Driven By Environmental Protection And Performance, Brake Pad Industry Undergoes Structural Upgrade - Shandong Huaruifeng Leads Composite Material Innovation
With the national standard GB/T 46581-2025 "Road Vehicles - Brake Lining Friction Materials - Test Method for Wear Particle Emission" set to officially implement on May 1, 2026, China's brake pad industry is ushering in a structural transformation centered on environmental upgrading and material iteration. As a backbone enterprise in Shandong's auto parts industrial cluster, Shandong Huaruifeng Machinery Co., Ltd. has taken the lead in deploying a product matrix of low-emission and high-performance brake pads relying on its technical accumulation in composite materials, boosting the industry's transition towards greenization and high-endization.
Policy Drives Industrial Upgrade, Environmental Protection Becomes Core Threshold
The upcoming national standard for the first time clarifies the quantitative testing requirements for brake pad wear particles, filling the gap in domestic brake emission testing and marking the extension of China's brake pad industry supervision from safety performance to a dual dimension of "safety + environmental protection". In fact, the tightening of environmental regulations worldwide has become the core driving force for industrial transformation - the EU Brake Emissions Directive 2012/24/EU requires a 40% reduction in brake dust emissions for new vehicle models, while China's green manufacturing policies under the "dual carbon" goal have further accelerated the elimination of traditional high-pollution products.
Data shows that by the end of 2025, the national civil motor vehicle ownership reached 366 million, including over 28 million new energy vehicles (NEVs) with a market penetration rate exceeding 45%. The regenerative braking system of NEVs reduces the frequency of friction braking by 30%-50%, but at the same time places more stringent requirements on the heat resistance, corrosion resistance and friction stability of brake pads. Traditional asbestos-based and ordinary metal-based brake pads can no longer meet market demands. Against this backdrop, new material brake pads such as non-asbestos organic (NAO), ceramic-based, and carbon-ceramic composites have become the industry mainstream. The market share of ceramic-based brake pads rose to 18% in 2025, nearly doubling compared with 2021.
Technological Innovation Restructures Competitive Landscape, Shandong Enterprises Highlight Industrial Advantages
As a core safety component of automotive braking systems, the technological upgrading of brake pads is directly related to driving safety and ecological protection. Leveraging the cluster advantage of Shandong's auto parts industry with an output value of over 300 billion yuan, Shandong Huaruifeng Machinery Co., Ltd. focuses on composite material R&D and has formed a full-scenario product system covering passenger cars, commercial vehicles and NEVs. The company's independently developed ceramic-based composite brake pads adopt an alumina fiber and modified resin composite system, which can maintain a stable friction coefficient of 0.4 even at a high temperature of 800℃, with a dust emission as low as 0.1g/km and a service life 2-3 times longer than traditional metal-based products. These products have passed the EU EN 15081-2 standard certification, with a recycled fiber utilization rate of 28%, exceeding international green requirements.
Targeting the braking characteristics of NEVs, Shandong Huaruifeng has specially optimized the low-wear formula, solving industry pain points such as brake pad rust and jitter by adding graphene-modified fillers. The products are compatible with mainstream NEV models such as BYD and NIO, and the pre-installation supporting share continues to rise. In the commercial vehicle sector, the company's R&D metal-based composite brake pads have a thermal fade temperature of over 500℃, and their wear resistance meets the high-frequency braking needs of heavy-duty trucks with an annual mileage of 150,000 kilometers, which have been widely used in domestic logistics fleets and engineering vehicles.
Steady Expansion of Market Scale, Structural Opportunities Emerge
Industry data shows that China's brake pad market size reached 26.8 billion yuan in 2025 and is expected to grow to 39 billion yuan by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.8%. The core driving forces for market growth come from three aspects: first, the aftermarket replacement demand brought by the continuous increase in vehicle ownership, with the annual replacement volume of passenger car brake pads expected to reach 260 million sets by 2030; second, the rapid expansion of the NEV segment market, whose brake pad market size is expected to achieve a CAGR of 20.4% and exceed 2.8 billion yuan by 2030; third, consumption upgrading driving the penetration rate of mid-to-high-end products, with the utilization rate of ceramic-based brake pads in the passenger car market above 250,000 yuan already exceeding 60%.
In terms of regional markets, East China and South China contribute nearly 60% of the national consumption. As a major province in the auto parts industry, Shandong is accelerating its transformation towards high-endization relying on the industrial advantages of material R&D and intelligent manufacturing. The general manager of Shandong Huaruifeng Machinery Co., Ltd. stated that the company will seize the opportunities brought by the implementation of national standards and the development of NEVs, continue to increase R&D investment, promote the industrial application of copper-free environmental protection formulas and bio-based materials, and expand overseas markets relying on the "Belt and Road" Initiative, helping Shandong's auto parts industrial cluster move towards a scale of 500 billion yuan.
Industry experts point out that with the rigid constraints of environmental policies and the continuous empowerment of technological innovation, the brake pad industry will accelerate the elimination of low-end production capacity, forming a new competitive pattern of "material innovation + scenario adaptation + green manufacturing". Enterprises with core technologies and large-scale production capabilities such as Shandong Huaruifeng are expected to seize opportunities in the restructuring of the global supply chain, promoting China's brake pad industry from a "manufacturing power" to a "manufacturing powerhouse".
