Digital Key Research: Automotive BLE, UWB and SLE Hardware Layout
The Automotive Digital Key Industry Trend Report, 2026, released by ResearchInChina, analyzes and predicts the digital key market, communication technology and standards, industry chain and competitive landscape, OEMs’ applications and planning, chip vendors and system integrators, and forecasts the trends.
1. Automotive digital keys will enter the market structure adjustment stage
From 2025 to 2026, China's passenger car digital key market sustained rapid growth.
In 2025, 13.335 million passenger cars were installed with digital keys in China, a year-on-year increase of 20.5%; the installation rate reached 58.1%, up about 9.7 percentage points from last year.
From January to February 2026, 1.554 million passenger cars were installed with digital keys in China, a year-on-year increase of 0.8%; the installation rate reached 59.0%, up about 9.1 percentage points from last year.
Based on the sales volume of passenger cars and the installations of digital keys in 2025 and January-February 2026, we have raised our market expectation. The digital key installation rate will exceed 60% in 2026 and be higher than 90% from 2032. In the next few years, digital keys will shift from quantitative improvement to qualitative improvement, and OEMs will pay more attention to the stability of digital key performance.
As per the growth of each market segment, the future market structure is adjusted in the following directions:
BLE Solutions (including BLE, BLE+NFC) is still mainstream in the market, and will account for half of the digital key market by installation rate, basically covering economical vehicle models and mid-range vehicle models;
With its performance advantages, high-precision positioning and radar, the UWB solution will integrate future digital keys with other functions, such as multiplexing functions like in-cabin monitoring and kick radar, to make the overall cost optimal.
NearLink solutions began mass production and vehicle deployment in 2025. Given the sales growth of the vehicle models of Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA) and Huawei's influence, the installations and installation rate of NearLink keys have increased significantly in just one year. It is expected to double in 2026 and gradually become one of the mainstream digital key technologies.
NFC solutions involve integration with various brands. Due to the short communication distance and limited application scenarios, it is predicted that the NFC-only solution will have limited room for growth.
2. BLE keys usually use 3-5 Bluetooth anchors
In automotive BLE key solutions, the 1-anchor solution is rarely used, and the 1+2 or 1+3 solution is relatively common. The Tesla Model 3 uses a 1+2 solution, with the master anchor located near the center console and the slave anchors (antenna modules) located on the left and right B-pillars. UBITRAQ's multi-Bluetooth solution uses a 1+3 solution, with the master anchor near the center console and the slave anchors on the left and right B-pillars and the rear of the vehicle.
In the BLE+NFC solution, the number of Bluetooth anchors is usually increased to 5. For example, YFORE Technology's DK1.0 Max solution uses 5 BLE anchors + 2 NFC anchors, enabling passive locking and unlocking as well as instant driving after gear shifting.
3. UWB keys usually use 4-6 UWB anchors
There are two common vehicle UWB hardware architecture solutions:
(1) "4 exterior anchors + 1 interior anchor": deploy 4 exterior anchors on both sides of the front and rear bumpers, and the interior anchor at the center console.
(2) "0 exterior anchor + 4 interior anchors": deploy 4 UWB anchors on both sides of the B-pillar and the front and rear windshields in the vehicle.
As per mass production solutions of OEMs, 4-6 UWB anchors are commonly used:
Lynk & Co uses 4 UWB anchors, as well as a BLE anchor and 2 NFC anchors;
ZEEKR uses 6 UWB anchors and a BLE anchor;
XPeng uses 6 UWB anchors, as well as 2 BLE anchors and 2 NFC anchors.
High cost and high power consumption are still bottlenecks for popularization of UWB keys. Therefore, reducing anchors has become one of the ways to lower costs in the industry. UBITRAQ and Joynext have launched related solutions.
1) UBITRAQ
UBITRAQ is introducing its patented UWB-AOA single-base-station positioning system into UWB digital key application scenarios. It can reduce the number of anchors in a single vehicle with a UWB digital key from five to at least one (one UWB-AOA anchor is deployed in the vehicle).
UBITRAQ places the UWB-AOA anchor on the ceiling of the vehicle, allowing the signal to penetrate through the glass and cover the outside of the vehicle. The positioning algorithm handles the blocking effect of the A/B/C pillars, doors and body on the UWB signal. In this way, at least one new anchor is needed to achieve 360° positioning of the UWB key. If two UWB-AOA anchors are placed in the whole vehicle, the system can work more stably.
2) Joynext
Relying on the nAccess hardware module, Joynext launches a cost-effective "dual-anchor" digital key solution that integrates UWB digital key and Child Presence Detection (CPD) through a system.
4. NearLink keys usually use 5 NearLink anchors
At this stage, NearLink usually uses 5 anchors. The master anchor is often installed near the reading light, and the slave anchors are installed at the front and rear bumpers/left and right B-pillars. This layout is not only beautiful, but also ensures signal coverage and ranging accuracy. When the user approaches the vehicle, the master anchor establishes a connection with the digital key and wakes up the slave anchors to complete networking. Through the multi-anchor ranging algorithm, the system can accurately calculate the distance between the key and each anchor and output the ranging results.
As per the mass production solutions of suppliers:
The BLE+NFC+NearLink solution launched by YFORE Technology uses 5 NearLink anchors (one master interior module and four slave exterior modules) to realize such functions as active welcome, passive locking/unlocking, key sharing, remote parking, keyless start, multi-user connection, and OTA updates.
Relying on UWB-AOA technology, UBITRAQ launches the NearLink+UWB solution which uses 2 UWB anchors mainly for positioning, and 1 or 4 NearLink anchors to replace the traditional Bluetooth chip.
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