Hesai braces for 10-fold profit jump as it eyes Europe’s smart EVs for self-driving lidar

Hesai Group’s profit this year is poised for a 10-fold jump, as the world’s most valuable producer of laser radars casts its sights on Europe to put its sensors on more self-driving electric vehicles (EV) to help them navigate.

The Shanghai-based company, which sealed a deal on Tuesday to supply Mercedes-Benz with light detection and ranging sensors, or lidars, said it was in partnership talks with several global carmakers, which might generate “substantial” business in 2027.

“International carmakers, particularly those in Europe, will use Hesai’s products as they see lidar sensors as an important feature in their petrol and electric cars,” the company’s chief financial officer Andrew Fan said in an interview with the Post. “The supply contracts will eventually bring us a lot of revenue because the production volume of those marques is high.”

Hesai is following the path that had been blazed by Chinese EV assemblers – from BYD to Xpeng – as they look overseas to the export market to survive the brutal discount war at home. The global ambitions of the 10-year-old company belie its cost advantage and technological advancement forged from brutal competition.

Hesai said this week that its advanced ultra-long-range automotive lidar would be used in the next-generation cars of a “leading European” assembler over the next decade, without divulging the brand. Reuters reported that the customer was Mercedes-Benz, the first time that a leading European carmaker picked a Chinese supplier for its worldwide product.