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13 Aug 2024
Latest results from Cepton, Luminar, AEye, and Aeva indicate that production ramps are still awaited.
Several of the US-based lidar companies that raised hundreds of millions of dollars through stock listings in recent years have just reported their latest financial results - with the figures showing they are still awaiting a ramp in demand from key customers in the automotive sector.
One example is the San Jose firm Cepton, which is in the process of being acquired by lead investor Koito Manufacturing, the major Japanese provider of car parts.
Development revenues
Hit in late 2023 by the cancellation of a project at General Motors, the company has nonetheless just posted improved figures for the quarter ending June 30, with revenue of $10.4 million up strongly from $2.8 million in the same period last year.
That latest total was due almost entirely to “development revenue” rather than component sales, but enabled Cepton to report an operating loss of only $0.6 million, down from $15.1 million a year ago.
CEO Jun Pei, who co-founded the company back in 2016, hinted that future lidar component sales would be dependent on some critical decisions coming up in the next few months.
“We are in the final stage of RFQ with a top-ten global automotive OEM for our long-range lidar, and we anticipate a final decision in the second half of this year,” he said.
Discussions with another large automotive OEM - said to be one of the top three global makers - are at an earlier stage, with the recent jump in development revenues likely related to completing key milestones of an engineering services contract with Koito on short-range lidar technology.
Luminar refinances
Meanwhile Luminar Technologies says that although its recent move to series production for key customer Volvo went according to plan, the car maker is taking a little longer than expected to scale its own production of EX90 vehicles.
The firm announced in its latest quarterly update that because of the slower-than-anticipated ramp, it was shifting its earlier expectations of reaching a revenue run-rate in the mid-$30 million range from the second half of this year to some time in 2025.
For the three months ending June 30, Luminar posted an operating loss of $128 million on sales of $16.5 million. Alongside a near-completed 20 per cent headcount reduction to reduce costs, the company has also just refinanced its long-term debt to ensure liquidity through the end of 2026.
During an investor call discussing the latest results, CEO and co-founder Austin Russell reiterated the fundamental point of the technology, saying: “Autonomous driving is one of, if not, the most significant application of AI into the real world to be able to enact positive change.”
Volvo ramp delayed
CFO Tom Fennimore added that Volvo expects to ramp production of the EX90 car that includes Luminar’s lidar as a standard feature at its US facility towards the end of this year, with the auto maker’s site in China set to follow suit shortly afterwards.
“This represents a more moderated ramp than we were initially anticipating, but we remain confident of reaching targeted production levels next year,” he said.
Once again highlighting the advantages of deploying the long-wavelength (1550 nm) lidar technology adopted by Luminar, Russell claimed that many competitor technologies can only reliably see objects required for safe driving at distances up to 100 meters.
“Our maximum range can even be extended out to as much as 600 meters,” he said. “We’re able to reliably see [objects] a full 7.5 seconds ahead down the road, which is enough time to be able to come to a safe stop in nearly any kind of vehicle.”
The CEO also denied that the slower-than-expected ramp with Volvo had anything to do with software glitches in the lidar feature.
“It’s unrelated to the software,” he told investors. “Any automotive launch that you have, there’s always going to be bumps on the road and it’s not going to go as smooth as everybody hoped.
“It’s taking a little bit longer, but they’re ultimately going to reach those production levels and may take just a quarter or two longer.”
Industrial inspection with Aeva
Rival Aeva, which has developed chip-sized sensing technology known as frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) lidar, is yet to see its sales scale up, but assured investors that it remained on track with key customers Daimler Truck and Nikon.
Daimler Truck wants to use Aeva’s FMCW lidar on a future fleet of autonomous vehicles, with 2026 still pencilled in as a likely launch date.
Nikon’s use case is arriving sooner, with the Japanese camera giant looking to deploy the technology in industrial applications by the end of this year.
“Over the quarter, we successfully completed the final validation of our lidar-on-chip module in Nikon’s product, and are now preparing for our deliveries to Nikon in Q4,” reported CEO and co-founder Soroush Salehian.
“This first collaboration with Nikon is for industrial metrology applications where Nikon’s existing customers across automotive, aerospace, and renewable energy already use [their] high-precision inspection products in the manufacturing processes.
“With Aeva’s lidar-on-chip module, we will together offer micron-level accuracy in a faster, smaller, and lower-cost solution that we believe will open new opportunities.”
The Nikon deal should soon start to show up on Aeva’s quarterly figures, which in the latest period saw the Mountain View firm post an operating loss of $48.9 million on sales of only $2 million.
AEye’s ‘capital-light’ approach
AEye, another Silicon Valley lidar company to target the longer-wavelength option at 1550 nm, appears to be lagging its peers when it comes to commercial traction, with its latest quarterly figures showing a net loss of $8 million on negligible product sales.
Focusing on recent efforts by the company to shore up its balance sheet and extend its cash runway for the next year or so, CEO Matt Fisch added: “With respect to our Tier 1 partner, LITEON, we are seeing tangible results from their ability to leverage their supply chain coupled with their expertise in optics.
“We have successfully completed the technology transfer to them and are now jointly executing a product cost reduction initiative.”
The “capital-light” partnership model should allow AEye to move forward without the much larger investments in production requirements encountered by most of its peers in the sector.
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