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LiDAR was once a technology used only in some high-tech industries. Now, with the development of the new energy vehicle industry, it has become a rapidly growing sector in the automotive supply chain. Recently, a number of automotive LiDAR supply chain companies announced their performance in the first half of 2024, and all achieved gratifying results.

In the first half of this year, RoboSense ranked first with 235,511 units installed, accounting for 40.3% of the market share. Huawei Technologies followed closely behind with 143,862 units installed and a market share of 24.6%. Hesai Technology and Tudatong ranked third and fourth with 116,439 and 86,972 units installed, respectively, with market shares of 19.9% ​​and 14.9%.

RoboSense, Huawei, and Hesai ranked the top three

On August 15, RoboSense released its interim performance report for 2024. In the first half of 2024, RoboSense achieved a total revenue of 727 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of approximately 121.0%; among which, the revenue of ADAS LiDAR products was approximately 610 million yuan, a significant increase of 314.6% compared with approximately 150 million yuan in the same period of 2023.

In the first half of the year, RoboSense achieved a gross profit of 98.6 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 670.3%, and the gross profit margin increased to 13.6%, an increase of nearly 10 percentage points; the adjusted net loss was about 200 million yuan, a year-on-year narrowing of 17%. RoboSense pointed out that with the continued expansion of the mass production scale of ADAS LiDAR, it is expected that the overall gross profit margin will further improve in the second half of this year.

In the first half of 2024, RoboSense's total sales of LiDARs reached about 243,400 units, a significant year-on-year increase of 415.7%, approaching last year's total sales. Among them, the sales of automotive LiDARs were about 234,500 units, a year-on-year growth rate of 487.7%. As of June 30, 2024, RoboSense has sold a total of 583,500 LiDARs, of which 518,300 were automotive LiDARs.

The industry's largest scale comes from RoboSense's huge customer list. As of June 30, 2024, RoboSense has accumulated mass production orders for 80 models from 22 vehicle manufacturers and Tier 1s.

In the first half of the year, RoboSense received 17 additional orders for mass production of vehicle models and started large-scale mass production and delivery of 5 new models. RoboSense has performed well in the automotive LiDAR market this year and continued its leading position in the industry. Thanks to the high performance of its ADAS LiDAR products and the continued hot sales of multiple models, RoboSense has achieved significant growth in key indicators such as sales, market share, and customer base.

On August 8, BYD's first laser radar model and the first sedan of the e platform 3.0 Evo, the "2025 Seal", was officially launched, equipped with a laser radar from RoboSense. In addition, the second-generation AION V Aion Tyrannosaurus Rex and the new Zeekr 009 will also be launched in the second half of the year, and RoboSense will also be selected as the laser radar supplier.

Huawei's strength should not be underestimated

Huawei, which ranks second, mainly relies on its own production and sales of models such as the M7, M9, S7, Avita 11, and Avita 12. Huawei's strength should not be underestimated as it can achieve such a scale by relying solely on its own brand to achieve installation. However, Huawei did not disclose other revenue data.

In fact, similar to Huawei is Tudatong, which ranks fourth in installed capacity. Tudatong also mainly supplies the single brand NIO.

Hesai Technology, which ranks third in terms of installed capacity, announced its unaudited financial data for the second quarter of 2024 on August 20. In this quarter, Hesai Technology achieved revenue of RMB 460 million, a year-on-year increase of 4.2%; the global total delivery volume of LiDAR was 86,526 units, a year-on-year increase of 66.1%; among which the global delivery volume of ADAS products was 80,773 units, a year-on-year increase of 76.8%.

In the first half of 2024, Hesai's total laser radar delivery volume was 145,627 units, a year-on-year increase of 67.5%; among them, the global total delivery volume of ADAS products was 133,235 units, a year-on-year increase of 80.3%. As of the second quarter of 2024, Hesai has reached mass production cooperation with 19 domestic and foreign automobile manufacturers for more than 70 models.

It is worth mentioning that Hesai Technology's user base has a strong growth momentum. At present, Ideal, Leapmotor, and Xiaomi are Hesai's main customers. In the first half of this year, Hesai Technology also added several new models of Leapmotor.

It is worth mentioning that in the second quarter of this year, the combined gross profit margin of Hesai Technology's ADAS business and Robotaxi business was 45.1%, and the company's overall gross profit was about RMB 210 million. Hesai Technology CEO Li Yifan said that Hesai's quarterly gross profit exceeded RMB 200 million (about US$28.5 million), which is almost three times the gross profit of the second largest listed company in the global LiDAR industry.

There are still a lot of opportunities in the lidar market

Judging from the financial data of each company, LiDAR companies have not yet made a profit. All LiDAR companies are still waiting for the critical point of profitability brought by economies of scale.

However, the new changes in the smart driving market this year have brought more opportunities for LiDAR companies to make profits. On the one hand, high-end smart driving is constantly breaking through, and end-to-end high-end is constantly being mentioned by various car companies and has begun to be tried on a large scale. On the other hand, equal rights for smart driving are also gradually being mentioned, and it has become a trend to equip models within 200,000 yuan with LiDAR. All of these will continue to promote the increase in the distribution of LiDAR products.

At the same time, there are also a wide range of overseas markets to be broken through. We can also see from the data of RoboSense and Hesai Technology that they both have cooperation plans with overseas car companies. In fact, for LiDAR companies, although the biggest opportunity comes from the rapid development of automotive intelligence, non-automotive industries can also provide many opportunities, such as the robotics field, which is becoming a hot spot for intelligence.

Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter Hu Xiong

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