Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the entire Elmos team, welcome to the Elmos Capital Markets Day 2024. My name is Ralf Hoppe, and as the CIR, I'm responsible for the global investor relations and communication activities at Elmos. Thank you very much for attending this virtual event, which many of you have been waiting for. It's a great pleasure to have you with us today, and I can promise you an exciting program in the next couple of hours. Today's Capital Markets Day is designed to give you a comprehensive overview of our strategic actions, operational initiatives, future growth, and potential and financial targets. You will get a deeper insight into our innovative product portfolio, our market position, and our roadmap to secure growth and profits in the future, and of course, we will present to you our operating model and our financial midterm targets.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very happy to be able to announce a real premiere today. For the first time, the newly formed Elmos Executive Committee will present to our investors and analysts the key factors driving our business and provide deeper insights into the great opportunities we see ahead. Here's a brief overview of today's agenda. Dr. Arne Schneider, CEO, will kick off the Capital Markets Day with an overview of our strategic priorities. Dr. Jan Dienstuhl, Chief Sales Officer, Dr. Michael Neuhäuser, Chief Product Officer, Jochen Vaihinger, Chief Technology Officer, will present our product portfolio, our technology and innovation roadmaps. Dr. Patrick Schmitt, COO, will highlight our supply chain strategy and our program to achieve operational excellence. Dr. Burkhard von Spreckelsen, Chief Development Officer, will present our M&A strategy, our opportunities involving AI, and our localization efforts in China.
Last but of course not least, Rita Mamberger, CFO, will provide an update on our financial performance, our operating model, and the main elements to achieve our midterm targets. Following their presentations, we hold a Q&A session, where we encourage you to ask questions and engage with our executive team. You may ask your questions via video communication or just simply type the questions in the chat. Ladies and gentlemen, we are convinced that today's event will give you an even better understanding of our future course for growth and shareholder value. Before we start, I have to remind you that all presentations contain forward-looking statements, which reflect current views with respect to future events and, of course, are subject to risk and uncertainties. Many factors could cause that actual results to be significantly different from our current expectations and projections. Once again, thank you very much for participating today.
Now let's get started. Welcome, the CEO of Elmos Semiconductor SE, Dr. Arne Schneider.
Good afternoon, everyone. It is a pleasure to welcome you to our Capital Markets Day 2024. On behalf of our entire executive team, I would like to extend my gratitude for your time and your continued interest in Elmos. I know that many of you were looking forward to Elmos hosting an investor event and asked many times for it, so today we deliver. We have an exciting agenda lined up for you, and our goal is to give you a better understanding of our strategic vision, our products, and of course, our financial ambitions. We are at a very dynamic time for the automotive and automotive semiconductor industry, where transformation and disruption are creating both challenges and tremendous opportunities for innovative and agile companies.
As you will hear today firsthand from the new Elmos Executive Committee, we are confident that Elmos is well positioned to capitalize on key industry trends and deliver strong, profitable growth and sustainable value for you, our shareholders. My board colleague, Guido Meymer, is unfortunately unable to attend, but I'm delighted to have all other executive committee colleagues here with me today. I will introduce the new Elmos Executive Committee to you later. So, ladies and gentlemen, this year, Elmos celebrates actually its 40th anniversary, its birthday, if you want to. Since its foundation in 1984, Elmos has developed from a small startup up to a leading and one of the most experienced suppliers of automotive mixed-signal semiconductors worldwide. Elmos has been a cornerstone of structural change in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and is a perfect example of a successful synthesis of entrepreneurial spirit, scientific research, and strategic vision.
When we look back at the early days of our company, we recognize the courage, the vision, and the determination of our founders that were needed to turn a visionary idea into a global market leader in analog mixed-signal ICs. Our passion for innovation, the understanding of our customers' needs, execution power, and above all, our tireless commitment have made Elmos so successful. And these factors are still deeply rooted in the DNA of all Elmos employees. In the early years, after the foundation of our company, Elmos was focusing on manufacturing customer-specific microchips. BMW and other OEMs took notice of Elmos because our innovative solutions enabled new technical applications in cars, and Elmos established itself as a successful niche player in the automotive industry.
The transformational shift from customer-specific products, ASICs, to application-specific standard products, ASSPs, the internationalization of the sales organization, and the establishment of a network of leading manufacturing partners around the world laid the foundation for the continuation of the company's successful growth trajectory. The constant drive for progress and a strong execution power have always characterized our company. Based on this mindset, important strategic decisions and the focus on our core automotive business by disinvesting our U.S. microcontroller business in 2019 created a strong, agile, and innovative analog mixed-signal player and a global market leader in various application fields, and with the transformation to a fabless company, we can now focus even more on our strategic strength.
Our setup, combined with the exceptional commitment of the entire Elmos team, enabled us to benefit significantly from the recent semiconductor allocation and strengthened our position as an innovative and reliable automotive semi supplier, and even after 40 years, we are convinced that the best is still ahead of us. Today, we are better positioned than ever to participate in the structural growth of intelligent electronics and modern vehicles to create sustainable value for you, our shareholders. During the chip shortage, the success story of Elmos has really taken off, and we were able to more than double our revenues in the last three years. We focused all of our activities on growth, making sure that we could fully benefit from this once-in-a-lifetime very exceptional opportunity.
Thanks to the outstanding performance of the entire Elmos team and the close cooperation with our customers and suppliers, we have been able to meet the real needs better than many of our peers. Our delivery performance in these challenging times was outstanding. Elmos is maybe the only semiconductor supplier not being responsible for an OEM line down. This has enabled us to further strengthen our standing as a reliable supplier and to develop additional growth potential at big new customers. This translates into new records in design wins. Elmos increased its group revenues since the start of the allocation to EUR 575 million, a total increase of more than 147% on an annual growth rate of 35%. Elmos outperformed the automotive and automotive semiconductor market and also grew much stronger than most of its peers.
Based on this outstanding growth performance, we were able to increase our profitability significantly as a result of better OpEx ratios and, by the way, not based on an aggressive pricing policy, as you can see in the more or less stable gross margin in the last years. This year, you know, we see more modest growth, but still, this is better than most of our peers. Thanks to our exceptional financial performance and the high growth opportunities, the Elmos share is considered a very attractive investment in the tech sector. Our extremely successful development is also reflected in the development of our share price. The Elmos share has significantly outperformed the relevant indices in the last three years. Thanks to this strong share price performance, Elmos made it into the SDAX in December 2022, and we are now proud members of the TecDAX.
We joined in June 2024 as now being one of the 30 largest stock-listed tech companies in Germany based on free float market cap. In light of the recent news flow in the automotive industry, the ongoing geopolitical and economic challenges, combined with a longer-than-expected destocking by automotive customers, the share price of Elmos and many other semi players showed very significant volatility. However, our analysts are still reasonable and optimistic about Elmos with a fair value of up to EUR 100 per share. They think that the current price levels may well represent a buying opportunity as Elmos is still valued much lower than most of its peers. Elmos is committed to continue its successful strategy of profitable growth combined with a clear focus on cash generation. This, we think, will enable us to generate sustainable shareholder value and should narrow the valuation discount to our peers.
But of course, we do not limit our ambition to financial targets. In today's world, creating shareholder value is more than just financial return. It's also a contribution to a more sustainable world. Environmental, Social, and Governance ESG factors have become central to our strategy since many, many years. And we have significantly expanded our ESG activities and also the ESG reporting in the last years. We have set ambitious climate targets with a goal of actively reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change. Elmos plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions for its own activities. That means Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 40% by 2026 compared to the base year 2022 and aims for its own activities to be completely climate neutral by 2035. And as demand for environmentally friendly mobility solutions grows, we are well positioned to capitalize on this important trend with various applications.
Already today, more than 65% of group sales make a substantial contribution to increased environmental protection and higher efficiency. With our innovative products, we are shaping the mobility of the future and making the world safer, more comfortable, and more sustainable. As you all know, the automotive industry is undergoing a profound transformation, and intelligent electronics enabled by innovative semiconductor solutions are at the very heart of this revolution. Elmos is very well positioned to capitalize on this transformation. Today, I will highlight some key automotive megatrends that are driving our growth opportunities in the years ahead. Our product portfolio, design wins, and innovation roadmap to enabling our growth will be presented in detail later, also by our CSO, CPO, and CTO. So, firstly, the shift to electric vehicles is one of the most prominent trends reshaping the automotive industry.
Global efforts to reduce emissions alongside regulatory requirements are pushing automakers towards their electrification plans and making their vehicles more efficient. Although Elmos' growth is not dependent on the penetration of EVs, we do benefit from a higher share of modern EVs, whether battery-electric vehicles or hybrids. EVs require more semiconductors than conventional combustion engine cars and are typically fully loaded with all kinds of innovative electronic features, further driving the IC content per vehicle. Although Elmos is not involved in the power semiconductor business, our solutions are integral for safe and efficient EVs. Then, another major trend driving IC and sensor demand is the rapid development of autonomous driving technologies and sophisticated ADAS systems in modern cars of all vehicle segments, actually.
It starts with parking assistance, then fully automated parking, traffic jam assist, lane-keeping assistance to partial or in certain areas with very few cars today driving in that way, but really increasing number, even full autonomous driving. Elmos ultrasonic sensors are crucial and indispensable for advanced safety and self-driving systems. As the undisputed global market leader for automotive ultrasonic ICs, we are at the forefront of this important trend. As ADAS features become standard across all vehicle segments, our opportunities to supply high-performance semiconductor solutions grow significantly. Then, thirdly, the trend towards enhanced comfort and premium features is also reshaping the automotive industry, extending from traditional luxury brands to high-end premium models into mid-range and even entry-level cars. Consumers today are seeking vehicles that not only meet their pure transportation needs, but provide a more sophisticated, safe, and comfortable driving experience.
Car manufacturers are responding by integrating advanced comfort and connectivity technologies into their broader product lines and often as standard features, making their volume and midsize models very premium-like. And of course, OEMs include all kinds of bells and whistles into their premium brands, a market segment which actually has a significant share of the global market. Very important is also that traditional vehicle architectures use the numerous electronic control units, so ECUs, you know all that, distributed through the car to control specific functions. In contrast, new zonal EE architectures consolidate multiple ECUs into fewer, more powerful central processing units that handle functions within the specific zones. The shift to zonal architecture increases the demand for faster and more reliable energy supply and data transfer, which makes new electronic fuses essential applications and, of course, enabled by Elmos ICs.
So, with vehicles becoming more software-defined and web-connected, security is a top priority. Over-the-air updates and zonal architectures increase the attack surface for potential cyber threats. The new Elmos semiconductors are equipped with built-in security features to ensure the integrity of software updates. In both the new zonal architectures and software-defined vehicles, Elmos sensor solutions are important elements that capture real-time data and enable advanced functionality by connecting the physical world with the digital universe. Sensors are the eyes and ears of a modern vehicle and play an irreplaceable role for more safety, comfort, and efficiency. So, all of these megatrends create a highly favorable and long-term growth scenario for the automotive semiconductor market, despite the temporary destocking effects. These trends expand the role of smart electronics in all aspects of modern vehicles and drive the content of semiconductors in all systems and functions.
For Elmos, as an innovative, agile, and reliable semiconductor specialist, the long-term growth projections for the automotive semiconductor markets are indeed very promising. The forecasted development of the global automotive market is, of course, not as dynamic as the projections for the automotive semiconductor market. However, the demand for individual mobility and shared mobility is expected to continue to grow. S&P actually is forecasting more than 97 million new vehicles to be built in 2030. This corresponds to an annual growth rate of almost 3%, with China solidifying its leading position as the world's largest automotive market. More than 1/3 of all new cars worldwide are built in China. In addition, many Chinese OEMs plan or have set up assembly plants outside of China, further strengthening their global leadership, and Elmos wants to continue to participate in this market development.
Therefore, we increase our local activities in China, which will be explained in more detail by our CDO later. As a leading supplier in the automotive market, we are, of course, present in all major regions, including highly dynamic markets like also India, where we have set up our first local subsidiary earlier this year, replacing the, I would say, pragmatic structures we had before. Even more pronounced, by the way, is the leading role of China in the EV market. The number of new EVs produced in 2030 is projected at 44 million vehicles, which is three times the volume of 2024, and it is expected that half of these new EVs will be built in China, half. In addition, China is pushing aggressively into autonomous driving, connectivity, and premiumization of their vehicles.
Elmos today has a very strong position in China, and with our ongoing localization activities, we will further increase our standing as a highly competitive and much more local semiconductor supplier. As vehicles become more intelligent, loaded with digital electronics, safety, and autonomous technologies, the semiconductor content per vehicle is expected to grow significantly, as most of these functions are enabled by ICs. According to S&P and other research firms, the semiconductor content per vehicle is expected to grow from an average of $543 per car, so global average car, in 2020 to more than $1,514 per car by 2030, so basically a factor of three, reflecting the increasing integration of advanced and intelligent systems and the electrification of the whole vehicle. These studies underline the strong structural growth of the automotive semiconductor market, even if, say, today's vehicle production would remain flattish. Let me summarize.
The automotive semiconductor market is expected to experience strong, sustained growth over the next decade, and Elmos is uniquely positioned to benefit from all these megatrends. Our deep expertise, our broad portfolio, and commitment to innovation ensure that we are the partner of choice for automotive suppliers and automakers around the world as we enable this new era of mobility together. Leading research institutes and consulting firms are projecting that the automotive semiconductor market is poised for strong growth in this decade. I have highlighted it before.
Although automotive applications currently only occupy a very small share of the overall semiconductor market, you may think of AI and data centers and loads of other things, it will be growing nicely in the next years, outperforming some other market segments, with a 10-year CAGR of more than 14% in the projections from 2020 to 2030 to almost $150 billion, and it will still be 9% annual growth until 2030 based on today's status after the allocation as a starting point. So, with cutting-edge IC solutions and an impressive innovation roadmap, we will be part of this long-term growth trend and continue our successful trajectory. Elmos is committed to creating sustainable shareholder value, particularly in the face of complex geopolitical, economic, and market challenges that characterize today's environment. The automotive and automotive semiconductor industries are no strangers to disruption.
And over the past few years, we have all witnessed significant challenges, from supply chain disruptions to geopolitical tensions, wars, changes in competitive and customer landscape, as well as shifts in the global economy, combined sometimes with, yes, excessive regulatory requirements. We see these global disruptions and the structural transformation of the auto industry not only as a threat, but also as an opportunity to further strengthen our position and our resilience and to increase our speed and flexibility. Since the early days of Elmos, one of our biggest USPs has been the deep understanding of markets and customer needs, combined with a passion to create state-of-the-art IC solutions. Our unwavering commitment to innovation, superior quality, competitive cost, and delivery excellence are key success factors that will help us to differentiate ourselves from our peers and convince our customers around the world.
In this world of rapid change, our top priorities are flexibility, agility, and execution power. As a fabless company, we are much better positioned to navigate these challenges, tackle potential risk proactively, and capitalize on emerging opportunities. Our new executive management team, the alignment of our corporate structure to a fabless holding company, and the focus on the execution of our top priorities will ensure positive development in many years. Due to our strong growth, our international presence, and the dynamic nature of our industry, we think that the adaptation of our management structure is crucial to continue to operate successfully and realize our full potential. The new management structure of the Elmos Group specifically takes the factors mentioned into account and also the far-reaching strategic and operational tasks to secure the future growth potential of Elmos.
As of January the 1st, 2025, the new Elmos Executive Committee, or EEC, will consist of five C-level executives in addition to the two-person management board, so seven in total. Let me shortly introduce our new leadership team. I will start with my fellow board member, Jan Dienstuhl. Jan is an EE graduate with a PhD and has spent his whole professional life in automotive semis. He started his career at Infineon in Munich, where he gained extensive experience as the executive assistant to the automotive board, in addition to the other technical and senior management positions he held there. Jan joined Elmos in 2012, where he took over responsibility for the sensors business line. He is a member of the management board since 2019, and as Chief Sales Officer, Jan has played a crucial role in driving the company's global sales strategy.
His leadership and passion have been instrumental in expanding Elmos' market share, winning new customers, entering new strategic segments, and further cementing a reputation as a key player in the automotive industry. As already announced earlier this year, our longstanding COO, Guido Meyer, has expressed the wish not to extend his position on the management board beyond 2024 and to retire from Elmos after almost 30 years of very outstanding performance and tireless commitment to the company. Therefore, the Elmos board will be composed of two members as of January 2025, CSO Jan Dienstuhl and myself as CEO of the company. Now, to our other EEC members. Our financial guardian, Rita Mamberger, has been safeguarding our financial stability since 2015 and is the CFO of Elmos since July 2022.
With a sharp focus on optimizing financial processes and enhancing the financial performance, she's the driving force behind our cash flow optimization program. Rita has an auditing background, working at one of the Big Four for many years and held senior management positions in accounting and treasury at a private equity-owned company. Rita's professional mindset is all about cash and financial stability, and my personal advice to anyone is, don't mess with her. She'll get her way. So next, Burkhard von Spreckelsen is heading the corporate development team and M&A activities at Elmos since 2020. And Burkhard will further drive our global setup and strategic development as Chief Development Officer, also responsible for AI and IT at Elmos. Burkhard holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen.
He started his career at McKinsey and continued his successful path at Vaillant Group and later KION Group, where he held senior management roles, driving forward the company's strategic development. In 2020, Burkhard devoted himself to studying and mastering the theory and application of AI. At Elmos, Burkhard and Rita played a key role in the sale of our wafer fab, as you know, a very important transformation for all of us. Patrick Schmitt, Jochen Vaihinger, Michael Neuhäuser are our latest additions and will perfectly complement our strong executive team. We are very happy to have them on board, contributing with their experience and expert knowledge to the future success of Elmos. Patrick Schmitt, the new COO of Elmos Semiconductor SE, brings vast operational and international expertise from his previous leadership roles at Schaeffler, Continental, Vitesco, and Heraeus.
During his career, he worked and lived a total of eight years in China and Thailand and has successfully managed teams across Europe, Asia, and the U.S., overseeing significant efficiency improvements, cost reductions, and supply chain optimization programs. As executive vice president and global head of supply chain at the German technology group Heraeus, Patrick was responsible for the electronics business with a focus on semiconductors and automotive, including eight plants worldwide. Patrick holds a PhD in Information Management from the ETH Zurich. His extensive international experience and operational excellence make him a critical asset in optimizing Elmos' supply chain and operational strategies on a global scale. As Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Jochen Vaihinger brings with him decades of experience in the automotive and communication semiconductor business. Jochen joined in early 2024 from Infineon, where he was senior vice president overseeing the global automotive microcontroller development.
He was heading the development of the second generation of the Infineon Aurix microcontroller family, a cornerstone in automotive semiconductors, and I must admit, a great and, of course, very successful product. With an impressive career, beginning in 1996 at Siemens Semiconductors, you know, this is now Infineon, Jochen has been at the forefront of cutting-edge technological advancements in the field of digital and mixed-signal ICs. Among many other things, he was responsible for developing important system solutions, including the software for the fourth generation of a very popular smartphone and the design of this solution for a world-leading mobile phone provider. He holds a degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Munich. At Elmos, Jochen is leading the charge on next-generation semiconductor innovation for the automotive industry, overseeing an exceptional R&D team of more than 400 hardware and software engineers.
Last but not least, our new Chief Product Officer, Michael Neuhäuser, has over 30 years of expertise in the semiconductor world and product development for automotive, telecom, and industry applications. His international career spans roles at Siemens Semiconductors, Micram, Infineon, and ARRI. His leadership was instrumental in the successful market introduction of the Aurix and XMC microcontroller families at Infineon, which are now industry standards. In 2018, Michael accepted a board position at ARRI AG, being responsible for all operational areas as CTO and COO of one of the world's leading digital camera and lighting system suppliers of the movie industry. Yes, you are right. Hollywood comes to us. Together with his team, Michael was honored with a 2022 Technical Emmy Award. In 2023, Michael returned to Infineon Technologies as VP R&D and was responsible for the development of the new industrial microcontroller family.
He also played a key role in the integration of Cypress Semiconductor following its acquisition by Infineon. Michael holds a PhD in electrical engineering from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, so next door. At Elmos, Michael is defining our product roadmaps and product strategies, expanding our leading position with cutting-edge innovation and pursuing new market opportunities. This is a very dynamic, highly experienced team, and well-diversified leadership that is, I believe, second to none in the industry. And with long-standing Elmos employees and new senior managers, the EC has a very good mix between internal knowledge and outside perspective. Together, we will be in an even better position to tackle key challenges, identify opportunities, and optimize our processes. We are convinced that the new management structure will make an important contribution to the successful development of Elmos in the future.
The requirements of car manufacturers and our direct customers in terms of innovation, shorter development cycles, and competitive costs are constantly increasing. In addition, there are rapidly growing and highly competitive markets in Asia, especially in China, combined with more complex supply chains. We want to and must face up to these global challenges, and to do so, we must also constantly review our processes and structures. Our goal must be to further increase our competitiveness so that we can continue to be the number one player in our application fields. After the successful transition to a fabless company, which, you know, will be completed by the end of this year, this now is a perfect time to initiate further structural alignment and make Elmos fit for the future.
From January 1, 2025, we will establish Elmos Semiconductor SE as the group holding company with four new operating GmbH structures. The new holding structure brings more flexibility and important advantages for financial and tax optimization. We must remain competitive at Elmos, and a holding structure can be actually very helpful in that respect. This structural realignment opens new opportunities for us, makes us more resilient, and is the basis for the continued successful development of Elmos as a leading supplier of innovative semiconductor solutions for the mobility of the future. With our new corporate and management structure, we have set a solid foundation for the continuation of our successful long-term strategy. As a fabless company, we can now even better focus on the execution of our top priorities, which I would like to highlight briefly. My fellow EEC colleagues will add some more flavor during their presentations.
As a leading semi-specialist, innovation has always been a top priority for Elmos since the foundation of our company. We believe that ongoing investment in R&D is critical to staying ahead of both market trends and competitors. We have tremendous opportunities thanks to our state-of-the-art IC solutions in all of our application fields. Dr. Jan Dienstuhl, our longstanding CSO, together with our new CTO, Jochen Vaihinger, and CPO, Dr. Michael Neuhäuser, and combined with an excellent design and sales team, will drive new innovation, acquire attractive design wins, tap into new application fields, and ensure a smooth development and ramp-up of our projects. A key challenge will be to further improve R&D output, and all three colleagues will contribute significantly to this goal. Highest quality, competitive cost, and perfect delivery performance are crucial for automotive suppliers.
We have realigned our supply chain to reflect our strong growth in Asia, and our new COO, Dr. Patrick Schmitt, is responsible for achieving operational excellence in all steps along our value chain. As you know, this has profound cash implications. In the light of the geopolitical development, the dynamic growth perspectives, and a changing competitive environment, we have recently fine-tuned our China strategy under the leadership of our CDO, Dr. Burkhard von Spreckelsen and his team. Elmos has already a strong position in China, and with our new activities, which will be highlighted by Burkhard later, we will further increase our standing as a highly competitive local semiconductor supplier in the world's largest automotive market. In realizing our vision, we will focus on profitable growth and cash generation. Rita will outline our strategy for remaining cost-competitive in all areas and strengthening our cash profile significantly.
So, ladies and gentlemen, our strategy is designed to fully realize our growth potential with high profitability and improved free cash flow. We have developed a new operating model to achieve our ambitious midterm financial targets, focusing on profitable growth, cost discipline, and operational efficiency, combined with a clear focus on a much better cash generation. Let me now highlight our new midterm target, which we have published last week. Our CFO, Rita, will walk you through the key pillars of our new operating model in her upcoming presentation. With our strong product portfolio, the realignment of the Elmos Group as a fabless company, the increased internationalization, and the successful acquisition of new projects, we will be able to participate in the structural growth of the automotive semiconductor market. Elmos plans to continue growing and expects to generate sales of around EUR 1 billion in 2030.
Based on a stable gross margin and healthy OpEx ratios, we have raised the midterm EBIT margin target from 20% to 25% of sales. In addition to continuing our profitable growth, we will increasingly focus on higher cash generation in the coming years. In the future, Elmos plans to invest at a rate of less than 10% of sales. As most of you know, this is significantly less than what we have invested in the past, and we expect to achieve a gradual improvement in the adjusted free cash flow, of course. We will reduce the investment ratio, as mentioned. We will optimize working capital, and we will reduce the tax rate. Our approach will enable us to create significant value for our shareholders, increasing the valuation of our company and create attractive opportunities for capital allocation. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the end of my presentation.
Thank you very much for your attention. I will now hand over to Jan, who will give you more insight into our fascinating IC solutions, and I will be back later with a short conclusion and, of course, the Q&A session. Jan, the stage is yours.
Thank you very much, Arne. From my side as well, warm welcome and a big thank you for all the participants of today's virtual event. My name is Jan Dienstuhl, and I am the CSO of Elmos. It is my pleasure to give you a brief overview on how we are addressing our focus market, automotive mixed-signal chips. Before I talk about our customers, market positions, and new businesses we have successfully acquired, I would like to briefly show you some examples of important automotive applications enabled with our chips as core element.
We have just seen the megatrends that are driving the development of the automotive market, and these are precisely the trends that we support and enable with our high-volume and high-performance products. If we take a closer look at a typical car platform today, we can identify many important applications based on our chips. A large share of Elmos products enables the further electrification and digitalization of automotive functions. In this context, our chips enable high power efficiency by utilizing particularly low electrical current technologies and high functional integration, which finally results in a lower CO2 emission of a combustion engine car or an improved driving range of a battery-powered vehicle with an electric drivetrain. Our products are also used in many applications in the premium segment and for comfort functions, both inside and outside of the vehicle.
Our so-called mixed-signal chips read sensors, process receive data, and control lights, motors, or other actuators to enhance the comfort of passengers and to ensure personal well-being. In addition, since many years, we are also very focused on automotive safety. Our chips are designed and built to protect drivers and other vulnerable road users at all times. We have established sophisticated development processes at Elmos and have integrated powerful safety mechanisms in our chips. Three out of four new product developments at Elmos today fulfill highest functional safety standards. Our sensor processing chips and active safety products are used in a variety of ways to enable reliable driver assistance functions and autonomous driving systems at all other levels. Looking at this basic overview, with all of our many different applications, you can easily summarize the contribution of Elmos products in automotive applications.
Our chips make cars more efficient, more comfortable, and reliably safe. Regarding the growing electrification of vehicles and the increasing demand for highest efficiency mobility, let us look at a few specific examples of such applications that are being implemented with our chips as core element. The electronic and electrical components in new electrified vehicle platforms will no longer be protected by conventional melting fuses, but by electronic fuses. Elmos chips make it possible to implement these E-fuses with the highest safety standards in a scalable and flexible manner. Vehicles equipped with such intelligent control chips can continue to drive safely even in partial network operation if individual car components are failing. Applying these E-fuses also allows using smaller cross-section cables in the wiring harness and thus enables less vehicle weight and greater range.
Another topic that improves the efficiency of electric driving is the use of aerodynamic flaps that are controlled by Elmos ICs. These flaps are adjusted automatically depending on the driving speed so that the airflow around the tires is optimized. A vehicle equipped with this technology can achieve several miles of additional driving range. Elmos ICs are also used in combustion engines or hybrid vehicles, for example, as sensor signal processors for measuring in-cylinder pressure to optimize engine control with greater efficiency, lower emission, and a longer service life for the combustion engine. But especially electric vehicles have a multitude of new applications with our chips in the area of thermal management of batteries and electric motors. Here, a large number of valves, pumps, shutters, and fans for the conditioning of these components must be controlled in order to operate the electric powertrain in an optimal and efficient working range.
Elmos chips also enable new applications in comfort functions and in premium vehicle models, which have gained an increasing market share in recent years. With Elmos proximity and gesture sensing technology, for example, contactless controlled charging flaps of electric vehicles are implemented so that levers or handles no longer need to be used, which is highly appreciated by vehicle designers. In the area of in-cabin air conditioning, our products support new narrow, almost hidden air outlets in the dashboard where the airflow is no longer adjusted by mechanical controls, but can be controlled purely electronically and automatically to ensure the occupant's optimum comfort and the optimal use of energy to heat or cool the passengers in a car. And another important topic for the appealing aesthetics of modern vehicles and for the well-being of the occupants is lighting.
There are new applications in both the interior and exterior of vehicles in which entire areas are efficiently illuminated with LEDs. Elmos LED control chips enable, for example, illuminated front grills with multi-pixel LED surfaces or the illumination of the roof surface or glass roof with colored and mood-adapted dynamic ambient lighting. An especially strong product focus for Elmos are applications in the field of safety of vehicle occupants and other road users. For example, Ultrasonic Ranging sensors built with Elmos chips detect the 360-degree environment around the car and deliver important sensor data for assisted driving in the city or at slow speed. With the support of artificial intelligence, the next generation of these sensors will be able to classify objects and thus enable further ADAS and safety functions for assisted driving.
Another example for the different levels of autonomous driving from Level 2 to Level 4 is the necessity to recognize whether a driver can actively intervene in a driving situation. Dedicated Elmos sensor chips do reliably determine whether drivers have their hands on the steering wheel or not. For many years now, airbag firing ICs. I'm sorry. For many years now, airbag firing systems are being equipped worldwide with Elmos safety control ICs that meet the highest standards of reliability. More and more of our safety products will be installed in the autonomous vehicles of the future and in these applications. This will be an increasing number of active safety systems like airbags since the occupants do not necessarily have to travel in a typical driving position but may have changed their seating position.
And in potentially dangerous situations, ambient lighting systems and surface lighting operated with our chips are warning and alerting the driver and other occupants in the car. You can see from these various examples that our products enable many of the existing and new applications in the evolving car platforms, having a high coverage and being very much in line with the automotive market megatrends. Another trend in the development of next-generation car platforms is the adaption of new architectures for the software-defined car. This approach is the only way to handle the growing complexity of the vehicle platforms and to produce cars that are safe, adaptable, secure, and affordable devices in the automotive ecosystem.
Elmos products are an important building block of these new systems, so-called zonal or domain-based architectures, and often Elmos ICs enable dedicated functionality by bridging the physical and the digital world and by interfacing parts in the network system between each other. What Elmos is focusing on are so-called mixed-signal ICs. These chips combine analog, digital, memory, and control functions in a single integrated silicon device. They run intelligent software and carry out crucial control tasks. At the so-called edge of the automotive network in the car, mixed-signal ICs do all the sensing and control all the action, and it is good to know that the evolving architectures of modern software-defined and electrified vehicle platforms contain more and more mixed-signal ICs for the growing number of sensors, actuators, power supplies, and interface devices.
For our products, we see the increasing electrification of car platforms as a continuous growth driver because many of tomorrow's premium battery-powered electrical vehicles will contain even more mixed-signal ICs from Elmos. A lot of our applications are completely independent of the vehicle drivetrain, be it an internal combustion engine, a plug-in hybrid, or a fully battery-powered electric vehicle. Although Elmos supplies some components that are dedicated to pure combustion engine application, like the in-cylinder pressure sensing shown before, the revenue generated from such functions makes up only a small single-digit percentage of our total turnover. The vast majority of our focused applications in efficiency, comfort, and safety is fully agnostic of the drivetrain type.
In pure battery electric vehicles, on the other hand, there are additional upcoming application areas that generate further growth opportunities for our products in thermal management, securing the high-voltage board net, improving aerodynamics, sensing battery health state, and so on. Every new car produced globally today contains, on average, eight Elmos ICs. In some state-of-the-art premium combustion engine vehicles, up to 70 Elmos ICs can be found already today. Tomorrow's premium battery electric vehicle contains even up to 150 Elmos chips per car. Therefore, the increasing vehicle electrification and modern system architectures are trends that will support Elmos' further growth. Elmos chips enable automotive electrification, comfort, and safety applications in car models of all major OEM brands worldwide, in premium vehicle brands as well as in entry-level car platforms. And in our chips, they can be found in all high-volume manufacturers.
The world map shown here is certainly not complete, but it shows that Elmos serves all significant car markets in the world, in Asia, Europe, and in the Americas. Our chips are being utilized in traditional combustion engine cars as well as in plug-in hybrid vehicles, pure EVs, and also in car platforms of new energy vehicle or autonomous driving startups in China or in the U.S. Our product distribution on OEM level is basically a mirror of the global automotive market. We very much value the technical exchange with leading OEMs to deeply understand current and future automotive system requirements, but surely we sell our products to Tier 1 and Tier 2 component and system suppliers in the global automotive value chain. It is therefore not surprising that the list of Elmos direct customers includes nearly all established automotive suppliers in the global market.
Besides these high-volume direct customers, we also work closely with worldwide leading distribution partners to enable dedicated supply and stock conditions for our customers and to successfully ship our products also in more fragmented application areas. Next, I would like to take a look on the six key strengths that are decisive factors for Elmos' market success and that will also support driving our future sustainable and profitable growth. First, Elmos offers its customers and OEMs a high level of customer proximity to meet their specific needs and to recognize current and future requirements at an early stage. It is very important for us to understand the complex system in our focus applications in depth to be able to continue offering competitive products with strong USPs also in the future. Thanks to a strong partner network, we also have access to technically advanced third-party IP.
We are using flexible development resources for peak demands and secure access to the best silicon technologies from the global wafer foundries in order to offer competitive, technically advanced, and reliable products to the market. We have also continuously built up the hardware, software, and system know-how of our own development team over 40 years and have extensive expertise in the entire automotive value chain. We are proud of our highly skilled Elmos team, which embraces a strong culture of innovation and continuously develops new ideas in our focus applications, turning them into successful cutting-edge semiconductor products for the global automotive market. Another consistent quality of Elmos is a crisis-tested high level of supply security.
To our best knowledge and according to our customers, we are the only high-volume global automotive semiconductor supplier that did not put any of its customers or OEMs in a critical supply situation during the chip crisis of 2021 to 2023. Our customers greatly appreciate this outstanding delivery performance. Let us have a look at the market position of Elmos mixed-signal semiconductors. Elmos is firmly convinced that as a successful and very relevant provider of automotive chip solutions, it must be among the clear market leaders in all its high-volume focus applications. This is, in our view, a must to understand market trends from a broad customer base early on and to be able to invest sufficiently in the necessary innovations. It is therefore our explicit goal to achieve market leadership in the market segments we focus on, which are our focus applications.
If we look at the high-volume applications currently focused on by Elmos, it becomes clear that we have already succeeded in achieving the number one position in three of those five application areas. Furthermore, we are also on a promising path in pressure sensors for brake systems and in airbag firing ICs. Here, we will continue to improve our market position through the business we have already won for the next years, but also through new business yet to be won. New focus applications such as E-fuse control ICs for the protection of zonal board nets and motor control ICs for thermal management systems of batteries and e-motors will soon be added to this already impressive list. Design wins are reflected as the lifetime revenue of new projects of the business Elmos has won from customers in negotiations or in requests for quotation.
The new projects usually begin contributing to our revenue at some time point between now or, in some cases, with long lead times, up to four years. As the illustration clearly shows, we have quite significantly developed our design win intake over the last five years after one flattish year in 2020, at that time mainly due to the chip shortage after the COVID pandemic that kept everybody in automotive very busy. In 2022, supported by a sustainable and reliable delivery performance of Elmos to all its global customers, even in the wafer shortage crisis, we achieved an all-time high with more than 3x the design win value of 2019. And in both 2023 and 2024 year-to-date, we have won more than double the business value we had won in 2019 or 2020.
In recent months, again, we have acquired significant business wins in all focus applications that serve the major automotive megatrends. Some examples in the area of electrification: we have won a high-volume E-Fuse Controller business for zoned controller units with a leading global Tier 1. In safety applications, we could convince a global U.S.-based high-volume car manufacturer of our u ltrasonic ranging chipsets. These platforms will start to ramp in 2026. In the comfort and premium field, we have won new Japanese high-volume customers for our motor control solutions. We won new LED control chip business with the European tier-one that will equip premium OEM rear-lighting platforms. The strong design win results from the last years and further upcoming project wins will support growing our business to around EUR 1 billion revenue in 2030.
With that, I will now hand over to Michael, who will give you more insights into our successful product portfolios and future roadmap. Thank you very much.
Thanks a lot, Jan. Good day. I'm also very pleased to welcome you to the Elmos Capital Market Day 2024. My name is Michael Neuhäuser, and I'm the Chief Product Officer of the company. Today, I would like to give you an overview of our industry-leading product segments and our visionary product roadmap. As presented by my colleagues Arne Schneider and Jan Dienstuhl, Elmos is a leading and one of the most experienced semiconductor experts for integrated mixed-signal solutions and is fully anchored in important automotive megatrends. With our state-of-the-art products, we bridge the critical interface between the analog world and the digitized part of each car.
The trend towards a fully digitized car is obvious and leads to a significant increase in interface devices. Our product portfolio in the different segments: motor control, lighting, Ranging, optical, sensor signal processing, and pressure ICs and ICs for safety, power, and custom solutions has powered our success in recent years. And with our fully loaded pipeline, we are well positioned for the future. As a market leader in our segments, we will participate above average in our growing markets. To give you some numbers as an example, today, the average number of lighting ICs in a mid-class car is 18, and we expect to be above 30 in the future. The same trend applies for ultrasonic sensors or airbags in Level 3 autonomous vehicles. Each of our four larger segments, motor control, ranging, lighting, and safety power custom, generate between 20% to 25% of our total annual revenues.
The remaining two segments, Sensor Signal ICs and Optical, total around 15% of the annual revenues. But we are not only growing with our existing products. We are also on our way to grab additional market opportunities with new groundbreaking applications like our E-fuse products, which I will show you during my presentation. We clearly see in all our segments that the demand for our existing products remains high and that our customer depends on the long-term continuation of our innovative roadmaps. Elmos dominates the global market in the field of ultrasonic ICs for parking assistance systems with innovative solutions. Our wide product range from ultra-low cost to high-end components is attractive to a wide variety of Tier 1s and OEMs. Flexibility in standard products is definitely a strong strategy to cater to different needs and innovation in the automotive industry.
In particular, in the high-end sector, Elmos has introduced and established the current industry standard, the so-called DSI3 interface. The next generation is already in the pipeline and will set further benchmarks for increased data rates and performance of the sensors. At the same time, the increasingly important issue of power consumption, especially in the field of electromobility, is being brought into focus. A current high-end system consists of at least 12 ultrasonic sensors per car, and our sensor components of the next generation will require only 25% of the power of current solutions. This is a valuable contribution to sustainability and efficiency increase of modern cars. Last but not least, we will take our proven and cost-efficient ultrasonic technology to the next level.
With the right data processing and the inclusion of smart AI algorithms, it is already possible today to determine the height of objects in the immediate vicinity or to safely detect non-critical interference signals like cobblestones and to differentiate them from real hazards around the car. Elmos is convinced that our expertise and experience in ultrasonic technology will continue to contribute to enhancing safety and higher comfort in road traffic for many, many years to come. Elmos has a long and successful history in the field of proximity sensing with the patented HALIOS technology. This technology has already made it easier for countless vehicle users to operate the infotainment system, as the control elements can be hidden when not in use, preventing distraction while driving.
Building on this proven technology, we developed newly fully integrated rain sensors for the windshield, which take the detection quality of water and contamination to the next level. A flawlessly operating rain sensor has an important task in times of automated driving, namely to ensure the clear view of the centrally mounted front camera, and of course, functional safety is also a must-have here. Furthermore, Elmos continues to further upgrade the performance of its products by integrating advanced features such as artificial intelligence into our sensor solutions. These advancements not only enhance the functionality and reliability of the sensors but also contribute to the overall safety and efficiency of modern vehicles. By leveraging software-driven system solutions, Elmos is able to provide cutting-edge products that meet the evolving demands of the automotive industry.
In summary, Elmos remains at the forefront of technological innovation, consistently delivering high-quality, reliable, and advanced sensor solutions that cater to the needs of both current and future automotive trends. Key achievements in the last years include strong growth with our LIN RGB LED drivers for ambient interior lighting and significant global expansion with rear-light LED drivers. We have also secured long-term supply agreements with top European Tier 1 suppliers and during business stability in this field. Our success factors include the pioneering PowerZero patent for LED drivers and Auto-Addressing technology for both static and dynamic interior lighting applications. These innovations have set us apart in the market, providing our customers with reliable and efficient solutions. Looking ahead, key topics and trends for the near and mid-term future include increasing market demand for multichannel LED drivers and a growing need for multichannel LIN RGB drivers, including compliance with functional safety requirements.
Elmos' new LED driver family addresses this growing demand, offering advanced features and enhanced performance. Additionally, we are introducing new drivers for our OLED applications in rear lights and front grille designs. Just as a side note, illuminated front grilles will be the next big playing field for the car designers. They love this new feature as the illuminated grille creates strong and unique brand effects and can also be used for communicating with other cars or pedestrians, and in combination with intelligent aerodynamic flaps, the front grille optimizes the airflow and improves the efficiency of the vehicle. These new products will not only meet the design and functional requirements of modern vehicles but also contribute to energy efficiency and sustainability. Furthermore, we are exploring opportunities in emerging markets and expanding our product portfolio to include solutions for fully autonomous driving systems.
By staying ahead of industry trends and continuously innovating, Elmos is well positioned to maintain its leadership in the automotive lighting market and drive future growth. With the ongoing electrification in the automotive sector, the demand for intelligent electromechanical components such as actuators, fans, and pumps is growing. In modern vehicles, several dozens of these little helpers make it possible to control a wide range of systems electronically and automatically. This trend is primarily driven by comfort functions and the thermal management system, which is essential for all electric vehicles to increase efficiency and range. Already today, we are a market leader in the relevant application fields. Elmos meets this increasing demand with smart motor control ICs based on our microcontroller cores with embedded standardized interfaces.
Our latest generation of products will be launched on 130 nm technology in 2025, including a new optimized controller for high-performance brushless motors, as well as a series of fully integrated motor drivers for low and medium power range. These new products enable highly efficient and low-noise drive solutions for a wide variety of motor types in a power range from below 5 W to over 1 kW, which means that applications such as valves, pumps, active grille shutters, fans, air flaps, and all types of actuators can be realized very efficiently and almost silently, which is, by the way, very important for e-cars. We will further extend our motor control platform to meet further application system needs. For example, Elmos will fully support the transition from 12 V to 48 V board net architecture.
This shift aims to improve efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions, extend drive capabilities, but also improve costs by reducing expensive copper wiring. Tesla is pushing the battery electrical vehicle market for 48 V board net with the launch of the well-known Cybertruck, and mild-hybrid electrical vehicles are already using 48 V, a trend which will continue. Elmos is actively supporting such topics to stay ahead in the market. Customers increasingly accept system understanding and system solutions from their suppliers, not just hardware, to reduce their development times and costs. Elmos has therefore already extended the product portfolio to support customers with system solutions. This will be achieved by offering a modern ASPICE qualified platform, which includes all software components necessary for motor control, communication, and diagnosis. In addition, this platform includes a simulation environment, which allows customers the hardware is finalized.
All components are perfectly optimized for the latest generation of our motor control ICs. By combining software and hardware elements, Elmos enables complete system solutions and significantly reduces development times for new applications. Elmos experience and expertise in functional safety enabled a further success story with sensor ICs in the last years. Our Sensor ICs are saving lives every day through precise and redundant pressure sensing. This dedication to excellence has been recognized by prestigious awards for market-leading Tier 1 customers. The Elmos design principles are driven by highest quality and parallel operational excellence. We are very proud to be awarded with the status of the global number one supplier in vehicle dynamic stability brake applications from a global leading Tier 1.
As we transition from combustion engines to electric vehicles, we are ready to support this transformation with advanced solutions, including, for example, intelligent interior heating and cooling, as well as vehicle thermal management sensor support. This technology is critical for ensuring the safety and reliability of EVs. Unlike in vehicles with internal combustion engines, the heat for heating the interior of battery-powered vehicles is generated by the battery alone. Optimum and highly efficient temperature control is therefore very important in order to use as little energy as possible. Smart air conditioning shutters and vents enabled by Elmos ICs regulate the airflow with highest precision, thus avoiding the need to heat or cool the entire cabin and the unnecessary consumption of energy. We are paving the future with cutting-edge developments. Our new products for air conditioning systems, featuring the latest LIN SSP development, are set to revolutionize thermal management in EVs.
In the realm of brake-by-wire, we are proud to announce the world's first implementation with Elmos IC, scheduled for SOP in 2025. This innovation marks a significant milestone in automotive technology, promising enhanced safety, performance, and cost savings. Our commitment to diversification remains strong as we expand into more sensor principles, including position and current sensing. Throughout this journey, we remain focused on functional safety, ensuring that our products meet the highest standards of reliability and performance. We are proud to be among the global top three suppliers for airbag chipsets with our 25 years of experience. Our product portfolio comprises both companion chips such as squib drivers and PSI5 transceivers, as well as fully integrated and complex airbag system-based chips, including the full feature set required for an airbag system. Our performance has lately been confirmed again with a major award from a leading global Tier 1 supplier.
Additionally, we have achieved numerous successful SBC developments, showcasing our commitment to innovation and safety in the automotive industry. Changes in the vehicle electrical architecture and the rise of autonomous driving are pushing increased demand for electrical fuses. Key motivation for electronic fuses in the vehicle includes reducing wire harness weight, improving sensor integration reliability, reducing network interference, and enhancing power monitoring and diagnostic across the vehicle's smart power network. This includes enabling direct diagnostics or plausibility checks. Additionally, electronic fuses enable smart power distribution with advanced functionalities at the vehicle application level, such as predictive maintenance. The market suggests that there could be up to 20 or more E-fuse ICs per vehicle contained to 100 + electrical loads, with significant variability across platforms and OEMs. Our market entry strategy involves the development of the standard ASSP solutions to address known technical requirements of future car architectures.
We plan to leverage customer access through our existing E-fuse ICs and are engaged in numerous customer discussions with various players, including fuse box and zone controller manufacturers, to confirm market needs and specific requirements. Last but not least, we are currently looking into the development of an Ethernet gateway transceiver. Elmos has a broad heritage of know-how in different communication standards and has built numerous communication transceivers in its history. For the changing EE architecture, there will be a shift towards communication in car, which requires the ability to connect higher-level control units with the satellite transceivers and actuators. By means of the study, we are evaluating the appropriate product concept for an Ethernet gateway transceiver for the future, in close collaboration with a Tier 1 and an OEM.
To conclude my presentation, I would like to briefly revisit the megatrends mentioned in the beginning: electrification & efficiency, ADAS & autonomous driving, comfort & premium. We are already well positioned with our product for these trends, proven by our strong revenue growth over the past years and attractive new design wins. Moreover, in the next years, we will not only defend but further expand our market position with new and visionary products. We are addressing critical topics such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity through encryption with quantum random number generator, and system solutions through increased software integration with our product ideas, which will position in the market in the medium to long term. Our commitment to these cutting-edge technologies ensures that we remain at the forefront of industry advancements, providing our customers with the most advanced and reliable solutions.
Furthermore, we are always strengthening our partnerships with key industry players, OEMs, and expanding our global presence. This strategic approach allows us to better serve our customers and respond to the local market more efficiently. By leveraging our expertise and resources, we are confident in our ability to drive continued growth and success. In summary, Elmos is well positioned to navigate the evolving landscape in the automotive industry. With our innovative products and four decades of experience, strategic partnerships, and an outstanding R&D and sales team, we are poised to achieve even greater success in the years to come. Thanks a lot for your attention. And now I would like to ask our CTO, Jochen Vaihinger, to start his presentation.
Thanks, Michael. Good afternoon and welcome to the R&D session. I'm Jochen Vaihinger. I'm the Chief Technology Officer of Elmos.
Elmos has established a robust R&D organization with over 400 experts across hardware, software, testing, systems engineering, and technology, developing cutting-edge mobility solutions. Our team is globally supported by resident engineers and application specialists, ensuring superior customer collaboration. We excel in analog mixed-signal integrated circuits and software solutions for safe, adaptable, and secure applications with focus in the automotive sector. Our expertise spans the entire development lifecycle, supported by key certifications like AEC-Q100, IATF 16949, ISO 26262 for functional safety, and ISO 21434 for cybersecurity, ensuring adherence to the highest quality, safety, and security standards. Elmos' advanced in-house labs enable extensive testing for EMC, ESD, reliability, and failure analysis, reinforcing our commitment to excellence. A dedicated technology enablement team maximizes the smart utilization of global foundry and packaging platforms, ensuring optimized product performance and reliability.
This holistic approach makes Elmos a leader in delivering innovative and reliable automotive solutions globally. Germany is our home to our six top R&D sites, known for their exceptional hardware and software competencies in developing high-quality automotive semiconductor solutions. All our sites have highly skilled engineers with extensive experience in the field. Their deep expertise is further strengthened by intensive collaboration and close customer intimacy with Tier 1 suppliers and leading OEMs, ensuring seamless integration and innovation. Our R&D teams are dedicated to advancing cutting-edge solutions in automotive semiconductors. Our engineering teams are our base for developing our cost-competitive and high-performance automotive systems. In addition, we have started to establish offshore development centers, ODC, for software and hardware development outside Germany. We are leveraging excellent in-house competencies for core developments and supplement these globally with ODCs, providing several key advantages. We harness the best talent from around the world.
This enables us to drive innovation and enhance our competitive edge. We can optimize costs by maintaining high-quality standards. We collaborate with partners who have a proven level of competency in automotive. Our software offshore development center, IntelliLab , is in Porto, Portugal, in partnership with Intellias, a well-established software service provider in the mobility sector. Additionally, we have hardware collaboration with Capgemini in Belgrade, Serbia, and Cyient in Bangalore, India. For test development, we also leverage our broad in-house expertise by collaborating with Tessolve, a globally leading semiconductor partner mainly located in India. This strategic network enhances our capabilities and our scalability. It fosters innovation and excellence across software and hardware development initiatives. The automotive industry is accelerating rapidly with fast innovation and shorter development cycles driven by advancements in electric vehicles and autonomous driving and connectivity.
Increasing demand for smarter, more sustainable solutions is pushing OEMs and suppliers to innovate quickly, leveraging cutting-edge technology to stay competitive in this dynamic landscape. We, as a semiconductor solution provider, are an essential part of the automotive ecosystem and must lead towards faster development cycle times. We have to provide first-time-right hardware early to support our Tier 1s and OEMs, followed by short time to market for volume ramp and start of production. Also, fast, flexible, and continuous software deliveries are key to enable builds of complete automotive systems, so R&D efficiency is crucial for Elmos to maintain a competitive edge in delivering innovative mobility solutions. We have to achieve a product development cycle time of about two years on average.
Our shift from an ASIC specialist to an ASSP supplier and from an integrated device manufacturer to a fabless solution provider allows for expanding product families utilizing advanced silicon technologies. The usage of these advanced silicon technologies enables Elmos to respond swiftly to market demands, reducing time- to- market, and offering innovative customer-tailored solutions through product families. Key to this efficiency required is also the use and integration of state-of-the-art electronic design automation tools enhanced by artificial intelligence methods, which support our engineers in their daily work, streamline our development processes, and improve our quality. Our R&D approach encompasses pre-development activities such as exploring new applications, AI-driven design technologies, and ensuring enablement of the right process technology. By defining product families and core IPs, we streamline our product development. In addition, reuse and standardization support faster time- to- market.
Our Elmos R&D efficiency program aims for short development time, leveraging front-loading reusability and process optimization to meet the stringent demands of the automotive and mobility sectors. Let's look at our technology roadmap. With the closing of the sale of our 350 nm fab in Dortmund by the end of 2024, Elmos becomes a truly fabless semiconductor manufacturer. We are leveraging a broad and competitive BCD silicon foundry technology portfolio to meet evolving product needs. By the way, BCD stands for Bipolar CMOS DMOS. The characteristics of these BCD technologies are high-voltage devices and analog mixed-signal functionality, embedded non-volatile memories, and finally, a good digital performance. Our technology roadmap is based on automotive requirements like high-temperature operation, functional safety, and automotive qualification.
Currently, Elmos partners with four major silicon foundry manufacturers: TSMC, Samsung, SK Keyf oundry, and the Dortmund Semiconductor Wafer Fab, operated by Littelfuse as of January 2025, and will be soon at HHGrace as a new foundry partner in China. This network, with leading pure-play foundry partners, offers manufacturing capabilities from 350 nm to 130 nm nodes. To drive future innovation, we are actively exploring next-node 110 nm to 40 nm BCD technologies and evaluating potential next-node partners from Europe, the U.S., Asia, and China. Elmos is also addressing global supply chain challenges by diversifying our partnerships and ensuring robust manufacturing capabilities across regions. This approach positions us to deliver advanced and reliable solutions while maintaining competitive technological advantages in the automotive and industrial markets.
As a trusted automotive semiconductor supplier, we are committed to developing safe and secure products in compliance with industrial standards and an Automotive SPICE-based culture. This approach ensures high quality and best reliability in all product offerings. Elmos adheres to key norms and standards, including the mentioned Automotive SPICE, ISO 9001 for quality management, IATF 16949 for automotive sector requirements, as well as ISO 26262 for functional safety, and ISO 21434 for cybersecurity. With that, we are guaranteeing our products meet the highest safety and security expectations in the automotive industry. We integrate these standards through our so-called EPEP, Elmos Product Emergence Process, a core component of our Elmos Corporate Management System. The EPEP covers all key engineering processes from the idea to the fully qualified product. This comprehensive approach is tailored to the specific requirements of each project, allowing also for flexibility and scalability.
By implementing a one-size-fits-all scalable development process, Elmos ensures best-in-class quality and performance across its entire product portfolio. We deliver reliable, high-performing semiconductor solutions that meet the evolving demands of the automotive industry, with safety and security at their core. The software-defined vehicle is transforming the automotive electrical and electronic architecture from a domain-based to a zone-based architecture, as already mentioned previously. This new zonal architecture not only supports complex software systems, but also drives three key hardware trends: the Centralization of Computing, the Simplification of Networking, and the Decentralization of Power Distribution. Centralized electronic control units act as the brain of the vehicle, consolidating processing power for advanced features like autonomous driving and real-time data analysis. Ethernet-based networks simplify communication between components, ensuring high-speed data transfer and reducing network complexity, and decentralized power distribution in the zonal board net enables smarter energy management, enhancing efficiency and system robustness.
This results in a streamlined architecture that enhances vehicle performance and enables advanced features like real-time data processing and autonomous driving. For us, this shift creates new opportunities in areas like, for instance, smart electronic fuse applications, which provide intelligent power protection in the decentralized systems, as already mentioned by Michael. Our mixed-signal ICs are directly supporting this evolution, offering solutions that enable over-the-air updates, functional safety, and cybersecurity. As SDVs grow in importance, we have built a strong software competency over the past years to meet evolving customer needs. Elmos software enables the configuration of our ICs, supports over-the-air updates, and simplifies the integration at the automotive system level. Elmos microcontroller-based devices featuring 16-bit and 32-bit CPUs with embedded non-volatile memories ensure efficient edge processing. To foster our software mindset, we have been establishing a dedicated wholly-owned subsidiary called Area 21 to lead Elmos software development.
As mentioned before, we partner with Intellias, a well-established mobility software company, in a software ODC, allowing us to address all levels of automotive software development effectively. We are actively preparing for the future of SDV on product level, for instance, by developing OTA-capable bootloaders and complex device drivers for AUTOSAR use to control Elmos ICs. Furthermore, we are working to support system simulation models, often referred to as digital twins, to enhance SDV development. In today's modern microcontroller-based zonal architecture, software is an integral part of the customer offering, playing a crucial role in enabling flexibility, safety, and security in the automotive systems. Elmos is well-positioned to support these innovations. We also foster a strong innovation culture, continuously exploring new application fields, protecting our products, and enhancing our competitiveness through intellectual property management.
As an international IP-centered company, Elmos places IP at the core of its corporate strategy, making it a top management priority. We actively manage our IP portfolio, ensuring that our patent filing strategy spans the entire automotive value chain from suppliers to end customers. We align our IP strategy with corporate business goals through regular patent board meetings, guaranteeing that innovations are strategically protected. We have an impressive filing rate of approximately one patent every other working day and one filing per three engineers across all engineering functions. As of September 2024, Elmos holds almost 1,000 patents. Most of them are independent, underscoring our dedication to innovation and maintaining a competitive edge. Our robust IP portfolio not only protects Elmos innovations but also reinforces our position as a key player in the automotive industry, enabling us to offer cutting-edge solutions that meet evolving market demands by safeguarding our technological leadership.
Let me summarize. Elmos R&D delivers market-leading mobility solutions that support the growing importance of edge computing driven by the need of software-defined vehicles. With highly skilled and experienced teams supplemented globally by offshore development centers, we foster our R&D efficiency and time to market to maintain competitiveness. As a fabless semiconductor manufacturer, Elmos leverages cost-competitive BCD technologies through our silicon foundry partners. The rise of software-defined vehicle architecture has increased the importance of edge computing in automotive systems. Mixed-signal ICs play a crucial role in enabling the automotive edge to be safe, adaptable, and secure, and providing the necessary functionality for modern software-driven car architectures. Software is an essential part of Elmos' customer offering, reducing integration complexity at the automotive system level and enabling over-the-air updates. Elmos' excellent patent portfolio and strict adherence to automotive norms and standards ensure the highest quality, reliability, and performance.
Last but not least, our exceptional hardware and software expertise positions Elmos as a leader in automotive edge applications. Thank you very much for your attention. With that, let me hand over back to Ralf.
[Foreign language], Jochen, thank you very much, and of course, thanks to all other speakers for this very interesting presentation in the first part of our CMD. I guess this is really, really cool stuff, and we are almost perfectly in time. This is also cool. Let's have a short break now. We will be back in 10 minutes, let's say at 4:20 P.M. CET. Thank you very much, and see you soon.
Whether it's high-performance controller ICs or customizable LED driver ICs, reliability and quality define our products. Trusted by some of the industry's leading car manufacturers, we're enabling next-generation light solutions for innovative interior design. Elmos develops, produces, and markets semiconductors and sensors primarily for use in the automotive industry. Our components communicate, measure, regulate, and control safety, comfort, powertrain, and network functions.
For 40 years, Elmos innovations have been bringing new functions to life and making mobility worldwide safer, more comfortable, and more energy efficient. But the road to progress never ends, and at Elmos Semiconductor, we're constantly pushing the envelope, driving technological advancements that empower cleaner, safer, and smarter vehicles for years to come. Join us on the road to the future: Elmos Semiconductor, powering the world's most advanced automotive technologies, one journey at a time. In the world of automotive excellence, the journey never stops. At Elmos Semiconductor, we're on a never-ending quest to power the future of mobility. Our cutting-edge products enable advanced driver assistance technologies, all designed to control essential functions and keep drivers and passengers safe on the road.
Whether it's high-performance controller ICs or customizable LED driver ICs, reliability and quality define our products. Trusted by some of the industry's leading car manufacturers, we're enabling next-generation light solutions for innovative interior design. Elmos develops, produces, and markets semiconductors and sensors primarily for use in the automotive industry. Our components communicate, measure, regulate, and control safety, comfort, powertrain, and network functions.
For 40 years, Elmos innovations have been bringing new functions to life and making mobility worldwide safer, more comfortable, and more energy efficient. But the road to progress never ends, and at Elmos Semiconductor, we're constantly pushing the envelope, driving technological advancements that empower cleaner, safer, and smarter vehicles for years to come. Join us on the road to the future: Elmos Semiconductor, powering the world's most advanced automotive technologies, one journey at a time. In the world of automotive excellence, the journey never stops. At Elmos Semiconductor, we're on a never-ending quest to power the future of mobility. Our cutting-edge products enable advanced driver assistance technologies, all designed to control essential functions and keep drivers and passengers safe on the road.
Whether it's high-performance controller ICs or customizable LED driver ICs, reliability and quality define our products. Trusted by some of the industry's leading car manufacturers, we're enabling next-generation light solutions for innovative interior design. Elmos develops, produces, and markets semiconductors and sensors primarily for use in the automotive industry. Our components communicate, measure, regulate, and control safety, comfort, powertrain, and network functions.
For 40 years, Elmos' innovations have been bringing new functions to life and making mobility worldwide safer, more comfortable, and more energy efficient. But the road to progress never ends, and at Elmos Semiconductor, we're constantly pushing the envelope, driving technological advancements that empower cleaner, safer, and smarter vehicles for years to come. Join us on the road to the future: Elmos Semiconductor, powering the world's most advanced automotive technologies, one journey at a time. In the world of automotive excellence, the journey never stops. At Elmos Semiconductor, we're on a never-ending quest to power the future of mobility. Our cutting-edge products enable advanced driver assistance technologies, all designed to control essential functions and keep drivers and passengers safe on the road.
Whether it's high-performance controller ICs or customizable LED driver ICs, reliability and quality define our products. Trusted by some of the industry's leading car manufacturers, we're enabling next-generation light solutions for innovative interior design. Elmos develops, produces, and markets semiconductors and sensors primarily for use in the automotive industry. Our components communicate, measure, regulate, and control safety, comfort, powertrain, and network functions.
For 40 years, Elmos innovations have been bringing new functions to life and making mobility worldwide safer, more comfortable, and more energy efficient. But the road to progress never ends, and at Elmos Semiconductor, we're constantly pushing the envelope, driving technological advancements that empower cleaner, safer, and smarter vehicles for years to come. Join us on the road to the future: Elmos Semiconductor, powering the world's most advanced automotive technologies, one journey at a time. In the world of automotive excellence, the journey never stops. At Elmos Semiconductor, we're on a never-ending quest to power the future of mobility. Our cutting-edge products enable advanced driver assistance technologies, all designed to control essential functions and keep drivers and passengers safe on the road.
Whether it's high-performance controller ICs or customizable LED driver ICs, reliability and quality define our products. Trusted by some of the industry's leading car manufacturers, we're enabling next-generation light solutions for innovative interior design. Elmos develops, produces, and markets semiconductors and sensors primarily for use in the automotive industry. Our components communicate, measure, regulate, and control safety, comfort, powertrain, and network functions.
For 40 years, Elmos innovations have been bringing new functions to life and making mobility worldwide safer, more comfortable, and more energy efficient. But the road to progress never ends, and at Elmos Semiconductor, we're constantly pushing the envelope, driving technological advancements that empower cleaner, safer, and smarter vehicles for years to come. Join us on the road to the future: Elmos Semiconductor, powering the world's most advanced automotive technologies, one journey at a time. In the world of automotive excellence, the journey never stops. At Elmos Semiconductor, we're on a never-ending quest to power the future of mobility. Our cutting-edge products enable advanced driver assistance technologies, all designed to control essential functions and keep drivers and passengers safe on the road.
Whether it's high-performance controller ICs or customizable LED driver ICs, reliability and quality define our products. Trusted by some of the industry's leading car manufacturers, we're enabling next-generation light solutions for innovative interior design. Elmos develops, produces, and markets semiconductors and sensors primarily for use in the automotive industry. Our components communicate, measure, regulate, and control safety, comfort, powertrain, and network functions.
For 40 years, Elmos innovations have been bringing new functions to life and making mobility worldwide safer, more comfortable, and more energy efficient. But the road to progress never ends, and at Elmos Semiconductor, we're constantly pushing the envelope, driving technological advancements that empower cleaner, safer, and smarter vehicles for years to come. Join us on the road to the future: Elmos Semiconductor, powering the world's most advanced automotive technologies, one journey at a time. In the world of automotive excellence, the journey never stops. At Elmos Semiconductor, we're on a never-ending quest to power the future of mobility. Our cutting-edge products enable advanced driver assistance technologies, all designed to control essential functions and keep drivers and passengers safe on the road.
Whether it's high-performance controller ICs or customizable LED driver ICs, reliability and quality define our products. Trusted by some of the industry's leading car manufacturers, we're enabling next-generation light solutions for innovative interior design. Elmos develops, produces, and markets semiconductors and sensors primarily for use in the automotive industry. Our components communicate, measure, regulate, and control safety, comfort, powertrain, and network functions.
For 40 years, Elmos innovations have been bringing new functions to life and making mobility worldwide safer, more comfortable, and more energy efficient.
Yeah, welcome back, everyone. Before we continue, a short reminder: after the presentations, you have the opportunity to ask questions either via video or via text messaging. Our Q&A system is already open, so please, yeah, enter your questions as early as possible. Thank you very much. Now let's continue. We have our COO, Patrick Schmitt. Patrick, the stage is yours.
Thank you, Ralf. A very warm welcome from my side as well. My name is Patrick Schmitt, and I joined Elmos in June this year, succeeding Guido Meyer in the role as Chief Operating Officer.
Therefore, I would like to take the opportunity first to thank Guido for his nearly 30 years with Elmos, and especially the last eight years as Chief Operating Officer, for the great support during my first month at Elmos and the smooth handover. For me, operations is not just a function. It is the very commitment we make to our customers. It embodies our promise to deliver state-of-the-art automotive products at the right time, with excellent quality and at competitive costs. As we reflect on the challenging allocation phase of 2022 and 2023, I'm proud to say that Elmos has fulfilled this promise in an outstanding manner. Despite the global supply chain disruptions, we have consistently met customer needs without faltering. Notably, we never stopped an OEM production line during this period.
This achievement means that no vehicle was left unassembled due to a missing Elmos chip, a testament to our dedication and operational excellence, and it is also a statement that only a very few semiconductor manufacturers can make. A significant milestone in our journey has been our transition from an integrated device manufacturer to a global operating fabless semiconductor company in the automotive sector. This transformation followed the sale of our Dortmund 350 nm fab to Littelfuse, a structural change that marks one of the most significant shifts in Elmos history. Based on our product roadmap, demand for 350 nm products will decrease more and more in the years ahead, as nearly all new products and successor products will be manufactured in newer, smaller technologies, technologies that we are unable to produce at the Dortmund fab.
This transition was necessary because otherwise we would have been faced with ongoing high investments required to access more advanced technology nodes or with a heavy fixed cost burden due to an underutilized front-end. As a fabless company, we will be fully flexible to access a wide range of state-of-the-art wafer technologies and can continue to focus on utilizing our strong growth potential with highly innovative automotive IC applications. Moving forward, our focus will be on managing a global supply chain with external partners while honing our competencies in testing. This strategy is essential for safeguarding the high-quality levels demanded by the automotive industry, specifically achieving zero parts per million defects. Our location in Dortmund will remain crucial as we manage major ramp-ups, evaluate new test technologies, and provide global support to our external manufacturing and testing partners.
To meet customer demands while securing supply chains, Elmos collaborates with several automotive-certified foundries, with TSMC in Taiwan and with Samsung and SK Key foundry in Korea for 350 nm, 180 nm, and 130 nm. All of them are qualified and supply for Elmos mixed-signal high-voltage semiconductors. The Dortmund fab will continue to supply Elmos with 350 nm technology based on our supply agreement with Littelfuse. As you have learned from Jochen already, we are in the late-stage discussions with multiple foundry partners for more advanced technology nodes. By strategically allocating volumes, we ensure that we reach a critical mass that strengthens our negotiation power with these foundry partners. Our established supply agreements guarantee sufficient capacity for our products at competitive wafer prices in the coming years. This proactive approach allows us to manage procurement efficiently while ensuring continuous growth and success.
In response to increasing demand, Elmos has significantly increased its test capacities for wafers and final tests by more than 40% compared to 2022. Most of these capacities have been installed at our external partners globally. Wafers continue to be tested in our own backend in Dortmund and at KYEC in Taiwan, with an approximate share of 50% each. For final tests, among others, we are cooperating with well-known companies like UTAC, KESM, Carsem, and newly introduced ASE. We are testing roughly 70% external while roughly 30% remain in-house. Our chosen footprint addresses business continuity requirements while reflecting challenges posed by the geopolitical landscape. For sourcing test equipment, we have partnered with world market leaders like Advantest and TEL, but remain committed to continuously benchmarking available solutions to optimize both capital expenditures and operational expenditures.
Due to the specific requirements for testing automotive mixed-signal semiconductors, we invest ourselves in test equipment. By limiting the number of different test platforms, we can keep our engineering structures lean to support those and do not need to build up resources for other platforms. Looking ahead, we plan additional capacity installations based on business needs through 2030. Elmos boasts a diverse footprint with partners for foundry services, wafer testing, assembly, and final testing in Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, China, Thailand, and in our Dortmund location. While leveraging external partnerships for efficiency, we continue testing wafers and final products in-house at our Dortmund facility during the development and ramp-up phase of products. Additionally, through our brand JiWei Cheng, we are establishing a local supply chain tailored specifically for our Chinese customers, catering directly to market demands while enhancing responsiveness.
Our focus on sales and operations planning, coupled with an upcoming upgrade to SAP S/4HANA, serves as key enablers for future growth and scalability within our organization. Optimizing working capital structures remains a priority. We aim to reduce working capital midterm well below 25% of sales. Flexibility is paramount as we strive to react swiftly to changes in market environments and evolving customer expectations. In recent years, Elmos has doubled its revenue, a remarkable achievement that required adequate adaptations in test capacities. This growth resulted in investments exceeding 200 million EUR aimed at increasing testing capabilities. Short-term projections indicate sufficient capacity is available to meet customer demands. However, midterm strategies will require additional investments targeted at less than 10% of revenue for 10% revenue growth. At Elmos, embracing a mindset of continuous improvement is vital.
We challenge not only our operations in Dortmund but also those of our external partners regularly. Our extended key performance indicator system enables rapid responses to deviations while driving necessary actions towards meeting overall targets. Managing and improving yield remains one of our primary focus areas. Our overall equipment effectiveness program has already delivered promising results throughout 2024, and this initiative will continue over the coming years. Moreover, we are dedicated to reducing test times per delivered part further, aiming for increased production efficiency through optimized test programs and handling processes. The optimization of these test programs depends heavily on the application, as you can imagine. A safety-relevant application for an airbag will be tested more rigorously than an interior light application. But I want to strongly emphasize that Elmos does never compromise on quality.
As we address challenges related to an aging workforce and demographic shifts within the industry, developing internal talent remains crucial, alongside actively seeking exceptional candidates from outside Elmos, ensuring sustainable growth for the future. In conclusion, I want each of you here today to understand that operations at Elmos are not merely about processes or systems. They represent a commitment, a promise to deliver excellence consistently. Together as one team focused on innovation and quality assurance within the automotive sector, we will navigate challenges ahead while seizing opportunities for growth. Thank you. Let us now continue with Burkhard, CDO of Elmos.
Good afternoon and welcome, ladies and gentlemen. I'm happy to provide you with an update about key initiatives in my area of responsibility.
Specifically, I will inform you about the current situation regarding the sale of the Dortmund wafer fab to Littelfuse, Elmos's M&A strategy, our activity with regards to AI, and last but not least, I will give you an update on our renewed Elmos China strategy. Let me start with a quick introduction of myself. I'm Burkhard von Spreckelsen. I hold the position of CDO since June 24. CDO stands for Chief Development Officer, and the role encompasses the functions of corporate strategy, M&A, AI, and from next year on, I will be responsible for IT at Elmos as well. I studied business administration in Switzerland, Germany, and the U.S.A., graduated from the University of St. Gallen with a PhD.
Throughout my professional career, I had a strong focus on strategy topics, starting as a consultant at McKinsey and thereafter holding multiple leadership roles at the heating company Vaillant and intralogistics company KION. In 2020, I had a desire to enlarge my knowledge about artificial intelligence, and I devoted myself to learning about machine learning and AI, even programming a neural network myself. Based on this experience, I joined Elmos as Vice President Corporate Strategy in 2020, which laid the basis for my current role. Besides my responsibility at Elmos, I'm a part-time university lecturer for internationalization, growth management, and M&A. Let us start with the first content topic, the sale of our front-end wafer fab to Littelfuse. As is well known in our industry, there is a continuous trend towards smaller semiconductor technologies. We typically call this a technology node, and we measure it in nanometers.
As technology nodes, which are being produced in front-end fabs, get smaller and smaller, investment requirements get bigger and bigger. The automotive ICs mostly do not use the most advanced nodes, but the development is still the same. As technology advances, there's a migration towards smaller nodes. On top of that, fabs can only be operated economically if almost fully loaded 24/7 and 365 days a year. For these and other reasons, we decided to look for a partner to take over our own front-end fab in Dortmund, a partner who would continue to produce wafers for Elmos for several years in order to ensure supply for our customers. After the bumpy first attempt, you all remember that our initial deal to sell the front-end fab to the MEMS foundry Silex was prohibited by the German government.
We were happy to sign the definitive agreements with the US-based company Littelfuse in June 2023, with a planned closing date on December 31, 2024, which is less than two months from now. Already in 2023, we have received the clearance for the transaction from the German authorities. I can confirm that the partnership with Littelfuse is developing very positively and that we are in close alignment regarding the closing of this transaction. Furthermore, everything is on track to execute the capacity sharing agreement, which ensures that Elmos can source processed wafers from Littelfuse until at least 2029, as planned. Besides the down payment of EUR 37 million in Q3 2023, we are expecting the remaining payment of around EUR 56 million at the end of 2024.
Building on the updates on the sale of our front-end fab to Littelfuse, I would like to provide a broader perspective on our approach to M&A, of course, for mergers and acquisitions. Our M&A strategy is driven by our overall corporate strategy. In particular, we aim at being number one or number two in the businesses or application fields we are active in. We have given ourselves a clear financial ambition level, the operating model, which will be shared by our CFO, Rita, in a few moments. In order to achieve our ambitious strategic and financial targets, we continuously review our portfolio of activities, focus on core competencies, and optimize our setup across the globe.
An example for this is the sale of our MEMS subsidiary SMI in the U.S. in 2019, the acquisition of Online Engineering at the beginning of 2021, which was our first step to significantly expand our software activities, or the sale of our wafer fab, which we just discussed, are further examples of our M&A activities. We continuously scan the market for attractive acquisition targets and maintain good relationships with investment banks and our players and other players in our industry. We have a broad network with universities and industry specialists helping us to better understand and identify important trends. We would consider a transaction if it made sense for us, which means if a target is close to our core competencies, strengthens our market position, and contributes to the success of Elmos in the short to medium term.
As was mentioned before, our growth strategy is not relying on inorganic growth by acquisitions, but rather the result of our great success in new developments. However, if we see the right target, we are ready. I would like to move on to the next topic and talk about AI at Elmos, and here again, our AI objectives are directly related to our strategy and our operating model. We leverage AI technologies to support the organization achieving the financial and operating targets of our growth strategy. This means in particular, and that's important, that we're not interested in just following a trend which is in or cool right now. Rather, we are looking for tangible improvements in at least one of the three areas: better products, better processes, or better employer attractiveness. Hereby, our focus is on established and widely used AI technologies, which promise reliable improvements.
As a semiconductor company, we are very used to collecting and storing huge amounts of data during production processes and beyond. We at Elmos have applied algorithms for at least 10 years, algorithms which would nowadays probably be called artificial intelligence. We have rolled out applications and achieved significant improvements in areas like quality control, production test optimization, and all of these examples, I would call them analytical AI. Lately, we have started to test generative AI tools, for example, for tasks like text creation and review, support of certain steps in the purchasing process, or supporting our engineers when creating or documenting software. Initial results look very promising. We are currently at this stage of rolling out AI tools to a wide group of users. Obviously, we have taken steps to ensure a responsible use of these new tools.
Last but not least, I would like to provide you with an update about Elmos in China, in particular our renewed Elmos China strategy. Our expectation regarding the future potential of the Chinese automotive market is very positive for two key reasons. At first, the car ownership ratio, as defined by the number of vehicles divided by the number of inhabitants in thousands of a country, is only at around 200 in China today. The same ratio lies around 600 - 700 in several countries in Europe and at around 850 in the USA. From our point of view, there's significant growth potential from these figures. Various forecast models predict that the mature markets will stay at a high number, of course, per capita, but car volume growth in these regions is very much limited. China, on the contrary, will see an ongoing significant increase, of course.
If you look at these figures, there could be more than 650 million cars on Chinese roads by 2050. That would be more cars than in the U.S. and Europe combined. Secondly, despite being the largest car market in the world, the Chinese automotive industry used to focus mostly on production for the local Chinese market. Exports used to play a minor role until around 2020, with less than 1 million cars being exported annually. However, in 2023, China surpassed Japan as the top exporter of cars globally, with around 5 million vehicles being shipped to other markets. We can imagine further significant export growth of Chinese cars to the global market. In addition to the just-mentioned growth potential of new cars being built in China, we expect the semiconductor content of new cars. They will increase over the next few years.
Local Chinese car companies have become very competitive over time, and Chinese cars show highly innovative features, particularly with regards to the electric drivetrain, ADAS/AD, connectivity, user interface, comfort, and other functions. These developments drive the semiconductor content in cars. So, in summary, China is, and to our expectation, will remain a very interesting market for Elmos. We are quite pleased with our strong market position in China, which is one of our most important markets. We have a strong local team with technical and sales expertise in several locations and are supplying chips to all three groups of OEMs. Three groups, that's number one, OEMs with state backing, number two, joint venture OEMs, and number three, the New Energy Vehicle OEMs. In addition, we partner with several distributors and maintain good relations with Tier suppliers. However, there are currently two dynamic developments taking place.
At first, all of us are witnessing the geopolitical dynamic. There are multiple examples which indicate a tightening of trade relationships between China and the West. As you know, the semiconductor industry is in particular in focus. And secondly, and also as a result of these geopolitical tensions, we notice that local customers are asking more and more for Chinese-made products. This development is obvious when looking at the share of Chinese local automotive brands, which has risen strongly and means that accounts for around half of all cars being sold in China. Furthermore, this development is also visible at our more direct customers, where selected segments are asking for Chinese chips. So far, the market is mainly focusing on innovation, power, price, and speed, but we track the development of demand for Chinese chips closely.
Even though the future development is difficult to predict, we certainly want to be prepared for different scenarios. And this leads me to our renewed Elmos China strategy, including our new subsidiary, JiWei Cheng. In order to be able to fulfill the likely increasing demand for Chinese chips by our customers and to be prepared for geopolitical developments, we did launch JiWei Cheng Semiconductor Shanghai Co., Ltd., which is a 100% subsidiary of the Elmos Group, and we launched it earlier this year. The mission of JiWei Cheng is to serve customers in China with a local brand, with a local management team, and with semiconductors made with increasingly more local Chinese content. Furthermore, it is planned to manage and operate the supply chain from China. We have started product design specifically for the Chinese market.
We are preparing wafer processing at a foundry in China, as already mentioned by Jochen, and we are identifying local OSAT partners, as you have just learned from Patrick. So far, we are very pleased with the progress of JiWei Cheng. You can see a picture of the official inauguration of JiWei Cheng on the right side of the slide. JiWei Cheng's quality management system is ISO 9001 certified, and we've started to promote products to customers. The picture of the chip on the slide is the image of a real IC of JiWei Cheng. We're looking forward to shipping first ICs to our customers, partnering with local partners, and expanding the team and our business in China. With the update about our renewed Elmos China strategy, I'm concluding the overview of these strategy initiatives. Thank you for your attention, and let me now hand over to our CFO, Rita.
Good afternoon, everyone, and also a warm welcome from my side. My name is Rita Mamberger. I have been working at Elmos since 2015 and as CFO since July 2022. I am responsible for the financial stability and financial performance of Elmos. As you have learned today from my fellow EC colleagues, we have a clear vision for capitalizing on the key trends that will drive our long-term growth in the years to come. To support that vision, we have developed an operating model designed to achieve our ambition's midterm financial targets. In the next couple of minutes, I will walk you through the key pillars of this operating model and will outline how we are setting ourselves up for success through profitable growth and cash flow generation.
In the beginning, I briefly want to remind you how we have achieved our current position of strength and why we have set such a strong focus on optimizing our cash flow. As you can see, we have clearly outperformed in the last three years and grew much stronger than our selected peer group based on an increasingly strong demand for our innovative products and outstanding delivery performance and the execution of our project ramp-ups. This strong growth trajectory enabled us to further strengthen the market position in our application fields and provided us with record levels of new design wins. It is important to highlight that our increase in profitability was not driven by a higher gross margin despite a favorable pricing environment during the chip shortage.
In fact, Elmos has chosen a conservative pricing strategy during the allocation as we are looking for a trusting and long-term relationship with our customers. The exceptional top-line growth during the chip allocation helped us to improve our OpEx ratios much faster than we had originally planned, and as a result, we were able to increase our EBIT margin substantially. As explained in his presentation, Elmos was fully committed to growth in the last years as we wanted to capitalize on this unique opportunity as best as possible. This was the absolute right decision, even though it meant high investments and higher working capital and consequently lower free cash flows. The steep increase in working capital by purchasing as many process wafers as possible during the chip shortage and the significant expansion of testing capacities allowed us to launch many new products and ensure delivery capability to our customers.
Now, as the industry has returned to a more normal level of supply and demand, we have started to make better use of the strong foundation we have created. The transformation to a fabless company is also supporting our promising journey into the future, as explained by Patrick. The sale of the wafer fab will be closed by the end of this year, and we can then expect the remaining EUR 56 million out of a total selling price of EUR 93 million. With the closing, total assets of around EUR 58 million will be transferred from the Elmos balance sheet to Littelfuse, mainly machinery and inventories. Elmos will continue to be the owner of the property and buildings at the Dortmund campus. After the closing, the Dortmund fab will be treated like an external foundry partner.
Elmos is buying process wafers from the Dortmund fab based on our long-term supply agreement with Littelfuse. There will be no material impact on the EBIT margin as we will purchase the wafers pretty similar to our in-house cost structure. However, in the medium and long term, being fabless can support a further improvement in profitability as we will be more flexible in case of volume fluctuations and also in acquiring new projects. We expect lower investments due to the fab sale since maintenance investments for the front-end will not be necessary anymore. However, you know that we have not invested heavily in our front-end technology in the past. The largest share of the investments was for the expansion of test capacities in the backend. Our new midterm financial targets have been highlighted by Anna, and I will now add a little flavor from the financial perspective.
First and foremost, we remain fully focused on profitable growth. Our growth strategy is anchored in high-demand areas based on our promising innovation and product roadmap presented by our product and technology team in detail. We are deliberately prioritizing new projects with the highest margins and growth potential, constantly looking at the optimization of our product portfolio. Being a fabless company, it is a great advantage here as we do not have to prioritize projects to fill our own wafer production. We can focus on projects with the best value for our customers and the highest return for Elmos. Our focus on margin-attractive segments allows us to drive top-line growth while keeping a healthy gross margin. This ensures that revenue growth directly translates into profitability.
After the end of the allocation, we expect that the industry will then return to normal pricing behavior with small annual price reductions, but the overall price levels will remain significantly higher than pre-allocation. To protect our gross margin, we will ask for price reductions from our suppliers and achieve efficiency gains in the value chain. However, this is nothing new and a natural task for an automotive supplier. We have now achieved OpEx levels that we aim to maintain going forward. A total OpEx ratio below gross profit of approximately 20%-22% represents a solid balance between sufficient resources for future growth and structural development, but at the same time allows us to achieve an appropriate EBIT margin level. While we are committed to investing in R&D in new markets, we are equally focused on cost discipline across all parts of the business.
We are constantly reviewing our cost structures to ensure we are operating at peak efficiency, avoiding unnecessary spending and reducing overhead. At the same time, we are increasing automated processes and leveraging digital tools to further improve productivity and lowering costs across all areas of our company. A major focus of our new operating model is lowering capital expenditures without compromising growth. Through better machine utilization and improved uptime in our testing operations, we are significantly increasing the efficiency of our testing equipment. By improving capacity and resource planning and optimizing the alignment between production and demand, we are able to increase the uptime and get more capacity out of our existing equipment, reducing the need for new capital investments for future growth. We are also deploying new state-of-the-art maintenance technologies, some of it AI-based, to reduce downtime and maintenance CapEx.
Another important element of our CapEx optimization is the reduction of test times. The utilization of a testing machine is directly dependent on the number and length of the test of an IC or wafer. In other words, the more frequently and the longer an IC has to be tested, the more test capacity is used for this IC. We are looking at all our testing programs and test specifications, both in the wafer and final part test. We expect a significant benefit out of this initiative. However, we will do this very carefully as we do not want to jeopardize the best-in-class quality of our products. All of these efforts will allow us to significantly reduce investments, and we expect a CapEx ratio of less than 10% of sales in the future. In addition to lowering our CapEx, we are taking steps to optimizing our working capital.
This involves inventory reduction with an effective supply chain management and improving payment terms. After the end of the allocation, inventory levels are elevated in all stages of the supply chain. We expect a further inventory reduction in the coming quarters as we are continuing to align our order levels towards our manufacturing partners. However, we will be cautious with our supply chain management as delivery security is still very important, especially in the early stages of the supply and demand normalization. We are refining our inventory and supply chain together with both customers and manufacturing partners to ensure optimal stock levels. We also want to improve visibility by leveraging data analytics and demand forecasting. This allows us to reduce excess inventory and free up working capital without compromising our ability to meet customer needs.
We are also working to optimize our payment terms with both suppliers and customers to improve our cash conversion cycle. As we are forecasting an ongoing strong growth in Asia, a proactive and sometimes more stringent receivables management is very important in this regard. All in all, high working capital levels at Elmos will be a thing of the past as we are approaching working capital levels of well below 25% of sales in the midterm. Finally, we need to improve our tax ratio. Elmos has to be competitive in all cost items. The tax environment is an important factor in this context. Currently, there is a major competitive disadvantage due to our significantly higher tax burden compared to our main competitors. With a tax rate of approximately 34%, Elmos has by far the highest tax rate among its peers. You can easily look it up in their financial statements.
In fiscal year 2023, Infineon had a tax rate below 20%, Melexis 17%, NXP 16%, onsemi 14%, and STMicro only 11%. Our new holding structure provides more flexibility in the financial and fiscal environment. In recent weeks, many possible options for tax optimization have been intensively examined in order to sustainably reduce the high tax burden at Elmos Semiconductor SE. Due to the heterogeneous business tax law within Germany, there are numerous cities and municipalities with attractive tax conditions for companies, also within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Elmos has examined many options for reducing the high tax burden. This includes the potential relocation of companies' headquarters, as Dortmund has one of the highest business tax rates in North Rhine-Westphalia. The relocation of the headquarters could lower the current tax rate below 27%. In addition, we are also looking at optimizing our global tax structures in the future.
However, this is a very complex and therefore a more long-term oriented project. Bringing all these elements together, profitable growth, stable margin, reduced OpEx, lower CapEx, optimized working capital, and a lower tax rate results in one of the most important outcomes for our shareholders: significantly improved free cash flow with a free cash flow to sales ratio gradually improving to industry levels. Ladies and gentlemen, by focusing on the presented areas, we are confident in our ability to generate much higher levels of free cash flow in the coming years. This will give us the flexibility to invest in strategic growth initiatives, further strengthen our balance sheet, and return capital to shareholders. Thank you very much for your attention, and back to Arne for his final remarks before the Q&A session.
So once again, hello everyone. Thank you for being with us today.
I hope we have provided you with interesting, exciting, and valuable information about our operational and strategic initiatives, product pipeline, and of course, our financial ambitions. Today, we have presented our achievements and ongoing initiatives to demonstrate that we are very well positioned to shape the future of mobility while delivering a robust financial performance, generating cash, and creating sustainable value for all shareholders. Before we start the Q&A session, let me please briefly summarize our equity story for the day today. Elmos is a global leader in automotive mixed- signal ICs, and within our attractive niches, we play an important role in driving critical mega trends such as vehicle electrification, ADAS, and autonomous driving, and of course, the increasing digitalization and comfort of vehicles.
These trends are not just buzzwords. They represent the structural transformation of the automotive and semiconductor industry, and we are often at the very forefront of it. Our new corporate structure based on our fabless business model offers us the flexibility and agility we need to adapt swiftly to market demands. With our long-standing expertise, industry-leading solutions, and outstanding performance, we have built strong relationships with customers and manufacturing partners around the world. Our strong and innovative R&D organization is the basis for developing market-leading solutions for the mobility of the future, and thanks to our solid financial foundation, an outstanding team, and the stable shareholder structure with our founder families as anchor shareholders, we are confident in our ability to pursue profitable long-term growth while generating strong cash flows.
Ladies and gentlemen, with over 40 years of experience and passion for innovation, we are uniquely positioned to leverage our legacy and our expertise as a global leader in our niche markets. We are ready to capitalize on the structural growth opportunities in our markets, and we are committed to profitable growth and enhancing shareholder value. So thank you for your trust. Thank you for your ongoing support. Together, we are building the future of mobility. Now I would like to ask Ralf to open the Q&A session, please.
Okay, thank you, Arne. And of course, thanks to all EEC members for their really excellent presentation. I think that was a really, really cool day. We are starting now with the Q&A session. Once again, if you would like to answer a question, you may do so by video or enter your question into the text field on your screen.
All questions via text messages will be collected in our Q&A system. I will read the question, which then will be answered by one of our EEC members. If you want to ask a question via video communication, please click on the red box on your screen, ask the question via live video communication. I think that's the name of the box. Your request will be forwarded to a virtual waiting room, and then you will be contacted by one of our members of the technical team. Shortly before it's your turn, I will call your name, and you will be connected live to our Capital Markets Day to ask your question. Okay, all set, so let's get started. We have a couple of text questions already, and I'll start with the first one. It comes from Malte Schaumann from Warburg Research.
Hi Malte, it's good to have you here with us today. Your first question, I'll read it. It says, "Elmos has achieved an impressive design win development since 2022. Knowing the typical lead time lags between design win and revenue, two to four years maybe, should we expect tailwind in sales in the next couple of years, or has this design wins already been part of the larger growth in the last couple of years? We've seen an impressive growth of 35% CAGR." This is the first part of the question.
Malte, thank you for being with us today. Most of the design wins are yet to come. Some have been short-term in the allocation, and there have been opportunities that have been very short-term indeed, but the majority of that design wins that we showed you today yet have to materialize.
Okay, the second part of the question is, "Do we think that the achieved design win volumes is still reasonable, or was it overinflated because we won the design wins during the allocation where typically everybody ordered more than they really needed?"
Well, generally, to assess the design win value, we look at the number of cars. And of course, everyone was positive in terms of how many ICs you may need, but cross-checking with the number of cars, we had a relatively low volume, right? I mean, we're below 90% of the some 80 million number of vehicles worldwide. So I think these are by and large reasonable numbers because you have to compare them to a structural market growth. You can't just overstate a platform that the design win is linked to by a factor because this is a very hard thing to do.
Okay, thank you, Arne. Next question comes from Martin from ODDO. Martin, good to have you with us here today. The question is, "In which application would you say that Elmos has gained the most share in the last three years between ultrasonic, motor control, or LED? What was the best segment in terms of growth and maybe also in terms of market share?"
So I would say this is very evenly distributed over the segments. Indeed, these were the strongest growth contributions, motor control for a kind of comfort and thermal management applications, LED lighting in the rear and in the interior, and also new ultrasonic wins in new ADAS platforms. It was quite evenly distributed.
Okay, thank you, Jan. Next question again from Malte. This is a question for Jochen and for Michael, our new guys coming from a Munich semiconductor player. What is the view on Elmos' competitive advantage as a smaller player, of course, compared to a bigger player? Where do we still have a gap to catch up to be best in class?"
Yeah, thanks a lot for the question. First of all, it's a great question. If I compare these two companies, I would say both companies are great in what they are doing. And what's the difference between a mid-size company and a big-size company? First of all, I would say Elmos is more agile, is more flexible, and is very close to the customer. This is a big gain, and this is a gain, or this is a game we are playing, and I think this will bring us to further growth of our company.
And maybe allow me to add to that one. I mean, definitely Elmos is very agile, very fast, and that's good in decision-making, no question at all. I mean, what is needed still is, of course, a certain economy of scale, right? Because at the end of the day, the bigger you are, the better you can discuss with partners or suppliers. And also one of the key topics going forward is to, as mentioned also by Michael and myself today, is to think more in product families rather than individual optimized ICs. So with that one, we also become faster, more reuse in our products, and can bring more products at a time to the market.
Okay, thank you, Jochen and Michael. Next question again from Martin. That's a question regarding the new EE architecture and software-defined vehicles. It says, "Could the transition to zonal software-defined vehicles favor having the same, sorry, the same chip supplier for more applications in the same vehicle? And also a more direct relationship with the OEM, is that a very big success factor?"
Well, these were two questions in one. I believe on the second part, does it favor being close to the OEM? Yes, it does favor being close to the OEM. You need to very carefully understand the EE concept of a car to be valuable in that setting. On the idea of having only very few chip suppliers, I believe most procurement departments have departed from the idea that that would be possible because you do have these very strong players in individual applications that you'll never get around.
So you are basically stuck with all the automotive IC suppliers anyhow, and then there's no real value in discussing that first part of the question. But being close to the OEM, yes, certainly. This is very important, and it's of increasing importance.
Great. Okay, thank you. Another question from Malte. This one is on the competitive environment. "Elmos appears to be aiming for further market share gains in some of its application. What are the main drivers facilitating a better development than our competitors?" And on the other hand, also a second part of the question, "On the other hand, in which areas is Elmos registering new competitors? Maybe in China, for example. Maybe also which could, yeah, be reflected in the 2030 targets." So coming to the second part of the question first, where do we see new competitors?
You know, the things that we do, they have quite a different complexity, and I would say that especially in LED lighting because the demand is also growing so high, especially in China, we see quite some new players over there in the Chinese market. So this was sure something where the competitive pressure is increasing a little bit more than in the other segments. And could you repeat, please, the first thing?
Yeah, the first question was, "What are the main drivers for our, let's say, the better development for our market share gains, what we expect to have compared to our competitors?"
Thank you. Thank you. Well, we are very much focused on what we do. So mixed-signal ICs, our whole development team is doing mixed-signal ICs. Our competitors, they have a lot of focus on several segments, also like power semis and stuff like that.
So we are very much focused there. Our competencies are all around that. And together with our customer proximity, as we have explained, and being quick and agile, bringing new products to the market, and also being fabless, so meaning we can serve from several sources, so increased supply security that gets more important in the market, also for sourcing from the OEMs. So this is why we think we can be here a little bit more successful than our regular competitors are.
Maybe one add-on question to make it really clear. The potential new competitors, for example, in China, are they reflected already in our 2030 sales target?
Yes, sure, they are in the global market view reflected. So we are not only growing in China. The growth that we plan for is evenly distributed over all regions.
And in China, especially, we do not expect an extraordinary growth in that region compared to the other regions. And also the market share gains that we plan for, they are not extraordinary because if you look on the applications that we do and if you compare it to overall automotive semiconductors . Overall automotive semiconductors is forecasted to grow around 6% until 2030 in a CAGR perspective, so every year. And the mixed signal things that we are doing is even growing 1% more in the forecasts of Standard & Poor's. So this is also fueling our growth and helping us to reach our targets.
Okay, thanks. One more question from Martin. "How would you compare the average content in an average hybrid car versus a BEV car?"
Well, I mean, the hybrids are big cars usually because only then hybridization makes sense.
And of course, you have all the kind of overhead of the internal combustion engine combined with an almost full EV car. But we have to keep in mind the hybrids will not be with us forever. So we will see a transition of the majority of the volume towards EV. So yes, we like the hybrids. There's a lot of content in there, but it's not to stay forever.
Okay, thank you, Arne. One more question from Martin. Also, again, regarding sales growth reflected in our 2030 target. "Looking at our midterm sales growth, the CAGR is around 9.5% until 2030. And when you look at the average content growth, it's around 8% and the global car production of 1.5%.
However, is it fair to assume that the underlying sensor market will grow slower than the automotive or the average automotive semi market, maybe due to power semis included in the automotive semi market growth? And would that imply, yeah, additional market share gains also in our sensor segments?
So I wouldn't agree to the fact that the sensor growth is weaker for the things that we target on. So we look on mixed-signal in total, and mixed-signal is not only for sensors. It is for sensors, but it's also for all kinds of actuators. If you look on motor controller, LED lighting, or stuff like that. And the total mixed-signal market, as I have already said in the answer for the last question, is forecasted to grow even 1% stronger than the overall automotive semiconductor demand.
So, also the sensors, we will see in some of the, for example, pressure sensing applications for safety, we will see quite a significant growth of ours, but it's not much, much stronger in taking over additional market share than the actuator part of our business. So it is a little bit similar, maybe 1%-2% different.
Okay, thank you very much. Now, question regarding China. Also, again, from Martin. "Could you help us to understand what is considered an Elmos China chip? Is the chip designed in China? Is it made by a Chinese foundry? Is it sold through a Chinese entity? Or everything above? What makes up an Elmos China chip?"
I'm happy to take that question, and thank you for that.
So it's a very interesting question because, as you know, in the semiconductor industry, for any country globally, it is very difficult to create a 100% IC. Even for the U.S., it's very difficult to do everything in their country. So when we talk about an Elmos China chip, or let's say you would rather call it an JiWeiCheng chip, we always say the vision is to increasingly have a higher local content in China. And as you know, it's much easier, for example, to move assembly or testing steps to China than to move to a Chinese foundry. We are doing all of the above. So please stay tuned on how we are progressing, but we do it certainly step by step as we feel this is the right approach to staying competitive in China.
Thanks, Burkhard. And another follow-up regarding China, also from Martin.
How do you assess the risk of a potential overcapacity in China? Because China is building a significant capacity specifically in lagging edge."
That's also a very good question. So since we are on the path to being fabless, I'm looking forward to, I guess the question was relating to foundry overcapacity. I think it would certainly help our negotiation situation. So I'm looking forward to that.
Okay, thanks. Then a question from Malte again regarding our non-automotive business. "Prospects in the non-automotive applications have not been a focus topic for Elmos. Should we expect going forward the same optimistic approach, or will it change significantly? Specifically also the amount or the share on our revenue, which is around 10%, will it change significantly in the future?"
Yes, exactly. It's around 10%, and we don't assume it will change significantly in the future.
There are a few industrial and consumer customers of ours that value the features that we can put in a chip, making it very reliable, very high voltage, and they have high-volume business. For such kind of opportunistic business, it makes sense, but from a strategic intent, we have no plan to extend our non-automotive share. We are focusing very much on the automotive growth applications that we are serving, and this is where we will deliver the growth.
Great, thanks, Jan. Question, I guess this is one for our new COO, for Patrick. "How did you manage, or how did Elmos manage to deliver better than the peers during the allocation?"
I mean, overall, it was a collaborative approach. It was pretty fast recognized that we have here a tremendous growth opportunity for the company.
And by then working together with our internal teams, with our supply partners, and as well by heavily investing to increase our available capacities, it was possible to basically, yeah, fulfill the real demands of our customers. And as I said during my presentation, it was possible by that in the end, Elmos was never the one stopping a production line. We were able to cater all demands in the right time.
Great. Thank you, Patrick. A question from Martin again to our financial model. "What level of tax do we, let's say, yeah, do we expect for our 2020-2030 target of our financial targets?" I think we mentioned that today already in the presentation.
We expect the tax level of approximately 27% and below.
Which is significantly lower than what we have today, so.
That's correct, yeah.
Great. Thank you. Another question.
I think this is again for Michael. As our Chief Product Officer, yeah, we heard that question sometime from our investors. "Is there a risk that ultrasonic sensors will be replaced or could be replaced by other sensors?" Like that's the typical Tesla approach. Do you see a significant risk here?
Thanks a lot for the question. It's indeed a very good question. And I think you are referring especially to Tesla because Tesla removed 2022 the ultrasonic sensors and was just using cameras instead. But what we saw is that a camera system has not the same reliability like ultrasonic system. And most of the Tesla customers were not really happy with that. And we do not see that other OEMs go the same path. Overall, we think that was a standalone approach by Tesla, and we still see a future for ultrasonic sensors.
Great. Thank you.
Another question from Malte. This one is on operational excellence. "What has been achieved so far in raising backend or testing efficiency, and what is the time frame in which Elmos intends to catch up to industry standards in terms of operational excellence or efficiency?"
Yeah, I'll start, and then I'll hand over to Patrick. So I believe we made a very promising start last year, a little bit this year, even more in getting our OEE, so our Overall Equipment Effectiveness up. That is good. We've shown in first pilots that we can achieve the level we want to have sustainably. Now we have to roll it out to a lot of sites, to a lot of different situations. Will for sure take another year or two until that is kind of in the broad field, but very promising results to start with.
Also on test time reduction, we are on plan for our reduction targets. When will it be fully in the field? I would say in probably 1.5 or 2 years. But adoption is gradual, right? So we are even making progress today as we speak. So we are quite happy with the situation, actually.
Thanks, Arne. We're moving from the cost of goods sold to the OpEx line. Question from Malte on our midterm margin target, which we have raised from 20% to 25%. "Shouldn't OpEx increase below the sales growth, facilitating an even better EBIT margin if our gross profit margin can be maintained at the mid-40s level?"
Yeah, well, this is, of course, in one aspect, right? You can be more aggressive in assuming more OpEx leverage.
However, I mean, we're talking about a target that is now beyond five years out, and we think that additional one or two points, you know us for a long time, if we put that on top of a target, it just would mean that we don't stop at the target line. We never did that. We won't do that this time. But we also think that a target should be balanced and take into account many possible developments of the world. So yes, there may be more OpEx leverage, but also maybe we want to spend some additional money, say, on a point of R&D if we have great opportunities, or maybe there's just a phase where that OpEx leverage is not immediately to be had. So we want to stay conservative with our targets. That's why we do not factor such implications into that target model.
All righty, thanks, Arne. Next question from Finn Kemper. Hello, Finn. "When talking about a reduced corporate tax rate, when do you expect to play this out? Could this be already the case as early H1 next year?"
Our new holding structures start as of 1st January 2025. Yeah, and that's also for our new tax rate.
Excellent. Thanks, Rita. Now we have three questions from Lukas Spang. Let me start with the first one. "Do you have a targeted free cash flow yield for the coming years? Is there a specific target for our free cash flow generation to sales ratio?"
Well, none that we will publish today. We do think we should have a gradual improvement towards being more in line with industry standards. We're already guided where CapEx should be.
We gave some indications where working capital should be, also on the tax rate where it should be. So we will not give an overall free cash flow yield guidance today. Maybe we save that for the next Investor Day. Let's see.
Excellent. Thanks. "How long will it take to reduce working capital to below 25% of sales?"
Well, we think this is going to be a midterm approach, probably something like 1.5 years- 2.5 years.
Okay, thanks. And the third question from Lukas. This is a question also regarding capital allocation. We have that multiple times, so maybe we ask it this time.
What is the current view on your EUR 56 million inflow at the end of the year, and what do you want to do with the money after the fab sale?" Generally, the question is, how do we want to allocate our money to the shareholders when we are cash richer?
Let me answer the question not only concerning the EUR 56 million we expect to receive from Littelfuse, but more generally the question of capital allocation. If we look at the past, we are quite pleased how we allocated capital. We did opportunistic buybacks. Looking back over these buybacks, I believe we got a lot of applause from the investor community for these buybacks because they were generally very much in favor of those that stayed and furthered our financial profile.
So if the time is right and if there's a great opportunity for an opportunistic buyback, we wouldn't rule it out. But you can't force these opportunities to happen, naturally. So we'll probably stay with that policy. You also cannot really force big M&A to happen. You heard today that we are, of course, actively looking. We don't want to miss out on targets. But this is nothing that you can plan for in specific quarters or even specific years. So I think with the money that we are more and more going to accumulate, there's in the end only one route left, which is dividends. It does not need to be all in one year. It can be a very conservative approach like we always do, but we are not going to sit on cash piles and wait for many years and nothing happens.
This is not what we intend, let me assure you.
Okay, thanks, Arne. Next question comes from Florian Sager. Another Chinese question. "Are we worried about corporate espionage when working with a Chinese foundry, and how do you plan to combat this issue?"
The typical way of working with a foundry is that you hand over design data for your chip. You could potentially do some kind of reverse engineering on those kinds of things, but you have the same opportunity if you just delay an existing chip. Just by manufacturing the chip inside China, you do not change that position at all. You need to keep your competitive advantage because when you put the chip in the fab, there are already two years of development passed by, so you have an advantage when you go to the market, and this must be the strategy.
Bring our innovations to the market early. This is what we are doing. Have a system advantage when we are selling these products for our customers and for OEMs. And this is where you create success.
Jan, thank you very much. Next question comes from Ken Hui. Great to have you with us. "Does your 2030 sales target fully depend on the 73% electric vehicle penetration we saw at the Standard & Poor's estimates?"
Yeah, so in some sense, you cannot completely base it on a closed model today already, how much electrification goes into that. We currently see that everybody's stepping a little bit on the brake with regards to electrification. Platforms of major OEMs are coming later than expected. Software development in this complex system takes time. And we have been careful with what we have forecasted there.
We do not expect everything will come in time, and electrification will come in the full extent that it maybe was planned a year ago. We have been more conservative with our model there.
Thanks, Jan. Next question from Jean-Marc Mueller. A question on our net working capital ratio. We mentioned that we might target a ratio around 25%. That means based on EUR 1 billion of sales, net working capital of maximum of EUR 250 million. That's basically the same level in absolute amount as of today, but with EUR 400 million higher sales. This seems very ambitious, especially when you look at the growth in Asia, where payment terms in China are very long, longer than in Europe. What is our strategy here? How do we want to achieve this reduction to, yeah, a more industry level of 25%?
Let me first comment on the little aspect of the payment terms in China. It's not that the Chinese actually always accept long payment terms. If I look at Chinese wafer foundries, for instance, they take quite European payment terms also from all of their Chinese customers. So be aware, only because there are certain examples you will find with long payment terms, it does not have to be the norm. And we also do not accept that with our Chinese customers. Is well below 25% now aggressive, or is it not aggressive? Well, if we look at peers, it's not really aggressive. It's just coming down to what most of our peers can do. You have to see that today's level of net working capital is, of course, inflated at the end of the allocation period, which is a very normal behavior.
Of course, it would go down even in the normal course of business. And yes, you're right. We want to reduce it a little further based on an improved logistics process and certain optimization measures. But I think below 25% is actually not aggressive. Well below 20%, I would concede that that is aggressive. But below 25%, I believe is very reasonable.
Okay, thank you, Arne. Another question from Finn from Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe. Question regarding pricing. Very important topic these days. "How do you expect pricing to evolve to support our midterm guidance, or do we anticipate potential headwinds in terms of pricing?"
So currently, we see a lot of price pressure in the market, but the cost position for our players stays quite high.
So in our model, we have expected that the price down the next years will return on similar levels, so similar yearly reduction rates it has been before the actual chip crisis. So for sure, we will not see a significant drop in the price level because the cost level is still very high. And in one of the questions that was also asked about the capacity in China, well, the overall capacity for mixed signal nodes, it has not grown on a global perspective. It has grown a little bit in China, but just a few single percentage. And if you assume the growth that we have presented also for the mixed signal overall market, this will outgrow the capacity one day again.
Supply security will stay important, and we are very much convinced that the supply secure suppliers that deliver high quality into automotive semiconductors can maintain reasonable pricing levels.
Great, thanks. Next question from Lukas Spang. "How gradual do we expect your growth path until 2030? How do we factor in the more modest growth next year?"
Yeah, honestly, we cannot guide you or give you individual years right now. We also see that next year may be more modest, but it's way too early to give a guidance for the year 2025. So I'm sorry, we can't provide a detailed path year- by- year, ideally quarter -by- quarter, of course, on the way towards 2030. This is beyond our means.
Okay, thanks. Next question from Lukas Cinikas from Bank Pekao. Good to have you with us, Lukas.
The question is, "Do we see a threat to our market growth or to overall market growth dynamics due to a possible reduction in semiconductor content because vehicle needs to get cheaper, because there's a lot of price pressure specifically for, let's say, volume EVs in China?"
What we've seen in the past, actually, when there was a kind of vehicle or number of vehicles crisis, that a lot of OEs rather increased the semiconductor share because these are the innovative features that everyone wants. So if you want to sell a car, you typically throw in extras into the mix to still sell the car and to sell it still at a reasonable margin. It's usually not a good strategy to sell cars that are very much stripped down, and then in the end, you only sell kind of the very base structure of a car.
Most OEMs actually follow the exact opposite route. If they want to push sales, they add more features and do that at an attractive price to the customer, which you can understand because some of these extras that, for instance, we in Europe pay for, the pricing is not purely based on cost.
Okay, thank you, Arne. Next question comes from Alexander Lippert. Hello, Mr. Lippert. How are you? Your question: "Is your 9% growth CAGR until 2030 based on the assumption that Elmos has an outperformance versus the global light vehicle production?"
Well, versus the global light vehicle production, certainly. A little bit maybe also versus one or another peer, but that is much less pronounced.
Okay, thanks. Another question from Harald Schnitzer. "One of the most important success factors for a company is the HR policy. Can you shortly explain a little bit the HR philosophy at Elmos?"
"Oh, this is, of course, a very broad question, and yes, of course, every company hugely depends on the contributions of all employees. At Elmos, I believe we have a culture that is very strong of contributing, of pushing until success is there, of taking on a task, taking on responsibility, and we search for that in the candidates that we hire. Elmos goes to quite some lengths to promote internal candidates and make internal candidates ready for the next level of leadership, but we also look outside because as a small company, it is good if we kind of have a mixture of internal and external talent and get new ideas from other industry players because maybe one or two people go from one company to another company.
So I think we have a balanced HR policy, investing very much in the people that are there, but also looking to integrate talent. And one strength of the Elmos culture is to bring own people up, but also to integrate talent from the outside without prejudice. We've shown that time and again, and it's a great strength.
Okay, thank you, Arne. Just a short reminder, we have two more questions in the pipeline. So if you want to ask your question, please type your question into the chat box or ask your question via video conference. So one question of the last two comes from Christoph Grebert. It says, "To what extent does your midterm sales planning change if the penetration of electric vehicles will stay on the same level as of today?" This is the first part of the question. So no involving penetration of EVs.
That is an interesting question because it would assume that not only Europe stays on the same level and scraps all the CO2 targets that we ever had, but also China stays on the same level such that kind of globally we can stay on the same level. So it does not seem to be a very likely scenario, but it is a scenario that would certainly cut off a little bit of our sales guidance, however, not a huge extent because what that means is that we cannot wait for the EVs to take over new EE architectures. In that scenario where we have almost or little EVs in this world, the combustion engine cars would have to switch at large to being software-defined vehicles.
All the other parts of the innovation would have to happen then mostly in the combustion engine cars because these are the only ones around. So this scenario has second and third level implications, I believe. A little bit, we would be hurt in growth, but not to a huge degree.
Okay, and basically the same scenario in terms of autonomous driving level when it will stay on Level 2 or 3 as it stays today, so no progression in autonomous driving?
So our growth model does not expect that we have a very significant part of fully autonomous cars, Level 4 or 5. It is planned with the business that we have won and that we will win in Level 2, 2+ , and a little bit Level 3 . So it's not dependent on getting really fully autonomous cars,
And a follow-up here. Do we believe in Level 4 or 5 autonomous driving?
Yes, of course we do. Of course we do. I've just been to San Francisco. We've been to China. You can experience Level 4 or 5 autonomous driving today only in selected areas with selected cars. So scaling that to be an affordable feature in 80% of the world and on most streets, this is a journey that is long and potentially stony. But we can see autonomous driving today. Go through San Francisco, see the Waymo's, and marvel at the fact that there is no driver behind the wheel, nor at the kind of passenger or navigator seat next to it. So you could say, "Yes, we're there. We have autonomous driving." And this is true for very select areas in China and very select areas of the United States.
Okay, last question comes from, again, Jean-Marc Mueller. Is there a special incentive program for the management to achieve the 2030 targets? A special program?"
This is, of course, a very valid and great suggestion. We'll pass it on immediately, but no, there isn't right now. We do have, as you know, elements of our compensation that are share price-based, and I believe this more links to one or another, right? And there's also earnings-based and maybe in the future cash flow-based targets that we could envision. So it all kind of interlinks, but on the year 2030 in particular and these targets in that year, there will also be a lot of intermediate targets until we get there. and I believe it's good that there are a lot of intermediate targets and not only one kind of target at the end of a period.
Okay, so yeah, a couple of questions are dropping in.
One more from Lukas from Bank Pekao. "Does the company focus its potential M&A targets specifically or only on the automotive segment, or do we not rule out entering into other areas as well?"
No, we don't rule out entering into other areas, particularly via M&A, because actually building an area where you have little competence organically from scratch usually involves risk and pain. Doing it via a significant M&A transaction is maybe the only realistic way to, in the short or medium term, add another non-automotive area. However, it would still have to fit our design philosophy. It would have to be a market where it's long-lived products, products with very high specs. No, we don't rule that out. We're very interested. It could be an attractive way to do non-automotive business. However, it has to be a good target and everything said before.
Okay, another question from Christoph Gebert. "Would it have a negative impact on Elmos if German OEMs lose further market share to Chinese OEMs?"
Our market share is quite evenly spread. Also, our growth targets are quite evenly spread. In the end, I would say there is not a big difference between who in the end is really producing the car and in which region. As long as the total number of cars is not massively impacted by such kind of topics, that means we do not worry too much. We think that especially the cars which show very high take rate of our applications that we focus on are not only being built or decided here in Europe and maybe even in Germany, but for sure also in China. China is becoming the lead market for some applications.
Okay, thank you, Jan.
Last question right now from Lukas Spang again. "Is the EUR 1 billion revenue target fully organic, or does it also include M&A activities?"
Well, today it's based on organic growth, but as I said, we're happy to take M&A on top of that.
Okay, thanks, Arne. So far, we have no more questions pending. One more reminder, if you want to ask questions, please type it in or ask it via video communication. Maybe we wait a couple of more seconds. We had many questions so far. A lot of interesting questions, good answers. So nothing more? Okay, yeah, we have no more questions. So ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the Q&A session. Thank you very much again. Very, very good questions, a lot of questions, and thanks for your active participation. Yeah, this is the end of our 2024 Capital Markets Day.
I would like to thank you for your participation and your many questions. Many thanks, of course, to all of our EEC members for the exciting insights you shared with us today, and of course, special thanks to my IR team and of course for all the internal and external members of the organization team for hosting a great event. Yeah, we hope we could provide you with a lot of valuable information about our future potential and our ambitious goals. Once again, thank you very much for participating today. I hope to see you soon on one of the upcoming investor conferences. Yeah, that's all from us here. Goodbye from Dortmund. Bye-bye. Take care.