Kasai GroupThe company, one of the world's top manufacturers of lidar sensors used in smart cars, has set its sights on Europe, boosting efforts to make once-expensive components more affordable for customers.

The Shanghai-based company is seriously considering building a factory outside of mainland China to take advantage of the accelerating transition of the global auto industry, said co-founder and CEO said David Lee Yifan.

He did not provide details of the company's overseas investment plans, but said: “In the long term, we plan to carry out further development outside China, mainly in Europe.”

Hesai is counted as a customer lee autoGeely Automobile, China's largest domestic luxury electric car manufacturer and owner of Volvo Cars, uses laser beams to measure distance and generate highly accurate two- or three-dimensional maps of objects around the car. We manufacture riders that
Hesai's long range auto rider – AT128.Photo: Handout

Six out of every 10 new electric vehicles (EVs) around the world are now sold in mainland China, and industry observers believe lidar is an essential component in the development of fully autonomous vehicles.

On Friday, Hesai released a product based on ATX technology. Advanced driving assistance system It has longer detection range, higher resolution and wider field of view.

According to Hesai, ATX can identify conditions such as rain, fog, and exhaust gas in real time at the pixel level and eliminate over 99 percent of environmental noise.

“Given ATX's versatility, we believe that ATX will have a significant impact on LIDAR adoption,” said Li. “We have always been passionate about designing and building products for the global market.”

Hesai wants to make the lidar as affordable as possible, he added.

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Baidu receives permission to provide fully unmanned robotaxis service in Beijing

Baidu receives permission to provide fully unmanned robotaxis service in Beijing

In 2019, Tesla's Elon Musk dismissed it as a “fool's errand” due to high manufacturing costs, but since Chinese EV maker Xpeng produced the world's first lidar-guided smart vehicle in late 2021. , riders are booming and the market is growing.

Lee said the cost of lidar sensors has fallen over the past few years from thousands of dollars to now hundreds of dollars.

“We are moving towards having lidar in every passenger vehicle.”

According to the Shenzhen-based High Public Intelligent Vehicle Research Institute, about 440,000 EVs sold in mainland China last year at a price of more than 150,000 yuan (US$20,719) were equipped with lidar sensors. This accounted for 10.4% of the total.

Penetration is expected to jump to 16% this year, which could equate to about 1 million devices, the institute said.

Sensor maker achieves record profits as Chinese EV maker introduces self-driving cars

“As production volume increases, production costs can be lowered, so the demand for lidar sensors will increase and prices will fall,” said Chen Jinzhu, CEO of consultancy Shanghai Mingliang Automotive Service. “Top players will benefit the most from wider use of riders.”

Hesai, which raised US$190 million through a Nasdaq listing in February 2023, reported a net loss of 476 million yuan last year, widening by 58% from 2022.

Sales increased by 56.1% from the previous year to 1.9 billion yuan, and the number of vehicles delivered increased by 176.1% to 222,116 units.

Localizing production in developed markets like Europe is also seen as an effective workaround for Chinese EV assemblers and supply chain vendors. Customs duties may increase.

Last September, the European Commission launched an investigation into foreign government subsidies and is expected to impose tariffs on Chinese-made EVs at a standard tax rate of more than 10%.



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