In today's booming automotive industry, intelligent chassis technology is becoming the focus of attention in the industry, leading automobiles to move forward in the direction of greater safety, efficiency and intelligence. Intelligent chassis technology is not only the key support for the development of automotive intelligence and electrification, but also the core driving force to reshape the pattern of the auto parts industry and meet the growing demand of consumers for intelligence. As many automobile enterprises and suppliers have laid out the field of intelligent chassis, an innovation competition around chassis technology has begun, and its development trend will have a profound impact on the future direction of the automobile industry.

The blossoming of intelligent chassis technology of automobile enterprises

Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi Group, released the intelligent chassis pre-research technology of Xiaomi Automobile, covering four core technologies: all-active suspension, super 4-motor system, 48V wire-controlled braking and 48V wire-controlled steering. The unveiling of these technologies demonstrates Xiaomi's forward-looking layout in the field of intelligent chassis, laying a solid foundation for high-performance and intelligent driving experience in future cars.

JAC Group's full-area wire control intelligent chassis is based on the ICDC intelligent chassis dynamic control module as the core, using XYZ co-control technology, and realizing all-around precise control of vehicle movement through vehicle sensor synergy. This technology has significant advantages in enhancing vehicle maneuverability and safety, bringing drivers a more stable and comfortable travel experience.

The Spirit Lizard Digital Chassis, which is standard on all SAIC ZhiJi L6 vehicles, integrates intelligent four-wheel steering, intelligent electronically-controlled shock absorbers and other multi-system control modules, and with the help of a centralized control algorithm, it achieves a significant increase in the vehicle's response speed and handling precision. The application of this technology makes the ZhiJi L6 unique in terms of driving performance and meets the expectations of consumers for high-end intelligent vehicles.

The AI digital chassis demonstrated by Geely is expected to be applied in 2025, which utilizes a unified intelligent algorithm control system to realize a variety of difficult actions such as unmanned automatic high-speed drifting, four-wheel steering, etc., with an extremely fast response speed. This breakthrough in chassis technology will win Geely a competitive advantage in the field of automated and high-performance driving and enhance the brand image.

BYD's Cloud Chariot technology includes a variety of active body control technologies, ranging from the Cloud Chariot - C to the Cloud Chariot - X in different systems, comprehensively covering all types of vehicles. This technology not only improves the comfort and handling of the vehicle, but also demonstrates BYD's strong strength in chassis technology research and development, providing customized chassis solutions for different classes of vehicles.

The Gimbal Intelligent Chassis 2.0 released at Chery's Global Innovation Conference has realized upgrades in several key technologies. The application of ultra-large bandwidth steer-by-wire technology and rear-wheel active steering technology enables the vehicle to excel in steering performance and stability, adding new weight to Chery's product competitiveness.

Intelligent technology innovation: the cornerstone to support the development of intelligent chassis

In the development of intelligent chassis, the trend of domestic substitution is becoming more and more obvious. In the field of drive-by-wire, EHB's One Box program has been rising in market share by virtue of its cost advantage, and domestic suppliers have accelerated the substitution of foreign capital; the air suspension system has gradually penetrated into the mid-range market, and the dominant position of independent suppliers has been strengthened; and in the field of steering-by-wire, the development capability of the whole industry chain of domestic suppliers has been improved, promoting “domestic substitution”. This series of changes not only reduces the dependence of domestic automobile enterprises on the international supply chain, but also promotes the upgrading of the domestic auto parts industry.

Automobile chassis integration has become an important development direction. Time Intelligence's CIIC integrated intelligent chassis realizes decoupling of upper and lower bodies, highly integrates batteries, electric drives, etc., and improves the ability of autonomous driving and design freedom. Zero One Automobile and E-Cart are also actively laying out in the field of intelligent chassis for commercial vehicles, such as E-Cart's “Walker Architecture” which realizes the rapid switching of scene applications, and Zero One Automobile's water droplet redundancy wire-control chassis system, which is outstanding in terms of performance and fault detection. Chassis integration has brought more efficient production modes and more flexible design options to the automotive industry.

Current Situation and Challenges of Intelligent Chassis Industry

Currently, the intelligent chassis industry is in the 2.0 stage, and some medium- and high-end models have been equipped with relevant systems as standard. 2026 will step into the 3.0 stage, opening up the era of AI-defined chassis. In this development process, the cooperative control ability of intelligent chassis is increasing, and the perception technology is also progressing.

However, the development of intelligent chassis faces many challenges. Uneven development of parts and components technology, such as commercial vehicle braking technology and regulations to promote the development of fast, wire control steering technology due to regulations and cost constraints; vehicle enterprises, suppliers and algorithm companies, insufficient resource integration, resulting in redundant functions repeated development; intelligent chassis development is difficult, long cycle, and high requirements for supply chain management. These challenges need to be solved by the joint efforts of all parties in the industry.

The policies of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments point out the direction for the development of intelligent chassis, focusing on the key wire control chassis system to improve reliability. At the same time, the intelligent chassis in the vehicle handling and sports safety enhancement has become an important development breakthrough, and the deep integration with the smart driving will usher in a major technological breakthrough, the maturity of the EMB technology and mass production applications are also highly anticipated.

Intelligent chassis enterprises need to take into account performance, cost and scale production. The wire-controlled chassis will usher in more scenarios to the ground, and will develop in the direction of higher automation in the future, and the key subsystem technology will continue to be iterative. The industry should increase R&D investment, cultivate professionals and optimize supply chain management to meet the challenges in development and promote the continued leading development of intelligent chassis technology.

Information integrated to China Automotive News