2021 China LiDAR Market Overview
Audi (VW) initiated the plan to carry a LiDAR in production model’s sensor suite enabling highly automated driving functions back in 2017. However, Chinese automakers are racing to execute the idea.
Throughout 2021, there were at least 16 LiDAR-equipped passenger vehicle models introduced by local OEMs in China, which are close to production and even delivery. Furthermore, the majorities are from domestic suppliers.
This article is a quick overview of the China automotive LiDAR market from the demand and supply perspective.
In terms of applications, the LiDAR for the automotive market can be broken down to passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, AGV/AMR as well as roadside units. Passenger cars are currently considered the key segment where LiDAR production could scale, specifically, production models equipped with L2+ ADAS systems.
So far, there are 18 passenger car models from 15 Chinese OEMs to adopt LiDARs. At the end of 2020, Great Wall Motor revealed its plan to carry solid-state LiDARs on the WEY brand flagship model. In January 2021, Xpeng, Nio and IM Motor came out with similar announcements respectively. Later, the Shanghai auto show in April and Guangzhou auto show in November witnessed even more.
The commercial vehicle segment is expected to grow on a smaller scale but is still important. There are a number of partnerships fostered between autonomous driving solution providers and LiDAR makers, such as Zhito (robotruck) and Robosense, Deeproute.ai (robotaxi) and Zvision, Qcraft (robobus) and Hesai.
Back in 2019, I made a list of the China-based LiDAR players as one of my earliest post. Some of them have stood out by now with automotive-grade LiDARs in production stage.
Among the five, mechanical scanning is still the mainstream solution while variations are on the mirrors, prisms or polygons that each comes with its pros and cons. MEMS mirror, as an alternative design, made its way in by generating the most OEM orders.
Time-of-flight based ranging method is mutually adopted. As for laser wavelength, 905nm is the main choice although 1550nm comes with longer range and eye-safety.
Overall, the design wins for automotive application are currently dominated by traditional technologies, which are relatively scalable for manufacturing and affordable.
Regardless, LiDAR players are betting on new approaches, including pure solid designs like OPA and flash, as well as frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) LiDARs. Besides, there is a trend of early sensor fusion that focuses on the usage of LiDAR’s raw data. Tanway, for example, is engaged in early fusion technologies of image and point cloud.
As new technologies mature and industry chains being developed, the landscape of automotive LiDARs would evolve in the next few years.
