The EtherCAT success saga goes on: The EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) now announces approximately 88 million EtherCAT nodes deployed globally. Even if the growth rate from recent years cannot be sustained due to the present global economic situation and the repercussions of chip overstocking, the outcome is remarkable: an additional 11 million EtherCAT nodes were included in 2024 – an excellent achievement in a tough market landscape.
These node figures are highly dependable since they rely on real chip sales data, which chip manufacturers report to Beckhoff Automation, the creator of EtherCAT technology. “And they are not inclined to inflate these numbers, as that would lead to extra expenses for them,” states Martin Rostan, Executive Director of the EtherCAT Technology Group. With EtherCAT, the technology license is embedded directly in the chip, eliminating extra license fees for device manufacturers and users. Beckhoff utilizes the license income to support the efforts of the EtherCAT Technology Group and, consequently, the ecosystem associated with the technology.
The count of EtherCAT devices based on FPGA, which can only be approximated, stays an unpredictable element when determining the number of nodes. “We estimate that these implementations represent approximately 10% of the overall total.” “The number is likely much greater, but we are purposefully cautious in our assessment,” Rostan adds. Multi-protocol chips are considered as well, but only in proportion to the market share of EtherCAT among the specific manufacturers.
In spite of ongoing global economic difficulties, EtherCAT is poised for strong growth and reaffirms its dominant position in industrial communication with the release of these new node statistics.