LeadDrive x SemiDrive x IAR

LeadDrive: Staying at the forefront of the industry  

LeadDrive focuses on NEV powertrain R&D, delivering integrated e-drives, power modules, and power/chassis domain controllers to both domestic and global OEMs. The company has achieved miniaturization, cost optimization, and functional safety compliance while successfully transitioning to Chinese MCU platforms. Backed by strong R&D and testing capabilities, LeadDrive continues to set industry benchmarks. 

Key challenges in MCU-level migration 

As high-end Chinese automotive MCUs emerged, LeadDrive selected SemiDrive’s E3 MCUs after thorough evaluation. This MCU-level migration required a high-performance toolchain from IAR to enable smooth adaptation and efficient development. LeadDrive integrated MCAL drivers, ported platform code, and ensured compute optimization and functional safety compliance. China’s tight “time-to-market” cycles made toolchain performance, compatibility, and local support critical for mass production. Adaptability, certification readiness, and service quality were equally essential for success. 

SemiDrive E3: A new choice for high-end automotive-grade MCUs 

SemiDrive’s E3 MCUs, built on Arm Cortex-R (R5/R52+) cores, target critical automotive applications with strong compute performance, real-time capability, and ASIL-D functional safety. As an early partner, IAR provides optimized toolchains, functional safety certification support, and localized services. Together, IAR and SemiDrive have enabled multiple customer projects, paving the way for broader adoption of Chinese high-end MCUs in safety-critical domains. 

“Through long-term cooperation with IAR, we have delivered reliable toolchain support and localized services for customer development on the E3 platform. The success with LeadDrive showcases the reliability and value of Chinese high-end automotive MCUs in demanding applications. SemiDrive and IAR will continue to collaborate closely on ecosystem development, toolchain optimization, and functional safety compliance, building a sustainable automotive ecosystem.” 

— Zhang Xitong, GM for MCU Product Line, SemiDrive 

Why LeadDrive chose IAR 

When LeadDrive evaluated a new project with SemiDrive in 2022, it selected the IAR platform for several core reasons: 

• Multi-architecture support & ecosystem fit: Supports Arm, RISC-V, and other architectures, with deep adaptation for global and Chinese automotive MCUs and AUTOSAR vendor cooperation. 

• Complete IDE: Industry-leading compiler, debugger, comprehensive IDE, and VS Code extensions. 

• Functional safety certified: TÜV SÜD certified toolchains meet ISO 26262, speeding functional safety development and certification. 

• Built-in code quality tools: Integrated static code analysis tool (C-STAT) and runtime code analysis tool (C-RUN) enable early checks without complex setup. 

• Local professional support: A dedicated China team including account managers, FAEs, and post-sales customer support engineers, ensuring fast and precise support. Chinese-language technical content, a localized website, WeChat resources, and regular online training, all designed to simplify adoption and keep projects moving forward.  
  

IAR’s support in LeadDrive’s project 

IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm (Functional Safety edition) served as the core toolchain for LeadDrive’s SemiDrive E3 projects. The IDE’s full functionality and integrated code analysis tools helped detect defects early, significantly improving software stability. 

Together with SemiDrive’s MCAL drivers, IAR provided lifecycle support, including technical Q&A, version guidance, and training, ensuring deep toolchain integration with LeadDrive’s software architecture and smooth mass production. This “tools + MCU + application” collaboration accelerated the adoption of Chinese MCU platforms in NEV dual-motor controllers. 

LeadDrive praised IAR for outstanding tool performance, leadership in functional safety compliance, and a highly professional, responsive local support team that solved development issues efficiently. 

“Working with SemiDrive and IAR has been a strategic move for our technology upgrades and for staying competitive in a fast-moving market. IAR provided a stable, high-performance toolchain and, with its strong ecosystem adaptation, enabled seamless migration and rapid development on SemiDrive’s MCU platform. The professional, responsive local service team greatly improved our efficiency and problem-resolution speed. Looking ahead, we will move beyond single-tool procurement toward joint technology development, ecosystem co-creation, and shared compliance—addressing industry challenges together with intelligent toolchains and flexible commercial models.” 

— Yu Hao, Chief Software Engineer, LeadDrive 

Customer benefits 

By combining SemiDrive’s powerful MCUs with IAR’s certified toolchains and local expertise, LeadDrive turned a complex migration into a clear competitive advantage. The collaboration delivered clear, measurable outcomes: 

• Higher development efficiency: Supports platform-based architecture, reducing repetitive work. 

• Better code quality: Enables early detection and fixes, improving stability and reliability. 

• Faster time-to-market: Lowers overall development costs and ensures on-time mass production and delivery. 
  

“IAR is committed to driving innovation in automotive development. We see a growing need among OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers for platform-based toolchains that combine project management, code editing, compiling, debugging, and functional safety certification in a single workflow. LeadDrive’s success with IAR’s functional safety solution is a strong showcase for the industry. We will continue investing in this area to help more companies tackle complexity and safety challenges, and to co-create a robust development ecosystem with our partners.” 

— Kiyo Uemura, APAC Vice President, IAR