{"text":[[{"start":7.63,"text":"The Year of the Horse is known for speed and breakthroughs — themes that are already resonating for Robosense Technology Co. Ltd. (2498.HK), a maker of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology used in autonomous driving and a growing number of other applications. The company rang in the Lunar New Year by crossing the finish line in its steeplechase toward profitability, as its sales soared in 2025."}],[{"start":36.08,"text":"On Feb. 19, the third day of the Lunar New Year, Robosense delighted investors by announcing its net loss for 2025 would narrow by more than half to 180 million yuan ($26 million) or less, from 482 million yuan in 2024. Even more encouraging, it reported logging its first-ever quarterly profit of 60 million yuan or higher in the final three months of the year. The company’s shares surged the next day as shareholders celebrated the milestone after a decade of losses."}],[{"start":74.17,"text":"Robosense isn’t the first to achieve profitability in a LiDAR sector where many companies continue to bleed cash. Competitor Hesai (HSAI.US; 2525.HK) beat it to the finish line by achieving its first full-year profit in 2024. Hesai went on to record a record quarterly profit of 256 million yuan in the third quarter of 2025, achieving its annual profit target one quarter early. But another rival, the recently listed Seyond (2665.HK), is still in the red."}],[{"start":114.45,"text":"Like many emerging sectors, achieving profitability in LiDAR isn’t easy. The real-time positioning technology requires long R&D cycles and big upfront investment in optical systems, transmitters and receiver modules, and specialized chips and algorithms. Moreover, the automotive-grade certification process is lengthy, so companies often accumulate substantial costs before they can start to scale up revenue. At the same time, the price war in China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) market – a major LiDAR customer – is intensifying, leading automakers to push for lower prices. The confluence of those factors has weighed on LiDAR unit prices in the last few years, making it that much more difficult to become profitable, even with strong growth in shipment volumes."}],[{"start":167.53,"text":"As the first among peers to become profitable, Hesai benefited from rapidly scaling up its shipments and support from major clients. It entered the robotaxi and overseas high-end vehicle markets early, and has gradually expanded into supplying LiDAR for industrial mobility applications such as logistics robots and unmanned delivery vehicles. While unit prices for those products are lower than for high-end automotive LiDAR, substantial demand is helping suppliers to quickly ramp up the scale of their sales."}],[{"start":203.21,"text":"Robosense's road to profitability was similar. In our previous analysis, we noted that profits could be on the horizon after the company shifted gears from pursuing market share to focus on improving gross margins and cost control. Robosense strengthened its in-house R&D for core components, gradually replacing high-cost solutions purchased from other suppliers with its own system-on-chips (SoC). It also improved its supply chain and product mix to reduce the proportion of sales from low-margin products."}],[{"start":239.55,"text":"Robotics business surges"}],[{"start":242.29000000000002,"text":"Robosense's overall gross margin was stuck in the single-digit zone for a long time. But with the cost reductions and greater focus on higher-margin products, the figure gradually rose to about 17%, then climbed to over 20%, and even exceeded 25% in some quarters. As fixed costs become a lower percentage of overall revenue, the breakeven point naturally approached."}],[{"start":270.42,"text":"Robosense's latest performance data, disclosed in January, showed the company sold about 912,000 LiDAR units in all of 2025, up 67.6% from 544,200 units in 2024. An important contributor was the company’s robotics business. In 2025, Robosense shipped about 303,000 robotic application LiDAR units, more than 12 times its shipments the previous year. Such applications include products like smart lawn mowers, cleaning robots, logistics mobile platforms and humanoid robots."}],[{"start":312.01,"text":"Although unit prices are lower than those for higher-end automotive LiDAR, gross margins for robotic LiDAR are relatively stable and demand is large. Such a dual-curve structure with automotive as its main pillar and incremental business from robotics makes Robosense more resilient in profitability terms."}],[{"start":336.53999999999996,"text":"Robotaxis are also making a growing contribution to the company's sales. Robosense has established partnerships with companies such as the autonomous driving arm of DiDi Global, as well as robotaxi operators Pony.ai and WeRide. Some of their vehicle models are equipped with as many as four to six LiDAR units each. While the overall scale of China's robotaxi fleet is still limited, the high number of units per vehicle and relatively high unit prices and gross margins mean such sales have a disproportionate impact on Robosense’s profits and brand validation."}],[{"start":373.41999999999996,"text":"All those pluses aside, a major industry concern is diverging trends in smart driving perception solutions. Some automakers, emphasizing cost and faster popularization, are trying to replace expensive hardware like LiDAR with autonomous driving vision and algorithm-based solutions. BYD's “intelligent driving equity” strategy represents this approach."}],[{"start":400.79999999999995,"text":"Robosense's stock jumped 8.9% after its surprise profit announcement last week. But it’s still down about 20% over the past 52 weeks, showing the market is still watching to see if its profits are sustainable. Hesai's Hong Kong stock currently trades at a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 60 times, as investors have begun to assign a premium to companies with established profit records. The real test for Robosense will lie in whether it can turn its “automotive plus robotics” dual-curve revenue structure into stable cash flow, while maintaining gross margins as it faces pricing pressure."}],[{"start":444.78999999999996,"text":"For now, at least, we should congratulate Robosense for its galloping start to the Year of the Horse with its sprint past the breakeven finish line. But a much longer race to maintain and boost its profits has just begun."}],[{"start":469.68999999999994,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1772021420_4535.mp3"}