Hesai Group, the world’s largest maker of the lidar sensors that many smart cars use to map their surroundings, remains confident about expanding into international markets including Europe despite tensions about tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars.
The company is assessing investment plans outside mainland China as seeks to make its lidar sensors more affordable to global customers, Andrew Fan, chief financial officer of the Shanghai-based company, told the Post.
“We will actively expand abroad,” he said. “Hesai will build itself into an international firm with footprints across the globe.”
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Hesai is the latest major Chinese firm in the automotive supply chain to push ahead with global expansion after the US and European Union (EU) slapped additional tariffs on the country’s electric vehicles (EVs). In October, StarCharge, the mainland’s second-largest provider of charging equipment for EVs, signed an agreement with French group Schneider Electric to form a venture in Europe to drive electrification on the continent’s roads.
“Technological innovation efforts, rising production volume and efficient cost control have made lidar sensors more reliable and affordable to customers,” Fan said. “It is certain that the component will be widely adopted by car assemblers as smart driving is further developed.”
Short for “light detection and ranging”, lidar sensors use lasers to measure the distance to objects. Smart cars can use this data to build highly accurate maps of their surroundings. Tesla’s Elon Musk dismissed the technology as a “fool’s errand” in 2019 due to high production costs, and Tesla vehicles use cameras instead. Nevertheless, lidar has boomed, with the market growing since Chinese EV maker Xpeng produced the world’s first lidar-guided smart vehicle in late 2021.
Hesai expects to reduce the cost of the sensors to about US$200 per unit from thousands of dollars five years ago as production volume surges, Fan said. The firm counts among its clients Li Auto, mainland China’s largest domestic maker of premium electric cars, and Geely, owner of Volvo Cars.
Long-range lidar sensors made by Hesai. Photo: Handout alt=Long-range lidar sensors made by Hesai. Photo: Handout>
In the quarter that ended in September, Hesai’s shipments of lidar sensors shot up 220 per cent year on year to 129,913. Total shipments in the first nine months jumped 108.2 per cent to 279,835.
