiaomi’s chip and forward-looking research department. The two have very rich experience in chip front-end design.

　　For Ideal, the 2020 Li Li ONE, 2021 Li Li Li ONE and Li Li L9 are equipped with autonomous driving chips from three different suppliers: Mobileye, Horizon and Nvidia.

　　Ideal car wants to have a "more autonomous" self-driving chip installed in a new car. Coupled with the self-developed self-driving algorithm that has been deployed for a long time, it is reasonable for Ideal Auto to develop self-driving chips.

　　Li Li L9 new car cockpit, picture source: Li Li Auto

　　In addition, it is worth noting that in February this year, Beijing Chehejia Technology Co., Ltd. also established a joint venture with SiC manufacturer Hunan Sanan Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

　　It is understood that in recent years, SiC has been very popular in the chip industry. Tesla, BYD and other models have already applied SiC modules in cars. Therefore, self-developed SiC chips may also be one of the ideal layouts.

　　In fact, from the current organizational structure of the company, there is no specific layout of the ideal intelligent movement. Is Li Auto developing its own chip, what chip is it researching, and what is the current progress? It may also take until the time is ripe before it will be announced to the public.

      This article is reproduced from Gasgoo