Suppliers of automotive sensors are set to make a pretty penny in the next 12 months, according to bean counters at Juniper Research.
The number crunchers have found the automotive sensors market will grow to over $92 billion by 2026 which is a 30 percent increase over 2021.
Juniper claims that the growth will be driven by sensors that enable automated vehicles and ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems). Sensors monitoring various vehicle safety parameters in internal combustion engines will experience a substantial decline from increased electrification of vehicles, following the COP26 climate conference’s initiatives to move countries to 100 per cent electric vehicle sales by 2030.
The report, with the catchy title Automotive Sensors Market: Technology Evolution, Trends & Forecasts 2021-2026, expects LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors to bring in $3 billion in revenue in 2026.
This will treble in value as automakers start scaling roll-out of the technology in semi-automated vehicles and ADAS. However, due to high unit costs, these deployments will remain low. Most revenue from vehicle automation and ADAS sensors will come from CMOS image sensors (cameras used for image recognition), which will remain more cost-effective than LiDAR in many situations in the short term.
Meanwhile, the research found operational safety sensors, which make up over half of the sensors shipped between 2021-2026, will see revenue decline over the forecast period, thanks to accelerating electrification.
Juniper Research expects over a third of consumer vehicles shipped in 2026 to be electric. This means different sensors will be needed to monitor engine conditions. This could see declines in traditional O2 and NOX sensors. However, this change will take longer for commercial vehicles, where internal combustion engines will remain the norm for far longer.
Research co-author Miles Agbanrin said: “Electrification will change the game for many sensor providers in the coming years. With less need for air monitoring in electric vehicles, sensor manufacturers need to develop new relationships with battery manufacturers and the elements that need monitoring for those systems, or face severe losses in revenue.”
