Melexis NV (MELE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

November 14, 2023

Euronext Brussels BE Information Technology Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment investor_day 154 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Veerle Lozie

executive
#1

Good morning, and welcome to all of you to our Capital Markets Day at Melexis today. My name is Veerle, and I will be your host for today. We have a very interesting lineup for you. So we will start with some interesting questions on our longer-term future. And of course, if you hear me talking about longer-term future, it, of course, comes with the obligated disclaimer on forward-looking statements. Our agenda today, as I said, the first block is talking about our longer-term future. The second part -- in the second part, we'll talk about -- a bit more about our product portfolio. And then last but not least, we will talk about innovation beyond automotive. Then in the afternoon, you can see some of the demos at the back of the room, and you will also have an opportunity to come down to production and to look into our fantastic world of microelectronics. Some practicalities, I would like to ask you to put your phones on mute, if possible. And all the presentations will be shared afterwards. So now it's high time to kick it off. So I would like to ask Marc to come on stage for the first set of questions.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#2

Good morning, Marc. And welcome.

Marc Biron

executive
#3

Good morning, Veerle. Good morning, everybody.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#4

So what are the main goals and objectives of this Capital Markets Day that you would like to share with our audience.

Marc Biron

executive
#5

Yes. Today, we will present our long-term strategy in automotive, but as we have mentioned also beyond automotive. We will share with all of you our long-term financial target, and we will also highlight the different innovation in automotive but also beyond automotive that will help us to secure this long-term growth. And also, I hope that we will be able to discuss between each other to interact during the break, during the lunch or during the different demo or in the QA time.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#6

All right. So how would you describe the current state of our industry?

Marc Biron

executive
#7

Well, I think we are going out of a difficult period, the allocation period, and we are now moving to a very exciting period with a lot of traction for our product you know that electrification is coming and this electrification is coming with new platform, where there is a lot of need of electronic for safety, for security, for comfort. And I think it's a very good period for Melexis to enter in. As a matter of fact, I was last week in China. I came during the weekend, and I was really amazed by the traction from the China customer for the Melexis product perhaps two examples, the LIN RGB for the ambient lighting, but also the driver for all the thermal management are extremely demanded by our customers. It's why it's important. We are coming out of this allocation, and we really see month after month that we have more and more capacity for those innovative products because we will really need this increased capacity in the future.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#8

Indeed. And can you share a bit more about more -- the most important trends and developments that you see in our industry, which will somehow also shape our own strategy in future?

Marc Biron

executive
#9

Yes. I think it's difficult to not start by climate change. Of course, I think we all see that the climate is changing, today heavy rain. And in general, climate change means for the overall industry, we need to remove -- to reduce -- sorry, our CO2 emission. And for the automotive industry, it means that we need to move to electrification. I mean, step by step, the powertrain will be more and more electrified. As I mentioned, it's a very important move for Melexis because usually, those electrified powertrain come with a modern platform. And those modern platform require a lot of electronic for comfort and safety reasons. Then it's a very important trend for Melexis. And a bit linked to this climate change, we have also the alternative mobility. We have more and more traction and business for those alternative mobility like e-bike, like drones, for example, and perhaps in the future, even flying taxi. I was in a company in California during summer. And those people are really developing flying taxi, fully electric with some of the Melexis products. Then on top of climate change or behind climate change, I would add also something that we are working on related to the aging population. There are more and more people on the planet, but we have also more and more elderly people. And I do believe that Melexis can bring solution to make the life of our elderly people more comfortable. And it's why you will see later in the day that we are active in the robotic aspect, but also in the digital health, because, of course, digital health -- the health will become more and more expensive. And I think we can contribute to provide some solutions that are more affordable related to digital healths. I would like to mention also AI, of course, AI, it's not only two-word, artificial intelligence, but we are really using those concepts also in Melexis. For example, we have some products that are using Edge AI, the temperature sensor. We are able to improve the performance of the temperature sensor, thanks to the AI. We are also using AI in our test system, our test process to be more efficient to reduce the cost of the test. And in the future, I would like that also we use AI to become more efficient in our development activity. As an example, AI could help us to develop test program and even better, I would say. And we have already some contacts with some company, AI could to help us to develop the design. I mean, to make part of the design automatically, then those are different trends that we will pursue in the future. Last but not least, I think also very important, we cannot stop this discussion without the rise of China. For sure, we are moving from a combustion engine, German-centric business to electrified engine centric in China. And this is an important move because China is really leading the electrification of the powertrain. It's important for Melexis to be in China in order to be able to play an important role in this move.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#10

But we have a lot of experience that any change, of course, comes with opportunities and with threats. And as usual, I think it's up to us to grasp the opportunities and to deal or to be resilient against the threats that come our way.

Marc Biron

executive
#11

Yes, cannot agree more. I think it's also part of our role to make sure that the company is resilient from the threat, but also embrace the change because as you mentioned, every change is coming with threat, but also with a lot of opportunity. And I think it's up to us to embrace and to capture the different opportunity coming out of the change. And I think it's one of the strengths of Melexis is that we are always welcoming change, and we are always able to get the best of the changes.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#12

Indeed true. So you talked about our trends outside. How about our own product strategy? How about our own corporate strategy, I would say?

Marc Biron

executive
#13

Yes. Melexis is, was and will be an automotive company. 90% of the revenues is coming from automotive and it will continue in the future. It's why we are going to continue to invest in those automotive applications. You will see later in the day that we have defined five system areas of focus where we want to master those systems in order to understand deeply the system and then to understand what are the needs in terms of electronic to improve those systems, to add feature to the system, to reduce the cost of the system. Yes, I can give some examples. The battery management, the thermal management, also the ambient lighting are three of the five systems that we will focus, and you will have more information later in the day. This is for the automotive but we want also to grasp more business, what we call beyond automotive, than the non-automotive application. And 2 years ago, we have set up a team that we call an innovation team. And this innovation team is responsible to, let's say, develop some technology and also develop some business outside automotive to be able to enjoy also business coming from this beyond automotive. You will have also some information about those trend. It's about alternative mobility. It's about digital health coming back to the elderly people, it's about robotic also for elderly people, and you will have more information on this during the day. Of course, this innovation in automotive and beyond automotive can be successful only if we have the right people. And it's also -- we have also a lot of initiatives in order to engage the people, to develop the competency of the people, the competency of the people that we need today, but also the ones that we will need in the future. And I think that the people are for sure also in the center of our strategy.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#14

Yes, we always say here that we call it innovation with hearts. So can you maybe explain to the audience how do we foster innovation and collaboration here, not only internally, but also with our partners, with our customers?

Marc Biron

executive
#15

Yes. I think I do believe in two big principle innovation. The first principle is we can be successful innovation if we have diverse people and multidisciplinary team. I think we are really doing development on the edge of the technology. It's very, very difficult technically to develop those products. And to be successful, it's important to have a diverse team. Diverse mean different experience, different background, different competencies, different culture. And I think it's -- the magic touch is to have all those diverse people working together to be successful.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#16

Yes, that's true. So I'm not sure if you're aware, but we have 58 Nationalities in Melexis and here in Ieper which is not the biggest metro poll to be honest. Here, we have 30, which is quite impressive. So unlike a bit the audience what we see in the room, we have a very, very diverse team here in the company.

Marc Biron

executive
#17

Yes. And besides that diversity, the second principle I really believe in is the fact that we need to improve at the same time the technical aspect and the commercial aspect. It's useless to have a very good technical solution if there is no business. And the opposite, it's useless to have very good business if you don't have a technical solution. Then at Melexis in innovation, we are moving up the readiness level from a technical point of view and the readiness level from a commercial point of view. Those are two very important principles that are, I think, the reason of the success of the company. To come back on your initial question about innovation. We have two types of innovation. We have the radical innovation, and we have the incremental innovation. The incremental innovation is the innovation that we work every day in our development team, in our business unit and via those incremental innovation, we launched between 15 and 20 new products every year. Some of the products are developed here in Ieper, of course. In Ieper, the center of competence in development is mainly around the current sensor, but also, there is another center of competence, which is the process of the magnetic product and the magnetic product are very important product for Melexis, and all the test process development and all the manufacturing of those products are done in Ieper. Then this is for the incremental innovation. And now more and more, we invest in the radical innovation. And this innovation team, I've mentioned before, is responsible indeed to move -- to increase the technical readiness level and the commercial readiness level of those radical innovation I can give, let's say, two examples. First one, it's about the Tactaxis that will give the sense of touch to the robot, and there is a demo on the back of the -- on the room that you will be able to see. This Tactaxis has been developed in this new innovation team as a radical innovation. And we will start the development of a new product that we call Arcminaxis, which is also a product which is used in the robot to improve, let's say, the movement of the joint of the robot. Those are the kind of radical innovation that we have started in the four domain that I mentioned, alternative mobility, digital health, robotic in this innovation lab.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#18

Anything you want to mention on the launches we do?

Marc Biron

executive
#19

As I mentioned, we launched between 15 and 20 product every year. In many cases, those are world premiere and we really bring unique feature. I could have said when I say we have two principle innovation, how could I say, we have three principle innovation because indeed, we don't want to make me-too product. I mean we don't copy product that exist on the market. We want always to bring innovative solutions, innovative feature to our product.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#20

And I have a last question for you in this block. You have been our CEO for 2 years now. Anything you want to share to the audience on that experience?

Marc Biron

executive
#21

Yes. I would say, at the beginning, I was a bit afraid that I will become alone as a CEO. You know sometimes we hear about lonely CEO. I was a bit afraid. But it's not the case at all. I must realize that there is a fantastic team around the CEO, the executive team, but even much more broader executive team. I think we are all working in a team with a lot of trust in between the team members. I don't feel alone at all, which is great. And yes, my role is to define the why, to explain why do we take some decision, why do we redefine some strategy. But for sure, the team is very well willing and very well able to define the strategy and to execute the strategy. I would say my role is to make sure that all the decisions that we take every day is according to the values and we have five values in Melexis according to the purpose of the company, and also our all the good steps to move in our strategy. I think this is my main role. And I'm very happy that there is a fantastic team around us. And I think we are doing great achievement.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#22

I agree.

Marc Biron

executive
#23

Good.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#24

So thank you, Marc. Now I think it's time to welcome Karen on stage for the next set of questions for you. Good morning, Karen.

Karen Van Griensven

executive
#25

Good morning.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#26

I think long-term investors are always interested, I think, in long-term growth. So what message would you like to give to the audience today on that?

Karen Van Griensven

executive
#27

Yes, I would like, indeed, our community -- to update the community on our new financial target, we -- in 2018, many of you were there as well, I believe we set a target from 10 to 20 chips per car. But as we now have really reached that target, it's clear that this -- we need a new target. A bit contrary to the past. We didn't -- we stepped away from the chip per car because in the first place, we are not only automotive, and we also want to go beyond automotive. So we made it a financial target, expressed in euro. So we set a few targets and the one -- the first one is obviously for automotive because it's still 90% of our business today. How did we set our target. It's based on a bottom-up exercise that is done on an annual basis by our product line managers. So they make an X plus 5 and X plus 10 plan really based on the information out of design wins, customer inputs they have and the products they will bring to the market. And based on that exercise, we came out with a growth target and a CAGR of -- beyond 10%, so more than 10% for the period 2023, 2030. And this, I would like to add that as well. This is assuming 0% growth -- car production growth. And most sources that we looked at, they still predict a small increase over that period. Our exercise was done with assuming 0% production. So it's all based on content growth. So any production, extra car production will be a bonus. If we look then -- we also may look at the target beyond automotive. And here, we see growth potential over 15%. The growth -- what will be the growth targets or the drivers to reach that growth actually, Marc already hinted at it. It will be so digital health, robotics, alternative mobility and also the sustainable world. I actually forgot to mention the growth drivers for automotive because each of these growth drivers will also be looked into -- more into detail. So these are -- then the e-powertrain, the EV powertrain, thermal management. We have e-braking and e-steering than battery. And last but not least, also lighting as the drivers for our automotive growth. Yes, obviously, you also expect some targets on the profit margin. Here, we can state that we expect over this period. So margins that are at least -- gross profit margin of at least 45%. There are some cycles, but the minimum we expect is 45%. And for the EBIT margin, this is 25% because we also still assume some increase in R&D. And we want to increase still our R&D level versus sales somewhat over the next coming years. So all in all, yes, as a summary, we plan to continue our double-digit growth. With this, we also assume to outperform our markets actually, Vincent will step in more into what is that serviceable addressable market and how much that will grow, but it will show that, yes, we will do better than that market growth. So yes, with this, I would like to conclude on this question.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#28

On the financials. Good. We also have been investing quite a lot in expansion plans, and I'm sure you are able to share a bit to the audience about that.

Karen Van Griensven

executive
#29

Yes. So what you see here on the picture is that it's not yet finished, but almost. So it's our investment in Kuching, in Malaysia. Actually, we started this year, and still -- we will actually still finish the production area this year. So production here in this case of Sarawak means probing. Now what is probing? Probing For -- in the semiconductor world means actually the testing of the wafers. So the wafers that come from the factory. We test them in our probing facility. And then later on, it is sent usually to the package house, where it will be then packaged, cut-up -- the wafer will be cut-up and packaged. You will also be able to see that later on in the production, we also have probing here in Ieper, so you will be able to see that on your tour later on. Yes. So production still to -- the move of the probers actually, today, they are in the X-FAB building. The main reason we invest in our own facility is to make place for X-FAB to have more places so to expand their capacity, which is also good for Melexis. So end of the year, beginning next year, we'll move all the probers out of X-FAB into our new facility. And then later on in Q1, we will also finish the offices, and the grand opening is expected in July next year. We also invested in another new building this time back to Europe. So the building you see here is what we -- purchased this building in Sophia Antipolis, which is a technology park in the south of France, so near Grasse. We have an R&D team that will move into that building once it is finalized. The renovation is expected in '24, and we will -- the main reason to renovate it is to make it a nicer working environment, but obviously, also to make it more sustainable. And so with the typical solar energy management and so on, which will all be integrated into the new design. Yes. Also good -- I'm not sure to what extent you know the technology -- I mean, this technology park. But for Melexis, it's really a hub, where we can liaise very easily with the local universities and also there are many design centers, other design research centers that can help Melexis with innovation in their products. So it's a good community to be working. Yes, I think we can move to the next.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#30

Well, you talked a bit about sustainability or you hinted at it for the building, but we do see our whole automotive industry, that sustainability really a hot topic. We also see that consumers and governments are really prioritizing environmental concerns. So can you share a bit on how our focus of Melexis on sustainability really sets us up for long-term financial success.

Karen Van Griensven

executive
#31

Yes. So indeed, ESG is, for sure, integrated in our overall corporate strategy. And yes, let's already start look just at our product portfolio. We see that it is, yes, a sustainable portfolio. Actually, if we did a bit of analysis on our applications and actually up to 60% of our products add value to the planet. That means CO2 reduction, that the application leads to CO2 reduction in the application it is used for. So that is quite a high percentage for a semiconductor company. But obviously, we also -- we don't only want to make products for planet. We also look at people, at work and our products add value for our people for instance, in health applications or safety applications. And then also 25% of our products qualify as being added value for our people. So a strong product portfolio towards a more sustainable world, I would say. And this will only continue and probably further increase even. Then obviously, we also want to be energy efficient internally, Scope 1 and 2. And for this, we set a target last year. We want to reduce our CO2 footprint, our turn of CO2 footprint to minus 40% per chip we test. So by 2030. And the two buildings that we showed earlier on are a very good example. They will help us in reaching that target. Maybe to mention as well the Kuching building will obviously -- it will be a very green building, but also nice to add there is that, yes, the electricity production in Malaysia is mostly renewable. So it's mostly hydro water -- hydroelectric, and that will obviously help a lot in reaching this 40% reduction. And so next to that. What is also important in Malaysia, we do probing, I explained it earlier, but probing means, yes, it means short transport because the fab is next to our probing facility, but also afterwards, it's going to assembly. Assembly is usually in Asia. It's nearly all in Asia. So we avoid having to bring the chips to Europe and back to Asia. So from that perspective, it will also help reducing our footprint. So it's really integrated in all our infrastructure investments within Melexis. ESG is at the forefront of our decisions. Maybe also nice to mention is that we are also active in -- well, we help in biodiversity. You saw maybe in the movie in the beginning, we saw the beehive. Actually, we are here in Ieper, here also on the roof of Melexis, we have beehives. So in that, it's a small step where Melexis is helping improving the biodiversity. And then last but not least, obviously, diversity also Marc already hinted at it. It is -- yes, it's in the DNA of Melexis from the start. And we can -- I mean where we see that the best is actually in the -- it's actually in the way we have our Board composition. We have 50% men, 50% women. And I think since the start of Melexis more around 30 years ago, we have had around that percentage in our Board. So it was always the vision of the Board, of the company, that diversity is very important for innovation in general and for growth of the company. And actually, with that, we are also in Belgium, then at least we are actually the role model in the BEL 20 with our composition of 50-50. No other company in the BEL 20 is at that level. I still want to add one thing, maybe because what is clearly missing here on the slide is Scope 3. So beyond Scope 1 and 2, we clearly have our internal targets. But Melexis is manufacturing most of -- I mean, yes, we outsource a lot of our manufacturing. So we also -- it's clear that Scope 3, it's very relevant for Melexis. So as we speak, we are also working on Scope 3. We are measuring the footprint with our suppliers. We're also working them to set up a roadmap together with them. So hopefully, by the annual report, we will be able to also bring more on Scope 3. And with that, I would like to end.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#32

Thank you, Karen.

Karen Van Griensven

executive
#33

Thank you.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#34

So after the financials, I think it's time to talk a bit about our products. Vincent, may I ask you to come on stage. Good morning, Vincent.

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#35

Good morning, Veerle.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#36

You're overseeing the product portfolio in Melexis, a product portfolio strategy. Can you explain a bit to the audience which growth opportunities you see in the next 5 to 10 years, which are actually underpinning the growth strategy that Karen was hinting at?

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#37

Well, I see several areas where we can definitely grab some growth in the coming years and continue our growth trajectory at Melexis that you are familiar with. But first, before answering your question, I think it's good to look at bit high level. And first of all, our playground, the semiconductor industry, let's say, is expected to grow in the coming 7 years with a CAGR of 7.1%. So that's really a good tailwind. We want to be part of it, for sure. Then the second one is the core market where we play is the automotive industry. There, the growth is a bit more modest. You see on the left side, what S&P Global, former IHS, S&P Global is projecting. And again, we use that -- those statistics or those analysis as a reference because those are more or less the benchmark, let's say, across the industry. You're also familiar with those trends. You would not be surprised by those. Maybe the way we project those data are a bit different, but the raw data for sure, the same as the one -- the other are using. What you can see there is that the auto industry, look 7.1% is for the semiconductor, 1.7% flip the digit is the growth, modest growth for the auto industry. I look also here on that slide on the growth in China, which is 3%. When Marc said, China is leading electrification for sure, they lead the growth. They are expected to grow with 3%. And to come back to the statement made by Karen, in all the discussion you will see today, we are looking at 0 growth basically in our assumption. So that's pretty important. Look you see there was a 1.7% tailwind we could benefit from, but we don't consider it in all the calculation with it. Another important thing that you can see on this graph is the fact that the auto industry peaked in 2017, the historical peak is still 2017. And what you can see there is that China will be able to cross that line by 2024, 2025, where it will take another 3 years globally to come back to that number. Just to confirm that if you were here in 2018, when we had the last live Analyst Day in Brussels, the car industry was supposed to be at 106 million in 2023. Look, you see that we are definitely way down compared to that level, and we will end up south of 90 million in 2023.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#38

Marc hinted a bit at certain trends in our industry and which ones do you see in automotive, Vincent?

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#39

Yes. The trend that can definitely -- and then I come to the answer of your first question, the trend that we see, and we have been publishing on those already a couple of times, and they remain valid. Therefore, it's not a broken record. Simply because it's still valid. Therefore, we share again those trends we look at. First of one, of course, electrification. The second premiumization and the third one, ADAS. And then if I go more in detail, coming back again to those S&P Global/IHS data. You see here for electrification on the world based, the global -- you see that the penetration of electric vehicle. Again, last time we met, we were in a couple of percent for mild hybrid PHEV and BEV in 2018. And you see here the graph very limited, almost not visible on the graph. And you see that it's poised to be by 2030 in the range of 60% on electrified powertrain, including BEV, but also mild hybrid and plug-in and full hybrid. Pretty important to see that we have a flip from today, still 61% -- or 67%, sorry, is ICE combustion engine-based powertrain in the car that are produced and sold in the world and 33%. The balance, of course, is electrified powertrain. By 2028, for this graph, you see we have the exact split where we'll get 32% on ICE and then 68% in the BEV and hybrid vehicle. If you look at the picture in China, it's more or less the same. It's true that China is leading the growth in terms of, let's say, the mix between powertrain ICE and electrified, they follow the same trend as the global one. They are today 62% ICE and then 38% NEV. In China, they somehow mix the all-electric vehicle being BEV or plug-in into NEV, new electric vehicle. And the NEV then here, you can see it's 38% in 2023, and will move to 62% in 2028. There also -- the complete flip is visible. If I go now on the premiumization. Premiumization, as you can see here, we see the same evolution from the IHS data, or S&P Global data. We have a different segment, you see the growth is definitely more, let's say, modest. You have only the reduction of the A segment. That's, I would say, the victim of the COVID, if I can, and victim of the shortage in semiconductor, the OEM have decided really to abandon those entry vehicle. And they will be focused more on premium. That's also why we speak about premiumization. Also, all the battery electric vehicle are, to some extent, also often premium in terms of features and options that you can have on those vehicles. So that's why we really focus on the E segment, which is the premium vehicle which has the highest growth, still modest, but 2.4% among the five segments you see that the biggest growth. You see that from the pie chart, there is no real evolution between 2022 and '28, but I insist again on the fact that we will consider those, let's say, terminology moving forward when we speak about the addressable market. You have the entry-level, A and B segment, which is, let's say, more or less flat volume segment, 60% of the whole production, and then 20% for the premium covering the E segment. And if we go then last but not least, on the third trend on ADAS, for advanced driver assistance system. There, you can see that the growth is the biggest on the Level 2+. Level 2+ means that the degree of autonomy, I mean, how autonomous car is. The lower the number, I mean, the less autonomous it is more, let's say, normal cars as we used to say, when the level is high, like 5, it's a fully autonomous vehicle like robotaxi, for instance. You see that Level 2+, it's really the target that many OEMs have fixed, definitely the ones that look at premium, they definitely look at those Level 2+. And you see that in the coming 5 years, 32.4% growth is planned there, and this will impact, for instance, our steering and braking that we will cover in later this morning.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#40

So normally, in previous Market Capital Days, you -- or Capital Market Days, you explained a little about the market we play in. Do you have any specific updates this time?

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#41

Yes, we have an update, and I was discussing, let's say, in the welcome session, let's say, with one of the analysts. He was clearly telling me that he was expecting that update because we did not communicate on that over the past month or even, let's say, past 18 months. And we have an updated view. Look, I would say, first thing, that analyst and all of you, let's say, will definitely get the update you are looking for. We have changed a little bit. Therefore, it's quite important. You will see that we have done the bottom-up socket model, 2023, 2028, 2033, look we have X plus 5, X plus 10 as already mentioned by Karen. And next to the revenue projection, which are the ones that define the financial target share by Karen, we also look at the serviceable addressable market. In the past, we were using the total addressable market, and we were expressing that in numbers of chips, number of sockets per car. Here, we move to a serviceable addressable market expressed in euro. Why we do that is because we think it's a bit more tangible, we speak about finance target, also where we come to more euro value or CAGR -- on revenue, CAGR and EBIT and gross profit margin. Therefore, we would like to come back also here on euro. And the serviceable market, you will see throughout all the morning and also in the afternoon are always euro value, very important. And for each of them, you will see that we dig into a growth factor between now and 2028, as well as a CAGR, let's say, equivalent CAGR over the coming 5 years. Very important also to look at the assumptions. It's definitely more conservative than what S&P Global is considering, both in terms of number of vehicles. As we told you already, we take flat assumption, although they say 1.7%. On the electric vehicle, we take a CAGR of 18% where S&P Global look at 26%. There, it's simply because we believe that the adoption -- there was clearly a peak just after COVID, let's say, the last 2 years, we believe there will be a little stagnation before it's again moving up. Therefore, we take a little, let's say, a modest assumption compared to what S&P Global is projecting. Then what's important there, we did on all the same analysis that you will see the serviceable addressable market analysis. We have done a stress test to look at how do we get influenced by that adoption level of electrification. If we have plus 10% more electric vehicle or 10% less in the trend. How does it influence our SAM, and we see a plus/minus 2% variation. Look, like we said already multiple times, we are quite agnostic, let's say, to the powertrain. There will be, of course, a change of product moving from, let's say, the ICE centric to the electrified powertrain centric world. But in terms of serviceable addressable market, it's definitely something where we don't have too much influence in it, especially when we still consider at the level we have seen of 30%, 40% of electrification. Then the powertrain split that we will -- that we have used for our assumption is always looking at the electrification type, of course, the mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid and the BEV and for the ICE also, of course. And then for the body-chassis-safety, let's say, segment there, we look at the entry, volume and premium segment.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#42

Another tradition is that you show us some examples on the footprint.

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#43

Yes, but you go too fast.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#44

I go too fast.

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#45

You go too fast here. Because it's very important first that after the assumption I show the serviceable addressable market.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#46

Oh, yes. Indeed.

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#47

She was anticipating the next step, but always too fast with them. But what you can see here in the serviceable addressable market, and again, highlighted euro, what we have here the 2022 reference, you see that on the powertrain, we expect in the coming 5 years, a factor 1.14 growth on our addressable market, which correspond to a 2.7% CAGR. As I said, there was communicant vessels, let's say, on the powertrain front. And then on 2028, chassis-body-safety there, they are definitely a lot of tailwind that we can benefit from and that we can reflect in our serviceable addressable market with a factor 1.67 and a CAGR of 10.8%, which means total here, our serviceable addressable market for the automotive is at 7.6%, which means -- and it's confirm what Karen mentioned. It's serviceable here. Karen confirmed that to get our 10% CAGR automotive, we'll definitely need to outperform the market. And that's really our intention. And that's also what we will illustrate to you in the coming, let's say, 2 hours, how we plan to outperform the automotive market is by playing on the real, let's say, on the real part, which are definitely growing a lot. Here are five examples that we will do a deep dive on later. The EV powertrain, the EV thermal management, EV battery, e-braking, e-steering and lighting. Those terms were mentioned by Marc. We also mentioned by Karen as growth drivers. It's not that, again, we want to play broken record. It simply one really to tell you where we see really the important sockets and segments to focus on. And that's also why we have decided to cover all of those in a later presentation after the break. And then I can answer the question from Veerle. It's true. Typically, in this kind of event, we try to show you vehicle to somehow give you some proof points that our socket model that are addressable, but also our real footprint on current car, which are on the road today, and we have selected 4 cars, 4 vehicle model this year. One from Europe, one from the U.S. and one from -- and 2 from China. Very important that you can see here. I will not go into detail. You have the slide deck already public on the website where you can see the number of chips, but just to look at the title in this BMW iX, which is clearly a premium BEV vehicle. We have 56 to 72 ICs in the chassis-body-safety. We have 6 ICs on the thermal management, for instance, on the powertrain. If we look now at the American model, Tesla Model Y, one of the most popular best car in the world, but it's also applicable, let's say, to the X, S and 3, they share the platform, to some extent and as well as the cybertruck. You see there on the chassis-body-safety, 31 ICs that we have, let's say, counted based on our, let's say, customer feedback. And then on the powertrain, we are between 14 and 20 ICs per car. We serve, for instance, all the inverter on all the Tesla that are driving on this planet. If we look now at China, we have another, let's say, premium vehicle BEV, the NIO. You see clearly more in line with the BMW we saw earlier. There, we have 48 ICs in chassis-body-safety, and on powertrain, we count 9-IC. Again there, we are present in the inverter, and I'm sure Bruno and Syrine will also tell you exactly how this thing works in the inverter and get you more familiar with. And then if we go to the last example, that we have selected for you today, the BYD Han. BYD is clearly, let's say, the biggest competitor, and I could say to some extent today they pass them in terms of numbers of vehicle produced in China exclusively, but they start exporting more and more to Europe and rest of Asia. U.S., I don't think it will happen soon. But for sure, the rest of Asia, they do. And there, you can see that on chassis-body-safety. This is a little bit more, let's say, a bit more modest footprint 15 to 17 ICs, chassis-body-safety and then 11- to 12-IC again in powertrain. Look, you see that there, we have a more balanced, let's say, between chassis-body-safety and powertrain for that BYD car.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#48

Thank you, Vincent.

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#49

Yes. And before that, before the finishing here, maybe a good idea to look at the Melexis car, also a slide you are familiar with because it does not change that much because we list already quite a lot of application, and we don't have, let's say, new application every 6 months that pop up. But you can see here, we have our powertrain footprint on this virtual Melexis car and the chassis-body-safety footprint, just that you can realize that there are definitely, let's say, multiple places in vehicles where our chip often hidden and sometimes visible, lighting is definitely something where you don't see the chip, but you see the impact of the chip. But it's very important that you see that all around those vehicles inside, outside, you have Melexis solution.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#50

Thank you, Vincent. Sorry for confusing you, but we acted very fast. In the ops we are used to swift the execution. So now it's time for a break. We have foreseen 15 minutes. So I would like to see you back here maybe at the quarter post 11:00 sharp. There is some refreshments foreseen for you, and we'll see each other back in 15 minutes.

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#51

Thank you. [Break]

Veerle Lozie

executive
#52

In the second part, we'll focus on some more input on our products. But before the team starts, Vincent will outline a bit how the presentations have been built up.

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#53

Yes. And here, you have a kind of example slide, which is anonymous in terms of system. And we will -- it will -- the same slide will support our deep dive on the five growth drivers we have been mentioning over the past -- in the introduction from Marc, Karen and myself. And the template we used during the, let's say, 10 minutes -- 10- to 15-minute presentation of each growth drivers. You will see that slide on the wall. You have first the system on the top left corner, then after that, you have little icons. Those are the involved product lines. At Melexis, we are split into business unit, BU Sense and Drive, BU Sense and Light. And then each business unit has several product lines underneath. The different logos, you can see them here, well it's about position sensors, current sensors, motor drivers and so on. Look, you have those logos come on the top. Next to that, you have the number of IC addressable just to make sure that you don't completely get lost with those SAM in euro. You can still come back, let's say, to the old model where we're reflecting to more or less sockets. Here, you will have, let's say, the number of IC addressable, that's the old sockets that we were looking at in the past. Then the serviceable addressable market in euro will be presented, let's say, 2023, 2028 with the growth factor as well as the CAGR. We will have a quick introduction of the system here on that right corner. On the right corner as well, you will have the key application on product available in blue and when the product are in development or still in innovation, they will be marked in -- or highlighted in green. And then in the center part, you have, let's say, an illustration of one typical system that you can somehow try to put the thing in right perspective, as well as the purpose of the system. Let's say why is there some electronic content in those systems, and what those systems are doing. Look, just to make sure that we demystify a little bit those five growth drivers, and then you can look back afterwards, let's say, on the different, let's say, figures that we put on those slides and what we address and how we address that. Thank you.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#54

Thank you, Hiligsmann. So then Syrine and Bruno will kick it off with the EV powertrain.

Bruno Boury

executive
#55

Good morning to all of you. So obviously, I'm Bruno, this is Syrine. I'm quite lucky to have her in my team. So one of the points I really want to make upfront is that we make pretty cutting-edge advanced sensors. And one of the things we need to do, it's not only to make the best products, to bring the right innovation, the right technology. It's also about supporting our customers in using our parts, and that's an interesting part that actually Syrine and other team members take care of.

Syrine Mansour

executive
#56

So let's start. Okay. So nowadays, we are seeing that the world is having a global shift towards electric vehicles, electrification in general. As an engineer, I'm thinking how is an electric vehicle working? What is the mechanism behind that? As the Melexis application engineer, I'm thinking how many sensors are needed inside such a system and could be strategically placed. And then as an adult with impulsive urges to follow trends, specifically growing trends. I'm thinking what is the most expensive part of such a system. And the answer is battery and power train. Regarding the battery part, it will be developed later with my colleague, Magnus. In fact, all of the important subsystems of the electric vehicles will be known in the flow of the presentations. And now let's tackle the powertrain. So what is the powertrain? In fact, that is the key component that permits to go from the DC power, the one that is stored in the electric battery to the AC power, the one that permits to have the motor drive and to have propulsion. So the efficiency of the powertrain has a direct impact on 3 things, which are the comfort, the road performance and the all-electric range of the vehicle. Now if we imagine an exploded view, we would have the battery as the first block, then the DC to AC converter, we would have the motor and then the gearbox. To understand how it works, I will make another analogy still. So as an electron with a strong will to perform -- to give motion, I'm going from the battery to the electric cars wheels. And for that, I mean, many sensors are needed like to cover current, to cover temperature, to cover positioning. Remember the slide that Vincent showed earlier about the cars. So we have them in Tesla's inverters, in NIO as well as in BYD. So back to the analogy, first things first, safety. The first thing we have to do is to disconnect the electric powertrain, the external shell. And for that, we have a Latch and switch that is present inside the module. Then back to the electrons journey. It goes from the battery to the DC link, and for that, we have a first current measurement that is needed.

Bruno Boury

executive
#57

Right. So we're now entering into the core of the inverter. So the inverter has the task to convert the DC current into an alternating current, which will be used to drive the motor. And Melexis not making power modules. We're not making silicon carbide fits of any kind. However, we are starting to enter, which is shown in green on the slide. We're starting to enter the power module by virtue of deploying, again, Melexis technology, MEMS in particular, which is the snubber. So the snubber is an element that is used in the powertrain, and it has particularly addressed towards the applications where we're going to silicon carbide or gallium nitride. So those switching technologies, they come with the perks to be fast, but whoever says fast says that there are transients and ringing effects that exists. So rather than having a clean DC link, you will have a DC link, which is oscillating a bit. And those oscillations are not good for efficiency and they're not good for heat dissipation and electromagnetic compatibility. So we need to get rid of those escalation. And the snubber is doing exactly that. It is a MEMS semiconductor component and it's our door opener to enter inside the power module with Melexis component. So this is ongoing at the moment. Now as I said, the inverter has another task is to convert DC current into alternating current. So for that, you need switches. Again, we're not making those silicon carbide fits. We're not making silicon IGBTs. However, we are there inside the power module with our temperature sensors. So whenever you have switching inside a power module, there's always excess heat. There's Joule effect, which means you need to dissipate the heat. But whenever the temperature gets too high, we enter into operating regions which are not good for semiconductor components. So monitoring the temperature is a vital component. Melexis has contactless temperature sensing technology. So it means that we don't need to touch to feel the temperature. We can see the temperature using our Far infrared technology. And that far infrared technology actually benefits for these applications in particular because everything that is at high voltage, you need to manage isolation. You cannot touch 220 volts, it can be lethal. You need to maintain this kind of distance. The same applies to electronics. So our contactless temperature sensors do exactly that.

Syrine Mansour

executive
#58

Now zooming back again to the electron, we are at the AC phases. So here, at least 1 current sensor is needed per phase for the motor control. Finally, once at the motor level, this is a critical part because we need to know the rotor position sensing. And for that, Melexis offers a new technology, which is the inductive technology which is better than the previous one, the magnetic one because it permits to have a super straight field immunity.

Bruno Boury

executive
#59

Right. So now that the motor is in motion. It's about making sure that this kind of rotational energy makes it to the wheels. So 2 things first. When we talk about electric motors, we touched briefly upon geopolitics. Today, many of these electric motors are using permanent magnets. So permanent magnets that everybody knows from what you put on the fridge in bigger sizes and obviously a bit more expensive, are used in electric motors. And these I would say these permanent magnets, they use rare earth material. And they happen to be mined mostly in China, which means that whenever geopolitics is a bit sensitive, OEMs are thinking about ways to be less dependent on certain regions. So for that reason, people are starting to think about so-called electrically excited synchronous motors, EESMs. What do they do? They basically replace the permanent magnets on the rotor with coil systems where current is flowing through to generate also magnetic field instead of with a magnet with the current that flows through it. That means it's an extra socket count for current sensors, which happens to be in our product line, which is beneficial. So we need to not only measure the current that goes into the state, which is the AC current. We also need to measure the DC current that goes into the rotor. So here again, socket count can increase. Now we made it to a rotational motion. Of course, the motor is running at one speed. The wheel speed is something different. So you typically need either a fixed gear ratio or a gearbox or a proper gearbox where you can switch between one gear and another, like you have for example, on the Taycan. And that, of course, also still requires position sensing. So zooming back to what we saw, we have DC current coming from the battery, that DC current goes through a power module. Inside the power module, we have quite some content to monitor temperature to monitor current at the input and at the output. We have positioned sensors to monitor the position of the motor. And in the end, we have also position sensors still that will basically be part of the gearbox. So this is a bit the socket count that you could also see at the top. And that socket count amounts to 5 to 22 ICs, which is a pretty wide fork admittedly. But it has to do with the fact that vehicles can come with 1 inverter, 2 inverters or 3 inverters or 1, 2 or 3 electric motors. So each time you have an inverter, we have socket count. Some of them are using our contactless temperature sensor. In fact, can speak about publicly because it's part of a teardown videos on YouTube, but Tesla, for example, is using Far infrared temperature sensor to monitor the temperature of the power module. Now we're coming to the numbers that start to interest you. So obviously, the socket count is one of them. But then, of course, it's about the CAGR, right? So we want to know how this market is growing. I'm kicking in an open door because the slide has been there for a few minutes. But we have a compound annual growth rate of north of 17 percentage points. So if you remember, Melexis want to grow at higher than 10%. Again, this is one of those segments inside the car. One component as Syrine was calling it that will bring us this kind of growth. The reason we are up here is because an important part of those socket count is coming from current sensor, which is a product line I manage and where we have our applications engineer serving our customers. But at the end of the day, the thing is that, okay, there's always the vehicle estimation in the future, et cetera. What is very clear, and I think Vincent was showing those numbers, is that whatever vehicle downturn or sluggishness there would be, I think the electrification [pace] is really there to grow quite a lot. And that's one of the ways we're riding on as a market leader in current sensors in the automotive world. I think that more or less concludes what we wanted to say. So keep in mind, strong growth here, important socket count already today, and we keep expanding, let's say, with our Melexis technology to places wherever we can, including the temperature sensing, which is a new application, including those electrically excited motors. So gradually, we see the socket count increasing over time. Thank you.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#60

Thank you. Now I would like to call Laurent and Marc on stage to talk about EV thermal management.

Laurent Otte

executive
#61

Hello, everyone. I'm Laurent. I'm responsible for the pressure sensors product line at Melexis. And you have my colleague, Marc, responsible for motor driver ICs. And I want to start first a bit explaining the thermal management system and what it is about. And to explain that, I will make the link with some challenges that you can find in electric vehicles. One of the challenges that you have is called range anxiety. So you want to make sure that you maintain the driving range that you expect every time you charge your car, independently of outside weather conditions. So you might know that during winter time, battery cells are less efficient. And you want to not degrade your range too much. And in comparison with a combustion engine, where you are burning fossil fuels, there you have 3 source of heat because it's an inefficient burning process compared to an EV, you need to find that hit somewhere. So you need to find the heat, bring that heat to where you want to place for that, you have much more sophisticated and complex coolant loops compared to a combustion engine with more ICs. So that's 1 example. So it's to be able to warm up the battery cell to keep range. A second challenge for those that have an EV is for having a nice comfortable cabin during winter time, you want to warm up the cabin. And you also want to default the windshields without compromising on the range again. So instead of taking electricity from the battery and wasting that electricity on a resistor called the PTC heater. You might have heard about the word a heat pump. So you have electric vehicles that will be equipped with heat pumps. And there, you are using the energy that is still available in your surroundings even during the winter time, there is energy that you can take from the air. And then you are bringing that energy into refrigeration fluid and you make that energy available in the cabin. So that's a working principle of a heat pump, which makes that loop much more sophisticated compared to an air conditioning loop in a combustion engine. So again, many more ICs. Another challenge is the other way around. You want to be able to cool down the battery cells. If you let the cells be too hot, they will degrade faster and as the most expensive part of your vehicle. So you want to protect the battery, keep the cells healthy. So for that, you need to be able to actively cool it down for lithium ion batteries. It means maintaining the battery at room temperature at all conditions, which makes, again, more complex loops, and there, you also want to maintain the safety level. So if you keep a nice control of the battery temperature, you avoid the thermal runaway events, so you prevent batteries from exploding. And then another challenge to share with the audience is charging time. So when you go to super fast charging stations, imagine in Europe, you all take our holidays in July, August time frame, and you don't want to have to wait for 15 minutes that everyone is charging his car. They want to go faster. There, you have also the need to deploy more sophisticated techniques to extract the heat from the battery and you have a lot of companies that are going to deploy what is called immersion cooling technologies in the future to really reduce drastically the charging time in ultrafast charging stations. So you see you have the need now to cool and heat the battery that's called conditioning. So that's a conditioning the temperature of the battery. You need also to cool and heat the cabin. So if you want to cool down the cabin turning the air conditioning, when you have a combustion engine, you take the energy with a belt, so you have a compressor connected to a belt. In an EV, you make that compressor a high-voltage electric actuated compressor, which is much more efficient and ric in ICs. So that's another example. So you also want to condition the temperature in the cabin. And then last but not least, you also want to cool down the e-motor and the power electronics. And that's an example of place where you can find still some source of heat that you can bring back to the battery compartment to maintain the cells nicely warm. So this is -- these are the main things. And there you see -- the growth rate of 15%, with many ICs and a factor of 2.1 for the CAGR. And you see the product lines that are involved with 10 to 21 ICs per car, and now my colleague, Marc, will explain where we have existing ICs for that system.

Marc Lambrechts

executive
#62

Thank you, Laurent, and other colleagues mentioned already a few times, we see a huge growth in electric vehicles in the coming decades. And I think thermal management is really essential to make that a success. So thermal management is essential to keep the battery at a normal room temperature between 20 and 40 degrees. Thermal management is essential to keep the driver and the passengers at the right temperature. And every watts that we can save in this new innovative system is a watt that you can use to drive longer and that's quite important for batteries. Now Melexis has a lot of experts, very good engineers that design new chips, innovative chips, safe chips. We have a lot of application engineers that design that in at the customers, and I will now go a bit deeper in the kind of semiconductors that we sell in this thermal management systems. So we have position sensors. We have current sensors. We have motor drivers, we have pressure sensors. These are all semiconductors which go in this terminal management system. So let's start with current sensors. So for example, in an electric car, there is a PTC heater. That's a heater that is used to bring the battery at the right temperature in a very quick way. And their current needs to be measured to control it, to make it safe and to make sure that the battery is instantly at the right temperature. It was also mentioned that there is a compressor. So we talk about heat pumps. The heat pump as a compressor. The compressor takes a lot of kilowatts. To control this compressor, which is a BLDC motor, there are 3 phases, and the current needs to be measured in these phases to make sure that control loop is safe, accurate and overcurrent are detected. So current sensors are also essential for compressors. Also, fast charging later more about the battery will be told fast charging, there you will see current sensors to make sure that the battery is not overheating and charging the right way. So I mentioned already current sensors. I also will mention motor drivers. So I'm responsible for the product line embedded motor drivers. We don't talk about the traction motor here. So the traction motor is 100-kilowatt. We talk about smaller motors in a car 10-watt, 100-watt up to 1,000 watts. And what is new in electric car is this heat pump system, heat pump system is quite complex. It's a bit like a new heat pump systems installed in a house, but in a smaller form. And why heat pumps? Because a heat pump with 1 kilowatt electricity generates 3-kilowatt of heat. And that's what we need to have an efficient battery in high performance. Now this heat pump system has a kind of gas flow, a gas circuitry and there are valves needed to open and close at the right position is called expansion valves to manage this gas flow. And in this expansion valves, we always have an embedded motor control IC, also position sensor. So that's one important circuitry is gas flow. The second flow is the water cooling flow to get the battery at a constant temperature to get to complete cooling system at a constant temperature, and then we use water cooling valves. Also there, you need the motor IC to position the water valve in the right position to have one -- to select one of the multiple cooling circuitries for sure, if you have water running, you also need a water pump and like the water pump and therefore, also need the motor drive ICs. Next to that, there is a classical HVAC system, which is now integrated in thermal management. And in HVAC systems, you have many, many ICs of Melexis as well. So 1 is the [Airco] flap module, so to make sure that the air temperature in the cabin is at the right temperature to warm and the cold air has to be mixed and that is done with Airco flaps. In cars, we have 4, 10s -- up to 20 in premium cars, Airco flaps. And on top of that, we see that they want to do more automation, probably also to more autonomous driving automation of the complete thermal management system. And they will also control automatically the air vent. That's the grill you see in front of you if you're driving so 4 or sometimes it's 1 long grill with multiple motors, and this drives up the number of motors ICs you have in such systems. Finally, we also sell ICs for a bigger motor system like the HVAC blower, which is part of the HVAC systems, which sucks in the air that's needed then to cool or to warm. We have bigger water pumps. We have battery cooling fans. So these are all ICs, motor ICs that Melexis is selling in this thermal management system. We also have position sensors. So Melexis is very well known for a big family, multiple families of position sensors. You have this position sensor in each of the valve because this gas valve needs to be at the right position in a safe position. The water cooling valve needs to be at the right position. So these are typically 360-degree magnetic sensors, 3 axes sensors that are used in these new valves. And for BLDC motors. They need to be controlled in a very silent way because electrical vehicles are silent. We also sometimes use position sensor to measure the rotor position and then drive it in the most efficient way. So I mentioned current sensors. I mentioned motor drivers. We'll mention position sensors. So finally, we also have innovative pressure sensors, and to close this session, I'll give the word back to Laurent, who will talk about a very innovative new pressure sensor of Melexis.

Laurent Otte

executive
#63

Yes. So we are 1 month away from releasing our first product that we believe will revolutionize the world of pressure sensors. So talking about radical innovation. To setup a bit scene, we are a semiconductor company. You heard the word from Bruno MEMS, microelectromechanical system. So as a semiconductor company, when we make pressure sensors, we use silicon, as so you saw the video with the sense. So we start from sense to build membranes. So a pressure sensor relies on a membrane. And the typical use of MEMS pressure sensors is for applications with pressure levels below 5, where we are facing gas environment. And in this thermal management system, there is a new challenge. The mainstream technology that has been historically used for similar systems like air conditioning systems in internal combustion engine are using ceramic material to sense the pressure. Now we want to enable silicon, so enable MEMS to go for this application where the pressure levels are higher than 5 bar and we will be facing no longer only gas medium, but also sometimes liquid media. So now we need to have a new technology where we can measure both gas and liquids, and we should even be able to survive in the last 2 state of matters that is plasma and solid. So we measure 2 is surviving 2. And that's why we call it Triphibian. So there is also a little link with comic strips because in Belgium, we are good for French fries or Belgium fries for chocolates, for beer, but also for comic strips. And for those who knows Blake and Mortimer, it's inspired from there, but okay, we're not going details here probably. So it comes from a comic strip. And this Triphibian technology, we enable that. So we will be able really to come with a solution that is miniaturized, which will help system makers if a trend that is called centralization, we are going to have more and more ICs that will be inside of components. Marc was explaining his motor drivers for pumps for valves. We expect also that the pressure sensors and temperature sensors that we can measure as well temperature with this technology will be placed inside of those valves. And then it's really by leveraging MEMS. So silicon is a material that we can make it very small, and we also believe that we will be much more accurate than the ceramic mainstream technology that has been used in the past decades. So that's the little revolution that you want to bring a big revolution with this disruptive or radical innovation. And the first product launch will come mid of December. So in about 4 or 5 weeks from now, there should be a press release on the website. We're the first product of the family that will have an analog output and then the little brothers and sisters will come in the coming year, 1.5 years. Thank you.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#64

Syrine and Laurent already hinted that the battery is one of the most expensive parts of the vehicle. So now Magnus will explain a bit more about the EV battery.

Magnus Ahlstedt

executive
#65

Thank you. So the hint is correct. The battery is one of the most expensive components of the car. I would actually argue it's the most expensive component of the car. So prior to this event, I tried to find some fun facts around batteries, used ChatGPT for that. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything funny, but I did find some facts. So it said that we all carry around some 5 to 10 batteries with us on a daily basis in different formats. I mean, your phone, your earphones, laptops, yes, whatever. I think I counted this morning, actually, I had 6 with me today, and I have 2 on me at this moment. So they are a part of our lives. We interact with batteries. We know how they behave. And we know also that they degrade right? So we have certain expectations when it comes to batteries in terms of lifetime and how they should work. And we are actually battery managers somehow on a daily basis. So if I'm allowed to be a little bit philosophical here, I think that the recent advent of electric vehicle propulsion is a bit nurtured by you know the promise of a more cyclic consumer behavior, right, and take more responsibility for the products that we buy. So in the case of the electric vehicle, I think this is tangibly reflected in the use case of the battery itself. So this energy storage system is plays a very fundamental role in the electric vehicle, but it not only supplies the car with energy. In fact, actually, it also affects the user experience in a very fundamental way in every aspect, really, because we expect the battery to bring a certain autonomy. We expect it to bring sufficient power. We expect it to have a certain lifetime, and we want it to be safe because now we're sitting basically in the mobile phone that is carrying us forward, right? So it should be safe in the use as well, and not create any damage on that side. So a battery cell consists out of an anode and a cathode and electrolyte, you know that these are materials. And like many other materials when subjected to cyclic use, they do degrade. I mean if you bend a metal rod enough times, it will break even if it's looks like it will never break. So the same thing actually applies to batteries when subjected to cyclic use charging and discharging, they degrade, right, and they lose their performance. So adding to this, as Syrine already mentioned, and I will underline again, it's the most expensive part of the electric vehicle. And of course, the industry is working to reduce the costs of the battery in every possible imaginable way. But I think it's safe to say that the battery will remain a prominent cost driver for the electric vehicle for quite some time going forward. So the nature of the battery is that is characterized by its cost, right? This is a [stability] to material degradation, so it degrades. And it has an integral role for the user experience. So this means it's very important to safeguard this asset. We need to take care of it, right? And to improve this further, we need to look at things like asset control and monitoring. That is not only important for the first life but also for the second life of the battery cell. So battery technology is a focus of development. It's very dynamic. It's moving in all directions, in all, let's say, functional areas of the battery, we see disruptive development to improve both materials and the cell design itself. So improving existing chemistries that you might know like LFP and NMC, and at the same time, we see also new technologies like sodium chemistry and solid-state batteries that comes with the promise of a lower cost, but also a higher -- higher power density. So that's, let's say, the development on the material side and on the cell side and on the battery pack level driven predominantly by the OEMs and the battery pack makers, we see that they try to improve the charge density of the battery by developing the packaging, reducing packaging material and also improving the thermal management in the same -- at the same time, which is a contradictive thing to do, but this is what is happening. So managing and controlling the battery asset becomes very important for the OEM then to deliver value to the end customer, right? At the same time, as they also improve the battery system for cost and performance. So in order to further improve the return of investment, second life use cases are also developing in parallel like the integration of used battery cells in energy storage solutions. And for this purpose, it's very important to be able to rate the quality of the remaining cell, and to match them then efficiently in their second life. And here, the European Union has been in the forefront of enforcing certain regulations like the battery passport which is aiming to communicate quality-related battery parameters throughout the battery life cycle from first to second life all the way to end of life and recycling. So as the batteries being charged and discharged the battery management system makes sure that the pack and cell level integrity is maintained by controlling the remaining capacity and the rate at which is charged and discharged. So to do this efficiently, we need to control the batteries voltage, the current and the temperature and very accurately. And these measurements they are then fed into quite complex equations, algorithms, which are used to estimate a number of relevant weighted parameters like the state of charge and the state of health. Now we come to the important part, Melexis. So Melexis is currently interfacing to the battery application predominantly through its current product line. And we've recently introduced a smart sensor interface here, which supports both whole and chunk-based current measurement principles, and we think that, that constitutes a very important milestone. Its main feature allow you as well to understand in a very tangible way how Melexis sensor can bring value to the end customer. So by offering a very, very good accuracy and drift performance, we are able to contribute to better prediction in the state of charge and with a better prediction of the state of charge, we can use the capacity budget of the battery in a better way, and that means actually more kilometers. So a sensor leads actively to contribute more kilometers when you drive. Another feature of this project -- this product is the overcurrent protection feature, which allow you to recognize current spike anomalous, and short circuits induced through accident and material failures or degradation. And it is reports this instantly to shut down battery operation and to avoid further collateral damage. So this is a safety feature, which shows you the link between our sensors and safety. So through the introduction of this platform, then we think that we have shown a great ability to adapt to the dynamic market into the battery application, built on a technology legacy that we have in respect to current sensors in general and specifically then in the application of the automotive environment. So we're doing -- we have done this in collaboration with our existing customer base. I think that's important to say. And we've been able to tailor the specification to meet the unique requirements of the high-voltage electric vehicle application. And we are confident that we will be able to reuse this USPs to create further interesting products in this domain. And we will do this by leveraging our technology legacy and also collaborate strongly together with the Tier 1s and the OEMs. So the battery application offers a rough environment, which is with intricate measurement problems. And I think intricate measurement problems are interesting from Melexis because they are difficult to solve. And if they are difficult to solve, not many will solve them, so we speak about bringing bringing unique solutions to the market with our competence. So next to the metering application that we just spoke about in relation to the current sensor, we see also further opportunities to enhance the performance in the estimation of the state of charge and the state of health in conjunction with the battery management system. So we also see opportunities to contribute to safety-related applications like the thermal runway detection, thermal control and monitoring and integrity monitoring with a combination of our sensors and our technology blocks. So the trend towards cost-efficient, reliable battery systems calls for system consolidation and microsystem integration. And that means that there will be a relevance for multisensor integration. We need sensors which -- that shows high synchronosity between each other, accuracy and integrated signal processing. This ultimately moves a lot of value towards what we call the smart sensor, allowing sensor fusion to solve intricate and difficult problems. Yes. So we will continue this work. And we will support and consult the industry with our competence in analog and mixed-signal design, and we will do that as an application enabler, and we will try to capture integration value in that process. So finally, we also have a -- finally, I'm jumping too fast ahead here, like fairly before. So we see also that there are some applications actually in conjunction with the processing and the manufacturing of the battery itself. And here, we think we can contribute to that and solve relevant problems in relation to process control and asset monitoring and optimizing for bottlenecks within the production chain. And yes. So finally, I think we also want to underline today and that is the part of Vincent prior to this presentation and also will be the combination of these days to speak about innovation. So we think it's important to be in the forefront of innovation to be relevant in the future, and we intend to do that also in relation to the battery application to -- yes, to build on the already strong technology portfolio that we have and try to adapt that to the application and make the battery finally a more safer place and a more efficient place. Thank you.

Veerle Lozie

executive
#66

Thank you, Magnus. The next in line for you are Karen and Tony, who will explain how our products play in e-braking and e-steering.

Karen Stinckens

executive
#67

Hello Tony. Hello audience.

Antonius Duisters

executive
#68

Hello audience. Karen will start.

Karen Stinckens

executive
#69

Yes. So I'm here to speak about steering. Of course, every car is steering wheel still today. So steering -- the evolution of steering has happened already and is ongoing already for a while, going from a hydraulic system to an electronic power steering system. That's why -- we don't have to -- we have to go now to the fitness. In the past, we could just drive our car to get the muscles. Now the hydraulic system is, of course, there with lots of pumps, meaning that it has a high load on the engine highway. With the move to the electronic power steering, we are going to a more lightweight system and we reduced this load on the engine, which is pretty important for the fuel consumption, fuel consumption can go down, better fuel efficiency and therefore, reduction in the emission. Like was already mentioned, environment, very important, the Melexis ICs are really playing a big role there together with our customers. These EPS systems or the electronic power systems, of course, require sensors, sensors to give the input to that system. We have a -- I'm not sure if you can really see it there, but we have a steering angle sensor on the steering wheel. We have a torque sensor here below I will go there, steering angle sensor, steering torque sensor over there. And then as you can also see, there is an electrical motor on the rack between the steering wheels that is really driving the direction of the wheels, pretty important. And that is usually a BLDC motor and that, like Marc already mentioned before, requires pretty precise motor position sensors. So we also have that in our portfolio. And then as a final sensor, we sometimes have depending on the architecture of the steering system of the car and other sensor on the rack. When talking about our portfolio, so our portfolio in angle sense or steering angle sensors is pretty mature. We have a mature customer base. Whereas for the torque sensor, we have recently developed new products, and we are really gaining customers there. So that's more of a growth segment, angle sensors, they were pretty mature already. In the automotive environment safety is, of course, very important. So that means safety requirements are higher and higher. We call that functional safety, Asil B, C, D these kind of terminologies are used. Melexis products are actually pretty well positioned for that to really address those additional safety because our customers are trying to address that by putting redundancy in their steering systems, so having 2 separate inputs to calculate all the functions that we have talked about before. In the magnetic position sensors, we have products where we can really have 2 ICs in 1 product different technologies. But then also, like mentioned here on top, we have also the magnetic position sensor technology and the inductive position sensor technology, which means that our customers can really combine these and therefore, reaching higher safety features. Next, in the innovation of the car is, of course, like mentioned before going to autonomous driving, so higher levels in the advanced driving assistance systems and also going to the electrical vehicle. For steering that means an evolution to steer by wire. What does that mean for those in the audience who do not know, steer by wire means that you remove completely the mechanical link between the steering wheel and the wheels itself. So that entire heavy block, and you hear it already, it's a heavy system can be removed. For the electrical vehicle that's pretty important because that means lighter cars, meaning better range of the car. So there, we really see that innovation and evolution. Furthermore, when you have the steer by wire, the car manufacturers have much less flexibility in their design of the car because it can be more flexible, scalable, small cars, bigger cars can really take advantage of basically the same steering architecture. So that gives our customers really disadvantage of reuse. And then, of course, also the interior of the car, you can imagine that a future car will not have a steering wheel anymore, because it can be fully self-driven, steer by wire can really enable that technology, which then also means the entire driving experience will change and also our customers, so the car manufacturers have more flexibility in the interior of the car design itself. So I would say a lot of exciting things still to come when it comes to steering and our products are definitely a good fit for that. Then I give the word to Tony, who will talk about braking.

Antonius Duisters

executive
#70

Yes, braking. We have done steering. We have accelerated the car, accelerated the car with the motors, very important part is, of course, braking. We need brakes, of course, to control our speed. Also here, we have seen over the last couple of years quite some evolution. If I look to the audience, maybe some of you are still driven cars without any break booster, my first car had that. So you had basically work a bit harder to get the brake force on your calipers. The evolution there was bring vacuum into the picture. So the vacuum booster was then developed, which make the braking a bit more easier. So vacuum booster did create basically the hydraulic power to move the calipers on the disk and basically the car. This was not very, say, innovative at that time, yes, but ABS systems, EPS business game, but also the hybrid and electric vehicles game. So you need actually also brake power when you don't have a vacuum. So the industry has been, let's say, moving forward to generate this hydro power with electric motor. And this is a system which you find in basically all of your cars. If you open your hood, you probably can find back otherwise pointed to, but we are quite successful in this market. You have seen in a few of the slides from Vincent, brake centers are one of the persistent for breaking, one of the the products we deliver to many OEMs. Also this electromotor needs again a position sensor and also motor controller to generate this power. The next evolution is actually going to from what we call wet breaking, so hydraulic fluid is wet, it's oil to a dry breaking. And on the spec, you see actually a bit of a mix of a hybrid system. So the rear axle has what we call dry braking, and what plan what dry braking mean. And the front axle still has the, I'd say, the hydraulic braking. Why this hybrid system, we expect that front axle will need the highest braking power. But we also see that the OEMs are typically a bit conservative, and they will stick to their old system. So they believe that, yes, they will have to need hydraulic braking system for the front for some longer time. But we see the e-braking system coming at rear axle. What does it mean? So in this caliper, you would not have a hydraulic piston anymore, but an electric motor, converting the brake pads towards the risk and to -- with that create the stopping power. What you need for that is position sensors to see where the pads are. You need a force sensor, and that is not necessarily -- that is not a product we have, but we have quite some experience in the pressure sensor group. With interface ICs, these are similar to what we need for the force sensing to measure basically the force of the brake pads on the disk. Next to that. Yes, force sensor. Why actually this e-brakes. There are 2 reasons for. First, the modular build up is much easier. So you can -- the assembly of the car will be getting much easier. But what is also important is basically the drag. Hydraulic brake, you always have a little bit of drag on your desk. With an e-brake you can basically control that basically to almost a 0 drag which again helps range as again efficiency. On the front, as mentioned before, we will still have the traditional hydraulic brakes. However, we see also in the future, this will move to, let's say, a full e-brake system. We see already some companies advertising this to the OEMs. Very important for this system is safety. And that's also where you see that the number of ICs will increase. Karen already mentioned, that redundancy is important. We have different centric technologies, magnetic inductive position sensors to basically reach that in this redundancy. And also, that will drive then the number of ICs per system. Also, the CAGR, as you can see, will grow quite strongly. It's mainly driven, in our opinion by the braking systems because you will see with 4 wheels, of course, you have quite a high multiplication factor. And of course, all is depending on the adoption rate of the braking systems of the dry braking systems. Did I forget something?

Veerle Lozie

executive
#71

Okay. Thank you, Karen and Tony. So the last presentation in this block, I would like to call Michael on stage. He will shed some light in this room.

Michael Bender

executive
#72

You have heard most probably a lot of EVs and those kind of things. And you have the slide, you see already the slide is different. So meaning lighting is independent from the engine from the powertrain. So it's for combustion engines as well as for EVs, light is used everywhere. So -- and a little bit, I want to explain a little bit what we are doing here. Let's say, most of you probably know the main beam based on LEDs or by pre-placement in the rear lights. That's not what we are doing. So from our side, we are focusing mainly on so-called RGB-LEDs, so that means the color is mixed out of the 3 base colors, red, green and blue. So -- and this RGB-LEDs also from our side, we are doing the LED driver, driving them LEDs from Osram, Dominant or any other suppliers. So that means our specialty is the LED driver itself. So in mixing out of 3-based colors, and that's a little bit different compared to classical LED applications where you have just a single color, is an automotive industry requires very high accuracy. So that means OEMs don't allow any deviations from company color. So that means mixing of RGBs is, let's say, requires a lot of calculations and LED driver needs to compensate dedicated effects. So because every change in a single color when you, let's say, mixing a color every change of a single color is visible for the human eye. And that is a little bit a challenge what we have, let's say, that human eye behavior needs to take into other account. And this is linked to the physics of the LED. So meaning if an LED heats up, the intensity changes. So if you're mixing in the color, then it's getting visible for instance, just to give you an example, when you want to mix yellow out of red and green, and you are starting to switch on, everything is fine. Then the LED is heating up, red producing the intensity. So -- and your color starts to getting more and more greenish that human eye can easily detect. So -- And that's why all these physical effects on the LEDs needs to become the data from the LED driver. And that is one of the specialties we have at Melexis. So -- and to speak with OEM world, BMW Amber should be always a BMW Amber, undependent from the temperature from the environmental effects and those kinds of things. Or an Audi Blue should be always an Audi Blue. So no deviations are allowed. So -- and that's why, let's say, the RGB control is where we, let's say, complex with regards to the driver architecture. So -- But now we could ask ourselves why is this application are important for the OEMs. So in history, nobody was caring. Now it's getting a very interesting application for the OEMs. So -- And to answer this question, let's look a little bit back. There was a nice slogan from BMW, drive is fun. So let's say horsepower was everything or engine dominates the selling argument. But the world is changing or world has changed. We have electric vehicles. We have multiple other effects. So that means design getting more important to sell cars. The car must be sexy. The car is turning into a mobile phone on tires. So we have the living space with autonomous driving. People can -- multiple things during driving. So that means the interior of the car getting much more important to sell cars. And that's what OEMs have detected. So that design, the design-driven implementation is helping to sell them the cars. So that means also on the opposite side, there's pure horsepower and those kind of things, nobody sells cars anymore. So design dominate. So that means at the end that light, there was a nice learning also from Ford. It's a new Chrome in the history, Chrome was, let's say, a nice metal. So now everybody is doing similar things. making nice environment with Light. So that means also OEMs say, doing brand recognition with the design element. So let's say, there's also a nice trial when you drive during the night, some cars in front of you, you can already detect just by the looking on the rear lights, for instance. So it's really used actively from the designers and the OEM world to make brand recognition, and it is working. As you see it already on the road. So that means, let's say, a slight implementation in the car and specially this is ambient lighting, is RGB-based on, help to sell cars, makes the environment or the car environment much nicer for the user. So -- but besides of that, there's also a nice wording for Mercedes. We also ask, let's say, why is this so important? And there was a comment from Mercedes without light into your light, we don't sell any car anymore. This gives a little bit of importance on the OEM side, how important they count this RGB is lighting implementation to, let's say, increase their sales values inside of the cars, that's why everybody is basically using that. So -- but beside of pure design-driven effects, we see already that they want the design or the design-driven implementation is inside of the car, there will be added functionality. It's not only that it's looking nice. We get all those, let's say, additional functions inside. A typical example is Volkswagen ID. series. You have below the dashboard, a light line. which is used to communicate with the driver and the passenger. So it gives you, for instance, Alexa kind of voice feedback that the car voice -- recognize your voice, you get the feedback at the car, recognizing your voice or the car giving you status information, even emergency breaking information are displayed with help of light. So that means at the end, let's say, in the modern cars, it's starting with design implementation, but functionality will be added to those kind of things, meaning light is actively used as communication media. So that is one effect. And the second effect is as well that, let's say, when we go to autonomous driving. More and more applications are existing on, for instance, steering wheel is a classical example. When the cars in autonomous mode as passenger or as driver, you always need to know, is my car driving autonomous? Is this driving partially autonomous or is this -- I need to take back the control? Currently, it's done mainly in the main dashboard as a small lamp, which is showing you, which status the car has. With the help of light and especially RGB-based lighting, you can implement those kind of functionality directly on the steering wheel. To have a illuminated steering wheel, for instance, which show actually always actual car status and gives you a direct warning if you have to take back the control or not. So those kind of things are also highly safety for the road down. So that means all these light functions turning into safety-relevant applications, but it's helping to improve the handling of the current future as well. And that is a lot of applications, what we see on top of pure design-driven kind of things. So -- and that is exactly why we see this lighting implementations. We have a few demos also and afterwards in the background, which we see basically nearly every car. So -- and it will continue to grow. We have -- you see it on the slide, we have depending on the, let's say, in premium cars, we are in the direction of 150 ICs per car, 150 LED drivers per car, there's also the basic vehicles was just 10 or 20. So -- but there is a huge modification factor per car for the LED side because every single LED needs to be single controlled. And that gives a lot of modification per car for the number of use cases. So -- and that's why we see, let's say, from interlevel Chinese cars that are using this ambient light functions, RGB-based lighting until premium cars with high use cases, we see everywhere the use of those kind of applications, and that's continued to grow. So from our side, Melexis is a world leader. So we have, let's say, implemented on since more than 10 years, we're working on those kind of applications. So -- and the basic factors from our side is a full integration. Because, let's say, those kind of applications are implemented everywhere on the car, that meaning space is really an issue. So only with high integration factors, you can implement those kinds of functionality into the cars. So that means we are able together with our fab partners to have all the functions which are needed for those kind of drivers, implementing around piece of silicon. And as explained in the beginning, we need to compensate physical effects of the LEDs, which requires electronics, analog components, digital components, microcontroller and all those kind of things needs to be implemented in one piece of silicon, which requires dedicated advanced technologies, mixed-signal technologies which are only a few companies in the world are able to do this. That is one of our success factors. So on top, we also, let's say, developed a new system together with OEMs to adding to classical lightings, also animation functionalities to, let's say, have the light also animated to give you a more decent feedback as well. So -- which we call it [MeLiBu], as is our new system which we developed, which is also patented, which saves us also a little bit from the Chinese competition. So -- And basically, our products are used in nearly all cars in the world. So that means let's say, we have the use cases in Mercedes, we have BMW, we have Volkswagen, we have Great Wall in China. We have new, you have seen the example already. So Lucid Air in U.S., the new EV cars, GM, so it is basically all -- nearly all OEMs are using our product. So -- and this path continues to grow. So you see already on the screen, we have also -- we will triple our number of sold ICs. Currently, let's say, to give you just a number, let's say, this last year, we sold more than 150 million ICs already. So it's giving already a value, and in the next years, we will triple those values because, let's say, the content growth, and that is a driving force for this kind of lighting implementation is this premiumization and the use cases on the world we see driving this tripling of the market, and we are well positioned with our products as we have, let's say, a full product portfolio which can cover all potential applications of the OEMs. That's basically where we are. So we are continuing launching our innovative products. So -- and together, we are working closely with the OEMs on the next-generation implementations. So -- and this gives us, let's say, especially for lighting, but we are in the poll position for further growth in the future.

Unknown Executive

executive
#73

Yes. So back after lunch for an exciting block in our day where Vincent and Gael are going to talk about innovation beyond automotive. And with that topic, I'm sure they will bring back some energy in the room. [Break]

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#74

Welcome back after the lunch break. I hope you got what we are expecting this morning, and we'll try to continue on the same flow. And again, don't hesitate to ask questions when you see each of us, let's say, around. We also have the demo where we can also have quite interaction, let's say, on how the product works and what they do. And the next point that we now try to cover is the beyond automotive. We are, let's say, an automotive company having 10% -- 90% of our business, let's say, in automotive. It's clear that that's why we had to cover the automotive aspect in the first part of this morning. Now we go Beyond Automotive. And I will do that together with Gael, and Gael will discuss robotics, which is really the exciting things. Also, when you look in the demo, we have a nice demo on that. I hope you will look at how we leverage our magnetic technology let's say, to pivot in a different segment being robotics there being the Beyond Automotive as we used to call it right now. We used to call it adjacent before, but now new communication manager, changed the name to -- from adjacent to beyond automotive. It's much better than nonautomotive that we were using before. Nonautomotive seems negative. Beyond automotive, somehow see that the future is bright. And that's what you can also see here from the innovation with heart in the center, looking also to the right, look -- we look at innovation, opening up new era, new ventures and robotics is one of them. To cover here the Beyond Automotive, we used to work, I would say, if you remember, six segments we will try to focus on. They are still there. They are a picture here now in the four domains or four innovation intent, as Marc -- but you're not used today, the strategic intent, strategic intent. That's the new word of Marc to refer to those four domains. One is called Sustainable World, that's not to put everything that doesn't fit in the three other category in it. Now it's basically when we look at what our product does. And we used to have that in different category before, but it's really going to that Sustainable World. The fact that people are energy waste were that they need to avoid. I mean, you see that everywhere when you buy a new fridge, when you buy a new car also, you see that say we're at a range of consumption and we get much more aware of what it means. And therefore, high efficiency motors would enter in that category, high-efficiency air conditioning in buildings would also enter in that to make our world more sustainable, that's a bit more a grouping of many things. That's a sustainable industry, the industry 4.0, 5.0, we serve them those trends to some extent, will also be there in that sustainable world. Next to that, on the right side, you have alternative mobility, also something that has been mentioned by Marc, by Karen. Look, that's clearly our growth drivers that we see. That's probably the most adjacent, when we were using adjacent as a terminology. Alternative mobility, since we do automotive, of course, mobility, moving from one point A to point B with a car, 4 wheels or with 2-wheelers or with the drones, and Marc mentioned. You want to be in the Olympics in Paris, one of the first pioneer traveling with an EV toll, an electric vertical takeoff and landing, let's say, drones. They plan to have that. I mean that will be a European success if it happens that we can transport, let's say, personalities, VIPs like Marc, and also sport guys, let's say, from one place to the others at the Olympics. Next time you can ask him if he managed to get a ticket, but that's the other point. Look, alternative mobility is for sure something we want to look at, and we look really from a broad perspective. you were asking us what do we do in China? I can tell you here, it's less China. It's more, let's say, U.S. and Europe, but there is a lot of activity, let's say, behind that on the e-bikes. On the e-scooters, there we have also a lot of traction in India. India is a market for those alternative mobility, the way we conceive it at Melexis, so that's something where we are definitely, let's say, working on to expand our business beyond automotive. I will continue with digital health. Digital health is something where -- and I will give you a bit more on it after the presentation of Gael. Very important on digital health. It's quite -- I mean, when Marc was speaking about, let's say, incremental and disruptive or radical even, even more than disruptive. I would say digital health is it's completely for us quite radical and disruptive in terms of innovation, where we basically have no real leverage, let's say, other than we can do good semiconductor, good signal conditioning, sensor interface. I mean we have been working sensors to -- here it's still about sensing. Therefore, we have a little common ground, but all the rest is pretty new. We start working with different type of equipment and different type of measurement. But therefore, it's quite important, where as Gael will show on the robotics there, we have really one leverage on the magnetic technology. Look, we beef up that technology, but definitely -- we have some good, let's say, holding position, let's say, to be able to enter in those, but Gael will explain you that in more detail. Then the robotics is the one that Gael will present, and therefore, I will not introduce too much here. But what you can see here when also we're speaking about, let's say, the different trends that influence here. I think sustainable world, we mentioned, everybody is waste CO2 conscious, that should be environmentally friendly equipment, that's what we put in the sustainable world. The fact that the industry also need to lower the consumption of energy, look to have better motors and things like that, it's there. Alternative mobility, we set -- it's also tried to get, let's say, from point A to point B without necessarily having to use a car if the distance is small enough, it will be electric, it could be the EV toll to avoid traffic jam and things like that. But what's important here is that you have also kind of connection of the intersection here. It's real. I mean, the alternative mobility is also serving the sustainable world. Alternative mobility, if it's an active mobility, even with an e-bike, you still need to pedal. I mean you have an assist, but you still need to do something. Therefore, there you also participate to the better of your health and the health condition and the well-being conditioned by addressing, let's say, digital health aspect also linked to the automotive mobility. Digital health, as mentioned by Marc, aging population, affordability of the health care have less personnel also to assist to support in the hospitals and so on will definitely, let's say, vote for, let's say, a way to get the health more closer to the patient and some on the patient itself, and that's where we try to tap on. But I will describe that in it digital health. And from that perspective, let's say, I will continue now on the growth target that Karen mentioned. And as we said, robotics will be in detail highlighted by Gael, and you will have the demo also afterwards. Then how do we get basically -- how do we get the ambition? Because Karen presented, the slide is not coming. The slide doesn't come. Okay, we have it. Okay, that's the beyond automotive target that Karen was, let's say, revealing this morning, where you see there a 15% plus in the CAGR 2023, 2030 with basically then 2030, don't forget. And here, what we see there, that's a 15% CAGR mean [ 2.6x ] minimum. Okay, so I put also the arrow going a bit higher than 3x, but 2.66x would be the 15% CAGR in 7 years. Look, it's quite a lot. How do you get that? But you can get that, I would say, at least to two ways, could say a third way, you buy business, but we are not, let's say, today and historically not necessarily be a big M&A player could change. But I would say -- right now, that's not necessarily the first channel we want to look at in order to make that happen, at least it's not factored in. But -- you can do that in two ways, enrich the portfolio, try to get more products, able to address those four domains. That's one aspect. The second you can also increase your market reach. I will first elaborate on that. The market reach at Melexis, we have salespeople, but we are also representative. We have distributors that's something we never really, let's highlight when we have this Investor Day. But it's quite important to note that the way we serve China, beyond automotive, the way we serve Brazil, the way we serve the U.S. and so on. And Canada, for instance, it's definitely true that those channels. And last year, we have signed with new distributors and additional distributors, global distributors called Arrow. We were basically not eligible to get to work with those distributors in the past -- this in the past. But we grow enough, and we also show enough, let's say, ambition in the automotive as well as the beyond automotive that they were interested in representing our product, distributing our product, and that's definitely one way we plan to, let's say, to basically boost a little bit our natural growth, which has been more or less in sync with automotive. That's why we stick more or less beyond automotive, automotive at the same pace. But what we would like to do, of course, is that we outpace automotive with this 15%, and we hope to get that definitely one way with those channels, let's say, more channels and to have a better and wider customer reach. The second aspect is increase the portfolio, as I mentioned. And there we see it in three phases. And the one -- the first one, of course, short term is, for sure, the existing portfolio. And today, when we look at the beyond automotive market share, the 10% revenue we do that with, let's say, a couple of product lines, not all of them. We do that with temperature sensors. We do that with motor drivers. We do that with the magnetic sensors, it includes multiple product lines and current sensors. So that's, let's say, four product lines, let's say, that are driving, let's say, the majority of that 10% and -- the other product line are not necessarily today fully engaged there for a reason of technology, of markets, let's say they have good market traction in automotive, why should they necessarily go there or they don't have necessarily the right technology to do it or we are, let's say, we would be the #10 or #15 in a row, make no sense. But it's clear that the existing portfolio is there. You know some success that have been quite visible on wearables, for instance, that was a good success that we are in the Galaxy Watch with our temperature sensor. We also get into some phone for measurement there. It's partially the digital health trend that we want to target there with those products. So just to show that today, it's, let's say, one contribution to that blue box or blue balls that we had on the slide. Then going on midterm, the portfolio extension will be important, and that's enriched the portfolio, that is to the extension of portfolio. And I think there, it's continue on where we are already successful, of course, with current sensor with position and so on, but also start harvesting from some of our innovation initiatives, and that's I think what Gael will present later with the robotics, for instance. But also in the alternative mobility and the sustainable world, we have motor drivers program, and Marc spoke about the motor drivers that are used in pumps for the thermal management in a car, but we plan also to develop specific product to address the sustainable world, the alternative mobility and the robotics, dedicated motor drivers. Marc also said, we will allocate people to develop product there. It's definitely an intention and more than intention. We are doing it as we speak here to get really products that can fuel that growth. Of course, they won't be in 2023, 2024, available. They will come down the road, but it's clearly a way to get that CAGR that we mentioned earlier today to make that happen. And then last but not least, long term, is continue the portfolio extension. By then, of course, robotics will be already implemented. By then the motors, the high-efficient motor drivers will already contributing to the turnover, the revenue. It will be then probably the time to really get also the digital health, the bio-sensing, as I said, I mean, it's totally different sensing that what we do today, where we typically measure, let's say, current position pressure, those are, let's say, measuring -- physical measurement. We will go for bio-sensing, a totally different world. And that will probably be the third horizon, let's say, the long-term support maybe not in the window 2030, but beyond that, just to show that, let's say, we are clearly preparing that growth territory and go even beyond that one. So that was, let's say, my introduction that you can see a bit, let's say, how we reshape a little bit our narrative towards Beyond Automotive, what used to be called adjacent. We go from, let's say, six verticals to four domain, four strategic intent that we want to do Beyond Automotive. And now I think it's time to get more in detail on the robotics. An exciting topics that we created let's say, already a couple of years ago, but we really put that into our new lab, Innovation Lab 2 years ago, and Gael is leading the group and the lab and we'll definitely be able to convince you that we have definitely a lot of chance in addressing robotic application from a totally different perspective, leveraging our magnetic technology.

Gael Close

executive
#75

Thank you, Vincent.

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#76

I don't think so.

Gael Close

executive
#77

Well, we have to look at the second half because we have changed here and we are looking further into the future and we have to ask ourselves, what technology ideally for a sensor rich, good [Technical Difficulty] Is it better now? Yes. Let me restart then. This happens with technology and technology, a good definition I like is things that quite don't work yet. And we'll see that in the lab, we work very hard to get it working to a certain level, but it always happens that you have about surprise. But -- looking ahead in the second half of the next decade as we are changing gear, we want to ask the question, which technologies could be mass adopted. And ideally, for us, of course, the technology relying critically on a number of sensors. And we believe like many others like the Boston Consulting Group. Those numbers are coming from them that robots will be deploy and adopted our mass in a few years' time. One way to look at this and predict the rate or the horizon at which the technology might be adopted is to look at the so-called adoption curve. On the x-axis, you have the time horizon at which a technology could be adopted by the mass. And on the other access, you have what is the adoption of this technology today. And naturally, the two are correlated. If you look at, for example, collaborative robots, you can see many of those robots today, if you go to a factory, you would see those robots packing or unpacking, loading machine, typically at the end of a processing. So they exist. They are relatively standard already today. So naturally, their adoption is already gaining momentum today. Next in line, consider the service robots. Those are realistic because they exist. They are also deployed. You have heard, maybe if you have seen the news that Amazon was deploying robots in their warehouse to carry loads in a fairly unstructured environment. Those robots exist today, but they are just tolerated. They are used for pilot experiment. So they are not yet ready for mass adoption. Instead, we see that it could happen in a few years' time frame. And those robots, we feel that what will drive their adoption is the lack of labor personnel for many jobs that requires moving object, carrying loads. This is the case, for example, in agriculture, also in warehouse but also in health care settings where you need to transport loads, for example, across hospital corridor for which these robots is design. Next, if you want to project even further, for example, in 10 years, what sort of technology could be adopted. We have to look at technology that today they exist but we look at them with apprehension. That is -- it looks almost scary. This is maybe the case of some of the humanoid robots. Today, you see them in only YouTube video or if you attend a robotic fair, but they are not yet walking on the street. So probably their adoption is not imminent. But nevertheless, they exist, even though today, they are barely tolerable, and we have a lot of apprehension maybe in 10 years this technology will be adopted. And we see a potential large opportunity for sensors. Why? First, the volume of robots, the sheer volume of robots will increase, but robots will also need a higher level of perception. This was articulated already in the '90s by a professor in the U.S., and this is known as the Moravec's paradox. You know that robots today, they seem quite intelligent. They seem like full-grown adult if you ask them to pass an intelligent test, and some of those robots are indeed already replacing translator, lawyer, maybe investor in the future, who knows. This technology exists today. But if you look at robots to do a task that require manipulation and being sensitive to their surrounding like picking an object, they look like kid or even not even a 2-year old child. So do you have this paradox that on the one hand, the robot seems very intelligent, but on the other hand, they lack perception skills. And this is really an opportunity to bring sensor -- more sophisticated sensor for the robots and ultimately, the service robots and later on the humanoid. Moving to the next slide. All right. So now let's look at concretely projects that we have started to undertake to be ready when and if robotics indeed picks up. We have three projects that are being developed in the team that I lead. Three concrete projects that are specifically targeting beyond automotive application and are specifically designed according to robotic needs. In each of those cases, we looked at mechatronic application. So measuring force, torque or position. There are so many joints in those robots that you can imagine that to increase the perception skills of the robots, it will need multiple sensors. The first sensor we are developing is a force sensor. It's depicted here, and this will be the subject of the demo. It's included -- it's designed to be included in the gripper or robotic finger to measure the force, the contact force between the robot and an object, possibly the object is quite fragile. The object may slip and having this fourth information is crucial to give robots, tactile feedback. That's why we call this future product, the Tactaxis. Next, and note that before I move on, that this product is based on our Magnetek technology, but it also includes a magnet embedded in elastic material all of this integrated in a single micro system, driving the value higher than what you would expect from a plain silicon chip. This is a fully integrated microsystem. Next, those robots typically have fairly long arm. And there is usually a need to measure accurately the position of the end of the arm. And typically, if you make the math, which I won't ask you to do it now, but if you consider 1 millimeter precision over 1 meter arm length, the angular precision we are talking about is really much less than 1 degree. It's actually going into the arc minute. That's why we call this innovation, the Arcminaxis because it's able to accurately measure the position, the angular position of a joint within a few arc minutes. This application or this concept this sensor is also based on a magnetic position sensor with two sensing spots. So again, we leverage our expertise in magnetic sensing. And this time, this is combined with a custom design magnet, a dual track magnet. So again, we are driving value higher by combining magnetic sensors together with a custom design magnet. The final application I want to highlight is torque sensing because those robots in the past, they were very jittery, of course, but now they become smooth, and you might wonder where this is coming from. This is coming from torque control. They regulate the torque that is being applied throughout the motion. So this is a function that is needed to make the robots look smooth, but also in case of collision. Because in case of a collision, there is a very abrupt change of the torque. The torque is the rotational force that you have apply or transmitted in each of those joints. In here, we are using guess what, again, a magnetic sensor as the basis. But this time, the source is a magnetoelastic shaft. Given that we are using the magnetoelastic effect, we have called this the Elaxis. This is the third product that we envision after the previous two, which are slightly more mature. So here, this is a compact, again, torque sensor enabled by our magnetic technology. So overall, in those applications, we see between -- anywhere between 20 or 30 IC per smart robots, which give us sum that should increase by -- that we expect to increase by a factor of 3 in the second part of next decade. So to summarize -- to summarize our strategy in robotics. We are looking at three potential product ideas. We have many more ideas in our ideation funnel. Those three ideas are focused on mechatronics, measurement, force, torque and angular position, which are numerous in those applications given the number of joints of those robots. And in each cases, we leverage and we exploit our historical strength in magnetic sensor with a twist, we are using or designing the magnetic source to drive value up. Thank you.

Vincent Hiligsmann

executive
#78

Thank you. We have the Q&A just after my final introduction on the digital health. Maybe if I can get the -- because I would like -- before I go there, just as a segue from what Gael discussed, I come back to the four balls here, where there is also I explain the alternative mobility if you start to do an active mobility there, you will helped your, let's say, good physical condition. The same is true here between robotics and digital health, there is this intersection here which would be used or which would depict the fact that there are robots planned to be used in rehabilitation, also the exoskeleton make people, let's say, which are fully handicapped today, be walk again with robots. That's really how we envisage also there that connection to have the robotics, helping the digital health or let's say, the well-being. So digital health is looks like a bit dry, but if it's well-being, it gets much more softer. But that's really the idea there also to look at those intersection and in the center, again, the innovation of Melexis. Speak about digital health now let's go a bit in detail on that. And here you have, let's say, a little slide because we cannot speak that much. It's not that we don't want, but basically, I think they still saw a long-term horizon. The impact on the business will be definitely beyond 2030. Therefore, we just want to introduce you just that you realize that we are definitely, let's say, also, let's say, quite to diverge a bit from the automotive with this beyond automotive. But also try to diverge from magnetic sensing, which was definitely one of the, let's say, the starting point of the robotics program, motor drivers. We did not spoke about that today, but as I said already once, Marc, when Gael spoke about the robotic arms that need to be actuated. We are, let's say, developing product that will actuate that. That will also benefit from all those talk sensor and the feedback, just to make sure that you get that soft movement. Look that's hold all the way we see robotics at Melexis. And I'm sure that in 2 years, when we do the next event, we will be able to give you much more insight on where we are in the progress, maybe also some success already in terms of product and in terms of market. But then digital health, it's really long-term horizon. And then why we want to do that, as mentioned already by Marc, when we vote the people aspect earlier today, the aging of population, the scarcity of medical personnel, the affordability of health care and increase of health and well-being awareness. It's clearly that COVID changed a bit there. The way we look at our well-being, our -- also at the health care aspect, those are the why? Why we believe digital health can be, I would not say immediately another automotive, but potentially another automotive. Same way like Gael mentioned, robotics is poised to grow. There is a big multiplier. Of course, you don't see 100 million robots yet where we were seeing 80 million, 90 million cars. But if the numbers of chips on those robots is also, let's say, in the 30, 40, 50, you get again to the same addressable. But therefore, we need to look at that from that perspective as well. Also Gael mentioned, we go from sometimes a chip, a sensor chip here to more complex mechatronic. Same is true for Marc. The motor driver will be different from the one we do for the automotive. So there is definitely an increase of the ASP that we anticipate there. Just that you can frame that saying, I saw only 7 million robots. I mean what does it mean compared to 90 million cars today. But also when we were looking at -- if the market will decrease automotive, that's definitely a way also to potently compensate that. So that's how we see it at Melexis that, let's say, beyond automotive. But if I come back to my digital health topic here, look, the why is there. The what we plan to do, we plan to develop, let's say, a biosensor. Look, it's not to measure pressure, not to measure a position. It is to measure, Let's say, biosignals that we could get from saliva, from urine, from sweat from also hormone that you would get out. We could also analyze the blood. I mean all those things are part of, let's say, the scope of the project and where and what will be -- what will it serve? It will serve the in vitro diagnostic devices, the one that you have typically for accurate measurement in the lab typically. We -- just as you know also in today's equipment in vitro diagnostic equipment, we have our temperature sensor also used there. I spoke about the wearables. I spoke about the phone, but there is also a temperature sensor used in vitro diagnostic devices because when you do those analysis, if you want to multiply like you have in the PCR test, for instance, you need a very well controlled temperature, and we have a good way to measure good temperature absolute temperature with our thermometer. So therefore, we already addressed that part of the business. But now we want definitely to go in a more core part, not only the temperature around, let's say, the cell but really to get the measuring cell. Point-of-care devices. It's the one which is closer to the patient to try to get a fast and rapid test result. That's what you get with point of care. We should be able to address that also with our biosensor. And home diagnostic and medical devices, a bit looking at the scarcity of the personnel and also the fact that people want to get their own personal evaluation at home, the self-care or the remote, as mentioned also there, remote with medical devices that you can interrogate through Internet, for instance, we should also be able to address those markets. And then last but not least, wearable and skin patches, like they are famous skin patch. Meanwhile, for the glucose monitoring, for instance, we could address glucose monitoring, but it's what we call a red ocean. Look, that's not where we plan to definitely go first. We have other type of signal that we want to measure other than the glucose in the blood. But just that as a kind of interesting example, I mean that's the kind of application we could also serve or in the format of a patch that you put on your skin. And then the how, how we get there? We get there -- of course, with our team that have been able to build the last 30 years, let's say, trajectory in the automotive industry that we do. We try to use that -- all that knowledge in signal conditioning of sensors in packaging, Gael mentioned also different packaging for the robotics, the same here, a different package will be needed. But instead of injecting current or measuring pressure, here, we have fluid to measure that this kind of board. First time we use that at Melexis, this kind of board with, let's say, pipes coming in and going out, because that's what not needed so far in the product we do. Look, in-house innovation is clearly a good way we address that. But we also look at techno scouting. We spoke about M&A. I mean it could be definitely something we could consider in terms of technology, not necessarily company, but more the technology or IP that we could acquire around those fields. And last but not least, open innovation. Look, that's something we really believe in a lot, not to develop everything in-house. It's definitely more and more difficult, it takes more time. We don't have the time to do that. Open innovation and to come back to a statement of Marc on the partnering, also statement of Karen with Sophia Antipolis to be close to those university and knowledge hubs and innovation hubs. We plan to do that definitely with, let's say, open innovation with technology partners and university. And as a matter of fact, just to give you a proof point, if you look on our website, maybe not notice, but you can look again at it. In the biosensing, digital health, we have started a core for project with EPFL in New Zealand, one of the, let's say, top ranked European University. We have done a proposal there -- we will grant two postdoc research on the, let's say, bio-sensing and that has been quite successful because we get 11 proposal. We want to select two out of them. But there is definitely, let's say, we are able as an innovative company, convince professor and department at EPFL to work with us. They believe in the fact that we have the capability and the competencies to bring those things, let's say, from the ground up. And we are definitely, let's say, proud and happy to start that -- those ventures. As I said, Horizon 3, it's not for tomorrow, it's not for the next Analyst Day. We'll give you an update, of course, where we are there. But that's just to tell you that we are definitely ready for a bigger pivot than anyone, any pivot we did so far on leveraging on more or less everything we have built but definitely with 0 insight in the market as well as in the type of sensing we need to realize here.

Unknown Executive

executive
#79

I have a last question for you, Marc. What would you like the audience to remember from today?

Marc Biron

executive
#80

Yes, you're right. We are not exact to the end because we still have the other production tour, and then after that, the demo that we would like to share with you, then there is also a small reception in parallel with the demo. But okay, let's say, for the formal part of the presentation, where we are at the end. Then indeed, what do we keep as a key message. Can you move to the next slide. And the next one, please. Yes. Thank you. And as a key message, yes, we have presented to you our strategic intent in terms of business in automotive, but also beyond automotive. Karen has shared with all of us our financial goals. In terms of revenue -- can you go to the next slide, please. Yes, in terms of revenue, we target a 10% CAGR for the automotive sales, 15% CAGR for the beyond automotive. And we have explained to you what product in automotive and beyond automotive, what product will secure this growth. This is for the innovative part of the strategy map. Some questions were also about the profitability. We target to be profitable in terms of GPM higher than 45% in terms of EBIT higher than 25%. And for this, we have also -- we did not mention too much, but we have also a lot of initiatives in the company to optimize the price of the product also to optimize the cost of the overall structure. I think Vincent mentioned at one point in time, that it was carry -- that we want to increase our development investment while we want to keep in the long term the same remuneration ratio versus the revenue. And this is for the optimized aspect. For me, it's also very important to mention that this innovation part, this optimization part is only possible if we have the right people. Because we always mention the people will make it happen or will not make it happen. Then there is also a lot of initiatives around the people. We want to have engaged people. We want to have the people with the right competency, people sharing the same value of Melexis and the people are really in the center of the strategy map because thanks to the people, we'll be able to reach our target in terms of innovation and our target in terms of profitability. And last but not least, you see that the sustainability footprint is on the bottom of the strategy map. It's not because it's on the bottom, but it's because it's the backbone of the of the strategy map. And sustainability is about planet and also about people. Karen has shared that in terms of target for sustainability, we want to reduce the energy consumption per chip by 40% in 2030. This is for the planet part. For the people part, I think we discussed also about diversity, multi-play interdisciplinary team and those are the initiatives and the goal that we have around sustainability. Then to answer your question, I would like that the key message that we should keep out of this session, Melexis is an innovative company. We innovate in automotive, beyond automotive. Melexis also is working on the profitability, the optimization aspect -- and this is thanks and via the different employee, the different people.

Unknown Executive

executive
#81

Thank you, Marc. I'm sure the audience will remember, but we'll test it later of course.

Marc Biron

executive
#82

And perhaps before we end, I would like to thank you for your presence. Thank you for being there. Also thank you for your question. I think I discussed a bit during the lunch. I think it's very energizing for us to have question from you. It's also very energizing to prepare this event altogether. It's a good way also for Melexis to work as a team and to prepare this event and create a lot of energy. I hope that we have shared a bit of our energy to you. And to finish, I would like to thank all the Melexis people. You have made a great job. Thank you.

This call discussed

For developers and AI pipelines

Programmatic access to Melexis NV earnings transcripts and 32,000+ others is available through the EarningsCalls.dev REST API. Plans from $24.99/month — full transcripts, speaker segments, full-text search, and the recently-added /api/v1/transcripts/recent polling endpoint for ETL pipelines.