In 2025, net profit of 436 million yuan achieved a turnaround, with a slight decline in gross profit margin. Hesai Technology still faces pressure behind its profitability.

Chinatimes.net.cn reporter Yu Jianping, intern reporter Tian Ye, Beijing

On March 24, 2026, Hesai Technology released its full-year 2025 performance report. The data shows the company’s total revenue reached 3.028 billion yuan, a 45.8% increase year-over-year, while net profit for the year was 436 million yuan, turning around from a net loss of 102 million yuan in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, Hesai Technology’s total lidar shipments in 2025 exceeded 1.62 million units, a year-over-year increase of over 220%. The company also raised its 2026 shipment forecast to 3 million to 3.5 million units.

Industry experts believe: “Hesai Technology’s performance this time not only marks an important milestone in the company’s development but also reflects the market vitality of the lidar industry driven by intelligent driving and robotics applications.”

Revenue and shipment volume both grow, gross margin slightly declines

Hesai Technology’s full-year 2025 net revenue was 3.028 billion yuan, up 45.8% year-over-year, demonstrating steady expansion in revenue scale. The profit performance was particularly impressive, with net profit reaching 436 million yuan, compared to a net loss of 102 million yuan in the same period last year, successfully turning losses into profits.

Notably, despite the dual growth in revenue and shipment volume, the company’s gross margin for 2025 was 41.8%, a slight decrease of 0.8 percentage points from 42.6% in the previous year. This small decline in gross margin is a noticeable operational change in this financial report.

In terms of product shipments, Hesai’s various lidar categories all saw significant growth, becoming the core support for revenue increase and profit improvement. Among them, ADAS lidar, as the company’s core product, shipped 1,381,133 units in 2025, a 202.6% increase year-over-year, driving the overall shipment growth.

Robot lidar showed even higher growth, with total shipments of 239,273 units, a 425.8% increase year-over-year, becoming a new highlight of the company’s business growth. Overall, Hesai’s total lidar shipments in 2025 reached 1,620,406 units, a 222.9% increase year-over-year, with the million-unit level of shipments marking the company’s entry into large-scale mass production.

Looking ahead, Hesai has set clear development goals and plans. A relevant company executive told Huaxia Times: “We have raised the 2026 lidar shipment guidance to 3 million to 3.5 million units, roughly doubling the actual shipments in 2025.”

He also added: “The company plans to release ‘breakthrough new products’ soon, continuing to invest in product technology.”

Regarding customer and order deployment, the announcement shows the company has secured multiple lidar models for vehicles from Li Auto, Xiaomi, and Changan. These products are planned for mass production between 2026 and 2027, and subsequent orders will provide sustained support for revenue growth.

Auto industry analyst Zhai Qiang believes: “From the overall financial data, Hesai’s 2025 performance demonstrates a ‘dual increase in scale and profit,’ but the slight decline in gross margin also reflects the cost and market competition pressures faced during development. The release of new products and mass production of new orders will be key factors influencing the company’s future performance.”

Development dividends bring industry challenges

Hesai Technology’s 2025 performance is closely linked to the rapid growth phase of the lidar industry. Driven by the popularization of intelligent driving technology, expansion of robotics applications, and policy support, the global lidar market continues to expand, with Chinese companies leading the industry.

However, industry development also faces challenges such as cost pressures, supply chain risks, and market competition, which are common to leading companies including Hesai.

The lidar industry is in a golden stage of large-scale explosion, with increasing market demand and penetration rates providing broad development space. According to data from the GaoGong Intelligent Vehicle Research Institute, from January to December 2025, the Chinese passenger car market’s front-mounted lidar installation reached 3.2484 million units, doubling with a 112.07% increase. The penetration rate of lidar in domestic new energy vehicles has reached 20.48%.

Beyond traditional ADAS applications, robots have become the second growth engine for lidar. In 2025, the global robot lidar market is expected to double in size. Although full-year data for 2025 has not yet been released, Hesai’s robot lidar growth of 425.8% year-over-year reflects this market trend.

Policy support further promotes industry development. In September 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the “Safety Requirements for Intelligent Connected Vehicle Cooperative Driving Assistance Systems” (draft for comments), which for the first time included lidar in the standard system for intelligent connected vehicle cooperative driving assistance, emphasizing its importance in functional safety. Additionally, subsidies for new energy vehicles and related policies have reduced the cost burden for automakers to equip lidar.

Currently, Chinese companies dominate the global lidar market, with high industry concentration. Data shows that in 2025, 92% of passenger car lidar was supplied by Chinese companies. In the front-mounted lidar market for passenger cars in China, the top three companies hold a combined market share of 92.75%.

Globally, Hesai, Huawei, TUS Data, and Tydar are among the top five, accounting for over 60% of the market share.

Despite the overall positive industry outlook, Hesai faces multiple operational and industry challenges. Due to price wars and downward pressure from downstream automakers, lidar product prices have plummeted over 60% in three years, causing Hesai’s gross margin to fall back to 41.8% in 2025, with continued profit pressure. Upstream core components such as lasers and SPAD chips are still heavily reliant on imports from Europe and the US, giving leading companies weak bargaining power and supply chain risks, which increase production costs. Additionally, fierce internal and external competition—such as with TUS Data and Huawei—along with threats from low-cost pure-vision solutions like Tesla, pose further challenges.

Auto industry analyst Han Hao told Huaxia Times: “Even if Hesai’s 2025 shipment volume exceeds 1.62 million units, achieving higher future targets remains difficult. With hardware profit margins continuously shrinking, the business model based solely on hardware sales needs to shift toward integrated hardware-software solutions to create more room for growth.”

He added: “Overall, Hesai’s 2025 performance is a microcosm of the lidar industry’s development. Leading companies enjoy industry dividends but also face common challenges. For Hesai, whether it can break through bottlenecks through core technology R&D, domestic supply chain localization, product structure optimization, and business model transformation will directly impact its competitive position in the industry.”

Editor: Li Yan’an Chief Editor: Yu Jianping