Commercial Vehicle IoV and Cockpit Research: The Third Wave of Passenger Car/Commercial Vehicle Technology Integration Arrives, and T-Box Integrates e-Call and 15.6-inch for Vehicles

I. The third wave of passenger car/commercial vehicle technology integration is coming, accelerating the intelligentization of commercial vehicles.

The integration of passenger car and commercial vehicle technologies mainly refers to the deep integration of both technologies in R&D, manufacturing, and service, primarily involving the migration of passenger car technology to commercial vehicles. In history, passenger car/commercial vehicle technology integration has occurred three times. The first wave completed the platform migration and strategic layout from passenger cars to commercial vehicles; the second wave promoted the electrification transformation of commercial vehicles; and the third wave will promote the comprehensive entry of passenger car intelligent technology into the commercial vehicle field.

In the third wave, commercial vehicles are undergoing a comprehensive upgrade in electric drive, battery, electric control, architecture, intelligent driving, and intelligent cockpits.
 
Electric drive, battery and electric control: BYD's Q3 battery-electric 49-ton tractor truck uses BYD's latest blade battery with a range of 350-400 kilometers to cover medium and long-distance dedicated lines, ports, steel mills, coal-fired power plants and other short-haul transportation scenarios. Through a four-gun fast charging system with a maximum charging current of 1000A and a power of 600kW, it can be charged from 20% to 80% in 40 minutes.

Architecture: K01, the new energy commercial vehicle architecture released by Changan Kaicheng, is a concrete manifestation of Changan Automobile's six-layer architecture technology in the commercial vehicle field. It incorporates Changan Automobile's latest technological achievements in the mechanical layer, energy layer, and electronic and electrical architecture layer, and has core technical features such as "decoupling between upper and lower layers, separation of software and hardware, and integration of vehicles and cloud". Compared with traditional architectures, the development cycle of vehicles based on the K01 architecture is shortened by a year, with R&D investment reduced by 40%, and manufacturing efficiency improved by 30% which makes a major breakthrough.

Autonomous driving: The "Youlong Autonomous Driving" system developed by Geely for its subsidiary Farizon has six core highlights: vehicle-satellite interconnection, supercomputing power, AI chassis-by-wire, scenario customization, safety redundancy, and business ecosystem. It brings together Geely's technological innovations and ecosystem layout in various fields over the past few years.

Intelligent cockpit: The cab of GAC T9 features a 15-inch CID which features entertainment, 360-degree panoramic imaging, ultra-high-definition projection and navigation as well as an LCD cluster which can display power consumption, range, speed, vehicle status, and other information, enhancing the technological feel of the cockpit and the driving pleasure.

II. Commercial vehicle intelligent terminals are upgraded

1. Driving recorders add video monitoring functionality

Driving recorders primarily record and store vehicle speed, time, mileage, location, and other relevant driving status information, and output the data through data communication.

The new generation of driving recorders is required to add functions such as intelligent video monitoring, so that the hardware for storage and transmission, as well as the software for algorithms and analysis should be upgraded. Top suppliers of driving recorders are making great efforts to improve the intelligence of such products.

From January to July 2025, the top 10 suppliers of commercial vehicle driving recorders in China accounted for a total market share of 72.2% by installations, with the top three - Yaxon Connect, Hopechart, and Smartlink enjoying a combined share of 50.5%.

Yaxon Connect’s driving recorder uses embedded Linux and achieves high-precision positioning through a Beidou/GPS positioning module. It supports the integration of DMS, ADAS, and BSD algorithms and enables multiple functions such as vehicle information collection, positioning, video monitoring and recording, wireless transmission, and information interaction. By reading and analyzing driving data, it can not only provide active safety warnings and reduce the incidence of traffic accidents, but also provide data support to OEMs and innovate business models through vehicle data collection.

Regarding data accuracy and security, China National Intellectual Property Administration published a patent from Yaxon Connect on July 1, 2025: a method for preventing data tampering in a driving recorder (patent number: CN120234837A). This patent uses data block combinations to form a driving data record file format, which can effectively prevent key data in driving records from being maliciously tampered with, and ensure the accuracy and security of data during accident analysis and liability determination.

Hopechart's HQA801 integrates a driving recorder, a high-definition video recorder and an ADAS. It features BD/GPS dual-mode positioning, 7 AHD cameras and an IPC camera, and contains DMS, ADAS, BSD, and muck truck identification algorithms. It has high cost performance, good scalability, and rich functions. It is suitable for the management systems, active safety and autonomous driving terminal systems of tourist chartered buses, buses between non-adjacent counties, and special road vehicles for transporting dangerous chemicals, fireworks, firecrackers and civilian explosives, smart muck trucks, concrete mixer trucks and other engineering vehicles.

2. T-Box will integrate e-Call and other functions

T-Box is another major Internet of Vehicles data collection terminal. It provides driving data collection, driving trajectory recording, vehicle fault monitoring, vehicle remote query and control, driving behavior analysis and other services in various scenarios such as commercial transportation, logistics distribution, and fleet management of commercial vehicles.

Driven by policies and regulations, all new energy commercial vehicles, natural gas commercial vehicles, and heavy-duty diesel vehicles had been fitted with T-Box as of 2025. In other markets, the installation rate is rising slightly thanks to the demand for vehicle Internet of Vehicles.

There are many T-Box suppliers for commercial vehicles in China, including top companies like Yaxon Connect, Hopechart, Smartlink, South Sagittarius Integration, etc. From January to July 2025, Yaxon Connect ranked first with a market share of 18.3%, and mainly served Dongfeng, Foton, Sinotruk, King Long Motor, and Zoomlion. Hopechart ranked second with 12.9%, and its customers mainly included China Shaanqi, Foton, Anhui Valin, Higer Bus and Beiben.

The intelligence of commercial vehicle T-Box mainly focuses on integrating functions such as 5G, satellite communication, V2X, and e-Call. e-Call will undergo two major upgrades in the next two years: first, the EU e-Call standard will be upgraded to NG eCall; second, the mandatory e-Call standard in China will be implemented soon. e-Call is often integrated into T-Box. As per policies, light and micro commercial vehicles (N1 category) in China will be the first to install e-Call.

Since 2025, terminal equipment suppliers such as Yaxon Connect, Hopechart, DiAS and Flaircomm Microelectronics have successively announced that they have obtained NG eCall certification. According to the national standard, eCall will be mandatory from July 1, 2027. Currently, some testing institutions have begun preparations for testing, and it is expected that some companies will attain national standard certification in the second half of 2025 or the first half of 2026.

3. 15.6-inch CIDs land on vehicles

For commercial vehicle users, living in their vehicles is the norm. In daily work, driving, rest, freight information, social interaction, and entertainment are all basically done in the cockpit. Therefore, intelligent features in commercial vehicle cockpits are particularly important for improving the driver experience.

Currently, the main intelligent cockpit functions that have been mass-produced and applied in commercial vehicles include color CIDs, Bluetooth/vehicle phones, LCD clusters, tire pressure monitoring, and driver fatigue monitoring. Among these, color CIDs and Bluetooth/vehicle phone have an installation rate of over 15%, making them typical functions of intelligent cockpits in commercial vehicles.

As a pioneer in smart cockpit hardware, color CIDs tend to be larger. Currently, most commercial vehicles have screens ranging from 8 to 10 inches, primarily offering basic functions such as multimedia entertainment and navigation. In some higher-spec models, the CID size is as big as 10-12 inches, integrating more vehicle information display and simple vehicle control functions. Some heavy-duty trucks feature 15.6-inch CIDs that adopts an advanced HMI design concept. In addition to conventional multimedia entertainment and navigation functions, they also deeply integrate autonomous driving, voice interaction, and other functions.
 
Representative Model 1: FAW Jiefang J7 (Leading Edition)
The FAW Jiefang J7 (Leading Edition) is equipped with a 15.6-inch screen, which integrates functions such as AutoNavi, intelligent air conditioning control, and TPMS display control. This large screen can not only control 75 functions in the vehicle via voice, but also display real-time vehicle status information, ADAS information, and other driving information, and conduct intelligent energy-saving driving evaluation of the driver's behavior to achieve the goals of safety and energy saving.

Representative Model 2: Geely Homtruck Methanol-Hydrogen Electric Tractor
At the 2025 Auto Shanghai, Geely Commercial Vehicle showcased the Homtruck methanol-hydrogen electric tractor. Homtruck innovatively expands the cockpit into a living cockpit, aiming to create an integrated smart cockpit that combines the vehicle and home. Its 15.6-inch floating screen supports functions such as navigation, media, vehicle status, and remote diagnostics, and can be operated hands-free with the help of an AI voice assistant.

Representative Model 3: DeepWay Star
DeepWay Star has a large dual-screen setup and a continuous center console commonly used in passenger cars. Its cluster screen can display vehicle information in a variety of modes. The CID integrates intelligent voice interaction, autonomous driving, Internet of Vehicles, entertainment and other functions.

From the perspective of suppliers, from January to July 2025, Yaxon Connect, Hopechart, and BICV occupied the top three positions in the field of color CIDs for commercial vehicles.

Yaxon Connect’s color CID is equipped with Android and an automotive-grade processor from MediaTek/Rockchip. Combined with an integrated high-definition touch screen, it can provide stable and smooth in-vehicle infotainment services. Yaxon Connect’s in-vehicle infotainment system based on the CID has been mass-produced for many commercial vehicles, including those from Foton, Sinotruk, Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor, and FAW Jiefang, and is expanding into the passenger car market represented by Beijing Hyundai and Geely Livan.

Hopechart's CID ranges from 7 to 10.25 inches. Its color CID features Rockchip’s hardware platform, Android, and quad-core Cortex A9 with a main frequency of 1.4GHz. Through embedded installation and split screen design (screen + host), it offers functions such as audio-visual entertainment and automotive navigation.

III. Commercial vehicle intelligent terminal suppliers expand their business amid the trend of passenger car/commercial vehicle technology integration

For smart terminal suppliers, passenger car/commercial vehicle technology integration is like a double-edged sword. On the one hand, with the support of passenger car technology, the intelligentization of systems for Internet of Vehicles and smart cockpits in commercial vehicles is accelerating, increasing the demand for intelligent terminals. On the other hand, the mature supply chain of passenger cars will impact established commercial vehicle suppliers. Against this backdrop, leading suppliers of intelligent terminals for commercial vehicles are expanding their business to address industry challenges. In summary, there are three main paths:

1.They expand the product range for commercial vehicles, moving beyond traditional hardware terminals such as smart driving recorders and T-Box to include domain controllers, smart cockpit systems, infotainment systems, intelligent driving systems, and commercial vehicle big data platforms.

2.While expanding into passenger cars and consolidating market share in commercial vehicles, they are also exploring passenger car customers.

3.They spread to two-wheelers. With the release of the new national standard for electric bicycles in January 2025, BeiDou, communication, and dynamic safety monitoring have become rigid requirements for regulatory compliance, increasing the demand for Internet of Vehicles terminals.