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Automotive brakes have progressed from drum brakes on both front and rear setup to Front Disc and Rear drum in 1980s and moving on to All disc setup in late 1990s and early 2000s. Now integration of Electric parking brake to rear callipers has been a growing trend for past 5 years.
The Auto industry was already battling decline in sales since 2018 due to slowing demand from China, US and India until COVID-19 brought it to a standstill. The impact will be felt for a longer duration by auto manufacturers as well as brake market which is an integral part of the automotive industry.
US is world`s second biggest automotive brakes market and the growing integration of ADAS with brakes on many top-selling vehicles makes it an even important brakes market
Honda offers the same setup i.e., Power-Assisted Ventilated Front Disc/Solid Rear Disc Brakes (front/rear) on all its top-selling vehicles like CRV, Civic and Accord. Since 2019 Honda also offers Honda Sensing ADAS suite as a Standard fitment which includes Collision Mitigation Braking System; Road Departure Mitigation; Lane Keeping Assist System; and Adaptive Cruise Control.
Toyota offers an array of ADAS features (Safety Sense) as a standard fitment on Camry, Corolla, RAV4 among other vehicles.
Europe was the only market where Auto sales grew in 2019(+1% YOY) to 15.1 Million vehicles. In 2020, Europe had been adversely affected by COVID-19 and sales dipped by 24% YOY i.e.,11.5M units
Europe with more than 20% share of premium cars in new car sales has all- disc setup on more than 80% vehicles sold in the region.
Among top-selling vehicles, A, B segment vehicles like VW Polo, Renault Clio get a Front Disc, rear drum setup on base and mid variants. Even, the higher variants along with Sports variants get an all-Disc setup with front ventilated discs in many cases. Citroen C3 gets a front disc, rear drum setup as a standard fitment though. The penetration of disc brakes at both sets of wheels are higher and there are few models with drum brakes fitted at rear.
Most of the Hyundai models had disc brakes at both front and rear locations. Toyota models have been equipped with “Collision Mitigation Braking System” is most of their models, along with standard electronic parking brake, rear cross traffic alert with automatic braking.
The average front disc size ranges from 260-280mm with 22/24 mm thickness whereas the rear disc size varies from 250-260mm and 8-10mm thickness.
In China where, 95 OEMs sold 21.1 Million vehicles in 2019(~8% decline YOY). In 2020, the auto production declined by ~7% due to COVID-19, one of the least affected markets among major countries. About 19.3 M vehicles were sold in 2020.
In many low-cost domestic compact crossovers, Front Ventilated disc and rear disc setup is a standard fitment. Front Disc, rear drum setup as preferred by many other emerging countries is not that common in China with the exception of Nissan Sylphy (only on base variant).
Many top-selling mid-segment vehicles like Toyota Corolla, Haval H6 and others have Electronic Parking brake as a standard fitment.
China is world`s biggest commercial vehicle market and like US and Europe, ABS is mandatory on all heavy trucks.
India auto market declined by 11% in 2019(YOY) and in 2020 market fell by at-least 17% due to the impact of COVID-19.
Maruti-Suzuki, the market leader in India offers Front Disc, rear drum setup on all cars except Suzuki S- Cross.
Hyundai, the second biggest market player in India offers almost its entire portfolio with Front Disc, rear drum setup. In 2009, Hyundai became the first OEM in India to offer all disc setup on a Premium hatchback with the launch of i20 but soon that setup was swapped with the ubiquitous Front Disc, rear setup.
In the top selling models like Kia Seltos and Sonet disc brake is standard fitment at front whereas, at rear disc brakes are option feature as drum brakes are standard.
In high volume MG vehicles at front & rear disc brakes are quite common and also electric parking brake is a common feature in these vehicles.
Most of the Tata models in India have disc brake at front & drum brakes at the rear, only exception being new Safari model.
Mahindra’s vehicles have disc brake standard for all the wheels in most of their models. At front it is mostly ventilated disc a calliper type.
Electric parking brake feature is so far reserved for the premium segment only. As many ADAS features (Radar and camera based) are still not available in India, Brake by wire technology is yet to gain foothold in the country.
In the two-wheelers segment, India is now the world`s biggest brake market post introduction of mandatory ABS legislation (for engine displacement >125cc) coming into force in April 2019.
Although, the two-wheeler sales declined in the domestic market by 10%(YOY) in 2019. In 2020, ~14M 2-wheelers were sold.
The year 2020 and the Corona crisis have taken their toll on many automotive aftermarket suppliers. Worldwide leading providers of brake technology for original equipment and the spare parts market took up this as a challenge.
To grow their business. ensure safety in response to the Covid-19 and to reach maximum cash flow in the market many companies had to fire their employers. Due to WFH culture the companies then had an approach to turn and invest onto developing IT solutions, many of them also focused on design implementations and innovations while some of them merged with other automotive markets for their growth.
The companies also adapted the concept of green manufacturing, supply chain and logistics. Meanwhile many industries heavily focused upon taking strategic decisions which involved new investments, a high level of supply chain transparency and flexible structures, especially in production and warehousing have, in the course of the year, almost fully compensated for the losses caused by the first lockdown.
Brembo has recently announced the release of Sensify, a revolutionary wheel braking technology. The new mechanism is vastly different from any existing car braking system now in use.
In an automobile, each axel is individually controlled (whereas standard cars have all axels braking identically). Because of the integration of advanced electronic monitoring systems, this new system will have numerous advantages over old braking systems.
Sensify will be able to detect if any particular brake is overheating to begin with. If an overheated brake is identified, Sensify can reduce the force on one brake while increasing the force on all other brakes.
Second, the new technology will improve ABS performance because each wheel’s braking force can be adjusted as needed. As a result, if one wheel slips on a puddle or ice sheet (while the other wheels are on a perfectly good road), just the locked wheel will be freed, while the other wheels will continue to brake.
Finally, Sensify can brake efficiently because to its capacity to adjust the force applied to each brake. If it is discovered that one brake is applying more force than the others, the system will be able to better balance the forces, reducing wear and tear on any one brake.
The J. Juan Group, a Spanish firm specialising in the development and production of motorcycle braking systems, has agreed to be acquired by Brembo, the world leader in brake systems for the automotive, motorcycle, and racing industries. The deal will enable Brembo to continue on its road to being a dependable solution provider.
The group will be able to complete its line of motorcycle brake system solutions and expand its brand family for the expanding motorbike market through the acquisition of J. Juan. Lincoln served as Brembo’s sole buy-side advisor, managing the transaction’s planning, marketing, due diligence, and negotiation phases while also offering process, financial, and tactical advisory expertise.
With Lincoln serving as the only advisor, Brembo has now closed two transactions in a row, the latest being the acquisition of J. Juan. The business is happy to have J. Juan join the Brembo family.
This deal follows the recent purchase of SBS Friction in Denmark and is consistent with our global business strategy. We keep making investments in order to grow our core motorcycle business.
The hiring of J. Juan is a tremendous opportunity for the business since it solidifies our positioning as one that is increasingly focused on providing customers with full and integrated solutions.
Brake manufacturers relied on integration of ABS and ESC in early 2000s to boost their dollar content per vehicle. Now, Electric parking brakes getting increasingly common in US, Europe and China has increased their Dollar content per vehicle by ~15%.
ZF is among the leading manufacturers of brakes in China and also the market leader of Electric parking brakes. The auto component maker produced its 20 millionth brake calliper from its Zhangjiagang plant on April 20th 2020. More than 85% of the local production was aimed at local market and the remaining for exports.
In the light of COVID-19 we expect some M&A activity, especially from lower margin companies. Veoneer for example has already announced in April 2020 that it will sell its brake business to an unnamed US auto supplier.
In June 2019, Hitachi Automotive Systems acquired Chassis Brakes International Group. Headquartered in Eindhoven, the Netherlands based Company’s primary products were brake calipers, disk brakes, drum brakes and parking brakes.
Brembo’s revenue for the year 2020fell by ~15% and ended at € 2.2B compared to € 2.59B in 2019. The EBITDA margin for the last year 17.6% drop from 19.9%
Akebono Brakes 6-piston calipers and disc brake pads are used on the front wheels of Volvo’s high-performance SUV, the XC60 T8 Polestar Engineered.
After 9 months ended in FY2021, Akebono’s sales dropped by ~34% from $ 1.3B to $ 0.88B. Sales in North America dropped to almost half in the 9-month period compared to same period in 2019.
25% of the overall sales of Meritor accounted for brake related components. Overall sales in 2020 dropped by ~31%, i.e., from $ 4.3B in 2019 to $ 3.04B in 2020.
Meritor EX+ LS will be standard brake offering for Freightliner Cascadia trucks effective 2021. Other Freightliner and Western Star vehicles will also offer Meritor EX+ LS air disc brakes as optional equipment.
Also, Meritor’s brakes and brake system components are used in military tactical wheeled vehicles, principally in North America, Turkey and Europe.
Akebono net sales amounted to 134.0 billion yen (a decrease of 30.7% Y-o-Y). As the company was unable to fully cover the impact of a decline in orders, the operating loss amounted to 0.6 billion yen (3.7 billion yen in the previous fiscal year)
ZF reported sales of € 37 billion for the year ended in December 2020. To deal with the losses, recovery will be done through M&A activities in 2021. Also, the Free cash flow is impacted by semiconductor shortage.