XHSC Partners with Puhua Basic Software: Building a 'Chip + Software' Ecosystem for Domestic Automotive Electronics
XHSC and Puhua Basic Software have announced a strategic partnership to deeply collaborate on domestic automotive MCUs and AUTOSAR-compliant basic software platforms, jointly delivering a full-stack domestic automotive electronics solution from silicon to software. This marks a significant milestone in China's automotive electronics supply chain localization.
The 'Silicon' and 'Soul' of Automotive Electronics
In the smart vehicle era, a mid-to-high-end passenger car now carries over 200 MCUs—up from just a few dozen—spanning body control, chassis safety, powertrain, and smart cockpit domains. Yet automotive MCUs demand not only hardware reliability and functional safety compliance (ISO 26262 ASIL-B/D), but also deeply adapted foundational software stacks—particularly AUTOSAR-compliant MCAL (Microcontroller Abstraction Layer) and operating systems.
For years, the automotive MCU 'chip + software' ecosystem has been tightly controlled by global giants such as Renesas, NXP, Infineon, and STMicroelectronics. While domestic automotive MCUs have gradually caught up in hardware performance, the missing software ecosystem has remained the core bottleneck preventing large-scale adoption in automotive OEM markets.
In April 2026, the XHSC-Puhua partnership aims to break this deadlock.
Partnership Deep Dive
Puhua Basic Software, a subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group (CETC), is one of the few domestic companies with complete AUTOSAR CP (Classic Platform) development capabilities. Its AUTOSAR OS and MCAL solutions have already passed mass-production validation across multiple OEM projects.
The collaboration spans these core dimensions:
- Joint MCAL Development: delivering complete AUTOSAR MCAL driver packages for XHSC automotive-grade MCUs (such as the HC32A series), covering all in-vehicle peripherals including ADC, PWM, CAN, LIN, and SPI
- Functional Safety Collaboration: joint pursuit of ISO 26262 ASIL-B/D certification, delivering a complete software stack compliant with functional safety requirements
- Reference Design Co-Development: building reference designs for typical applications—body domain controllers, HVAC controllers, seat controllers—based on XHSC MCUs and Puhua's AUTOSAR platform
- Ecosystem Promotion: joint solution promotion and technical training targeting Tier-1 suppliers and OEMs
An 'Accelerator' for Domestic Automotive Electronics Substitution
With cumulative MCU shipments exceeding 100 million units—a substantial portion already in automotive aftermarket and quasi-OEM applications—XHSC's partnership with Puhua fills the critical AUTOSAR software ecosystem gap, enabling its automotive MCUs to compete with international vendors on a level playing field.
At the industry level, this 'chip + software' deep collaboration model represents the essential path toward supply chain self-sufficiency in China's automotive electronics sector. We expect to see more such cross-domain partnerships over the next 2-3 years, collectively driving domestic automotive MCU penetration in OEM markets from below 5% today to above 15%.
Hengsen Technology Perspective
As a key distribution partner of XHSC, Hengsen Technology views this partnership with great anticipation. As the domestic automotive MCU software ecosystem matures, we will be able to offer automotive electronics customers a more complete solution—not just chip selection and supply, but also AUTOSAR software integration support, functional safety consulting, and reference design services.
Customers with automotive electronics localization needs are welcome to contact the Hengsen Technology team. Together with XHSC and Puhua Basic Software, we will provide comprehensive support.
Sources: XHSC, Sina Finance, Guancha.cn