The wave of universal intelligent driving has begun, and the lidar solution, which has been overshadowed by pure vision solutions in recent years, has experienced a "second spring".
On March 11, the financial report released by LiDAR company Hesai Technology showed that its revenue in 2024 reached 2.08 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.7%; the annual LiDAR shipments exceeded 500,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 126%.
Among them, the delivery volume of ADAS lidar reached 456,000 units, while Ideal L series and Xiaomi SU7 contributed more than 330,000 orders.
The day after the financial report was released, Hesai's stock price soared 50.41% in a single day. This was not only due to its rapid performance last year. On the same day, Reuters quoted sources as saying that a top European automaker was considering Hesai as its global LiDAR supplier. It was speculated that the automaker was Mercedes-Benz.
The rapid iteration of China's lidar industry has made it difficult for overseas competitors to catch up. The average unit price of Hesai's products has dropped sharply from 35,869 yuan/unit in the second quarter of 2022 to 4,023 yuan/unit in the third quarter of 2024, a drop of nearly 90%. Domestic manufacturers such as Huawei and RoboSense have reduced the price of ADAS lidar to the 2,600 yuan range through technological innovation.
The falling prices of hardware such as LiDAR have directly promoted the penetration of intelligent driving functions into low-priced models. Since the beginning of this year, the Leapmotor B10 has been equipped with a standard LiDAR at a price of 130,000 yuan, while the price of GAC Toyota Platinum 3X has dropped to the 140,000 yuan range. Changan Automobile even plans to equip its 100,000 yuan models with this technology.
The dual benefits of technology and policy are expected to usher in a period of explosive growth for smart driving.
A research report by Guotai Junan Securities pointed out that global shipments of automotive lidar are expected to exceed 3 million units in 2025.
