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.

China Times (chinatimes.net.cn) reporter Jianping Yu, intern reporter Tian Ye, reported from Beijing.

On March 24, 2026, Hesai Technology released its annual performance announcement for 2025, showing that the company’s net revenue reached 3.028 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45.8%. It also achieved an annual net profit of 436 million yuan, turning around from a net loss of 102 million yuan in the same period last year.

At the same time, Hesai Technology’s total LiDAR shipments in 2025 exceeded 1.62 million units, with a year-on-year increase of over 220%. The forecast for 2026 shipments has been raised to 3 million to 3.5 million units.

Industry insiders believe: “Hesai Technology’s performance this time is not only an important milestone in the company’s development but also reflects the market vitality of the LiDAR industry driven by the dual engines of smart driving and robotic applications.”

Revenue and shipments both grew, but gross margin saw a slight decline.

Hesai Technology’s net revenue for 2025 was 3.028 billion yuan, an increase of 45.8% year-on-year, achieving steady revenue expansion. The profit performance was particularly impressive, with an annual net profit reaching 436 million yuan, while the company was still in a net loss of 102 million yuan in the same period last year, successfully turning a profit for the year.

It is noteworthy that against the backdrop of dual growth in revenue and shipments, the company’s overall gross margin for 2025 was 41.8%, a slight decline of 0.8 percentage points from 42.6% the previous year. This minor decline in gross margin has become a prominent operational data change in this financial report.

In terms of product shipments, all categories of Hesai Technology’s LiDAR achieved significant growth, becoming the core support for revenue growth and profit improvement. Among them, the ADAS LiDAR, as the company’s core product, had shipments reach 1,381,133 units in 2025, with a year-on-year increase of 202.6%, serving as the main driving force behind total shipment growth.

The robotic LiDAR exhibited even higher growth rates, with annual shipments of 239,273 units, a year-on-year increase of 425.8%, becoming a new highlight of the company’s business growth. Overall, Hesai Technology’s total LiDAR shipments for 2025 reached 1,620,406 units, an increase of 222.9% year-on-year, with the million-unit level of shipments marking the company’s official entry into large-scale production.

Looking ahead, Hesai Technology has also provided clear development goals and layouts. A relevant person from Hesai Technology told reporters from the “Huaxia Times”: “The company has raised its guidance for 2026 LiDAR shipments to 3 million to 3.5 million units, which is expected to achieve approximately double the growth compared to the actual shipments in 2025.”

He also stated: “The company will announce ‘breakthrough new products’ in the near future, continuing to make efforts in product technology.”

In terms of customer and order layout, the announcement shows that the company has secured multiple LiDAR model designations from Ideal, Xiaomi, and Changan, with related products planned for mass production from 2026 to 2027. The subsequent orders will provide continuous support for the company’s revenue growth.

Automotive industry analyst Zhai Qiang believes: “From the overall financial data, Hesai Technology’s operational performance in 2025 achieved ‘dual enhancement of scale and profit,’ but the slight decline in gross margin also reflects the cost and market competition pressures faced by the company during its development. Future new product launches and new order mass production will be key factors affecting the company’s future performance trends.”

Development dividends bring industry challenges.

Hesai Technology’s performance in 2025 is inseparable from the overall market environment of rapid development in the LiDAR industry. Driven by multiple factors such as the popularization of smart driving technology, the expansion of robotic application scenarios, and policy support, the global LiDAR market size continues to expand, with Chinese companies occupying a dominant position in the industry.

However, at the same time, issues such as cost pressure, supply chain risks, and market competition during the industry’s development have also become common challenges faced by leading companies, including Hesai Technology.

The LiDAR industry is in a golden phase of large-scale explosion, with market demand and penetration rates continuously increasing, providing broad market space for corporate development. According to data from the Gaogong Intelligent Automotive Research Institute, from January to December 2025, the number of LiDARs installed as standard in passenger cars in the Chinese market reached 3.2484 million units, a year-on-year increase of 112.07%. The penetration rate of LiDAR in domestic new energy vehicles has reached 20.48%.

In addition to the traditional automotive ADAS field, robotics has become the second growth engine for LiDAR. The global market size for LiDAR in the robotics sector is expected to achieve double growth by 2025. Although the data for LiDAR in 2025 has not yet been released, the 425.8% year-on-year increase in Hesai Technology’s robotic LiDAR reflects this market trend.

Policy support has further propelled industry development. In September 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the “Safety Requirements for Intelligent Connected Vehicle Combination Driving Assistance Systems” (draft for comments), which for the first time included LiDAR in the standard system for China’s intelligent connected vehicle combination driving assistance systems, clarifying its importance in functional safety. Meanwhile, supporting policies such as new energy vehicle subsidies have reduced the cost pressure for automakers to install LiDAR.

At this moment, Chinese companies have become the dominant force in the global LiDAR market, with the industry showing a highly concentrated characteristic. Data shows that in 2025, 92% of the global LiDAR for passenger vehicles was supplied by Chinese companies. In the market for front-mounted primary LiDAR in the Chinese market, the top three companies together held 92.75% of the market share.

In the global market, Hesai, Huawei, Suteng Juchuang, and Tudatong are among the top five companies, collectively holding over 60% of the market share.

Against the backdrop of overall positive industry conditions, Hesai Technology is also facing multiple operational and industry challenges. Affected by industry price wars and pressure from downstream automakers to lower prices, the prices of LiDAR products have plummeted by over 60% in three years, and the company’s gross margin fell to 41.8% in 2025, continuing to face profit pressures. Additionally, the low localization rate of core components in the upstream of the industry, such as lasers and SPAD chips, relies on imports from Europe and the United States, with leading companies facing weak bargaining power, creating “bottleneck” risks in the supply chain and increasing production costs. Furthermore, competition both within and outside the industry has intensified, with internal competition among leading manufacturers like Suteng Juchuang and Huawei for market share, while externally facing the threat of Tesla’s low-cost vision-based alternatives.

Automotive industry analyst Han Hao analyzed for reporters from the “Huaxia Times”: “Even though Hesai Technology’s shipments exceeded 1.62 million units in 2025, pursuing subsequent high shipment targets still faces challenges. Additionally, with continuous compression of hardware profits in the industry, the single hardware sales business model needs to transition to an integrated hardware-software solution to allow more operational flexibility.”

Han Hao also stated: “Overall, Hesai Technology’s performance in 2025 is a microcosm of the development of the LiDAR industry. While leading companies enjoy the dividends of industry development, they also need to confront common challenges in the industry. For Hesai Technology, whether it can break through development bottlenecks through core technology research and development, supply chain localization, product structure optimization, and business model transformation will directly affect its competitive position in the industry.”

Editor: Li Yan’an Chief Editor: Yu Jianping