The supplier of automotive sensors has narrowed its annual losses, helped by surging sales of cheaper lidar systems, but faces intensifying price pressure 

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Key Takeaways:

  • The company ramped up output of the Robin range of sensors in 2025, helping to push its gross margin into positive territory  
  • Although shipment volumes jumped, falling prices meant revenue fell 3.4%

　China's lidar industry is navigating its way through fierce price competition but some suppliers are finding a route towards profits, not just hoping to survive the journey.

Seyond Holdings Ltd. (2665.HK), a provider of automotive sensor systems, has just delivered better-than-expected annual results, boosting its share price, although it faces a more challenging route to breakeven than some of its peers.

The company's revenue fell 3.4% in 2025 to $154 million, but its gross margin recovered to a positive reading of 7.9% from minus 8.7% the previous year, propelled by rising sales of its cheaper, shorter range sensors. As a result, the company shrank its loss by nearly 18% to $328 million. 

It has moved out of the danger zone, with products no longer selling at a painful loss, but the company has ground to make up on other providers such as Hesai Technology (NASDAQ:HSAI) (2525.HK) and RoboSense (2498.HK), which posted upbeat results for the same period.

Hesai, which turned an annual profit in 2025, boasted a gross margin of 41.8% while RoboSense logged a gross margin of 28.5% after making it into the black on a quarterly basis on sales of robotics sensors. 

Investors welcomed the brighter earnings readout from Seyond, even though revenue fell and profits have not yet appeared on the horizon. Its stock price surged 24.5% in a single session to HK$9.26, although it remained below the IPO level of HK$10 from last December.

The company has made headway in a battle to rein in spending. Its cost of sales reached $173 million in 2024 — exceeding revenue — resulting in a gross loss of $13.9 million. The figure fell 18% to $142 million last year, translating into a gross profit of $12.3 million.

The key was a move to ramp up sales of its mid- to short-range compact sensors designed for cost-effective mass production. Previously Seyond focused on its premium long-range Falcon sensors, which commanded higher prices but were difficult to scale up. Its shorter range Robin series began mass deliveries last year, with shipments surging from 12,000 units in 2024 to 138,000 units. This enabled the company to achieve economies of scale that, along with tweaks to the supply chain and production, helped it move a step closer to breakeven.

Value and volume disconnect

However, product prices are also falling rapidly. The average selling price of the company's advanced driver systems tumbled more than 30% from $662 in 2024 to $443. While the Robin series boosted shipment volume, it also weighed down average selling prices.

The price squeeze explains why unit sales rose but revenue fell in 2025. The shipments jumped nearly 45% to 332,000 units from the prior year, while turnover slipped from $160 million to $154 million. 

In response, the company has sought to reduce its reliance on a single customer or market. In 2024, 97% of its revenue came from orders for the carmaker NIO Inc. (NYSE:NIO) (9866.HK) but the proportion shrank to 86.2% last year. The figure for advanced driver systems also declined from 94.1% in 2024 to 86.3%, while robotics and other businesses increased their contribution from $8.23 million to $18.9 million, for a 12.3% revenue share.

However, the automotive business in general and NIO in particular remain the firm's primary revenue drivers. In this segment, price pressure is intense and suppliers have limited leverage. When key customers play hard ball on costs, suppliers have little choice but to concede, hence the rapid drop in average selling prices.

Industry players have taken different paths in pursuit of a competitive advantage. Hesai relies on its self-developed chips to slash costs, while RoboSense has found fresh momentum in sales of robotics radar. These divergent routes are reflected in shipment scale. Hesai shipped 1.62 million units last year and RoboSense moved around 912,000 units, while Seyond brought up the rear with just 330,000, leaving it at a disadvantage in the price battle.

For this year, Seyond has set an elevated shipment target of 1 million units and plans to boost its capacity accordingly. However, the prospects depend on progress in mass-producing new products such as its solid-state lidar range. Although multiple automakers have signed up to Seyond's Hummingbird series, it has yet to enter high-volume production.

Solid-state lidar systems, which eliminate moving parts, have the potential to be cheaper to produce and more reliable in their performance than traditional mechanical sensors. They offer a way forward for Seyond as it aims to reduce the red ink still staining its accounts.

But investors are cautious about the company's earnings potential and competitive position. Seyond currently trades at a price-to-sales ratio of around 2 times, much lower than the 6.7 times for Hesai and a multiple of 7.28 for RoboSense.

With industry capacity expanding, unit prices may have more room to fall. If Seyond cuts its prices to keep pace, its gross margin could falter again. But if it stands firm on prices, it could lose market share. The challenge will be to find the right balance.

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Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.