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26 Mar 2025
Luminar narrows focus to new 'Halo' platform as Ouster looks to transform its product portfolio.
Two of the lidar industry’s key players are set to introduce major changes to their product portfolios this year, while also facing the escalating challenges of geopolitical tension, trade tariff uncertainties, and the long development cycles of the automotive industry.
Luminar Technologies, which has pioneered the development of high-end 1550 nm sensors that now come as a standard feature on Volvo’s EX90 model, says it will focus future efforts around its new “Halo” sensor, enabling the company to reduce costs as it works towards long-term profitability goals.
Rival Ouster, which sells more conventional lidar units into a broader range of applications, appears to be taking the opposite strategy, saying it plans to transform its product portfolio in 2025 in a bid to double the size of its addressable markets.
Luminar narrows focus
Announcing full-year sales of $75.4 million in 2024 - up from $69.8 million in 2023 - Orlando-based Luminar said that it expects the 2025 total to rise by 10-20 per cent, although the anticipated increase in sensor shipments should be much larger.
Company founder and CEO Austin Russell told investors that Luminar was “off to the races” so far this year, as key customers transition to the firm’s forthcoming Halo product.
“[We] expect lidar shipments to at least triple as more Luminar-equipped cars hit the road and we launch on additional models,” he said, one example being Volvo's all-electric "ES90" car launched earlier this month. “Going forward, we’ll also be unifying our product portfolio around Halo, allowing us to streamline the business for further efficiency, faster execution, and exponential growth.”
Luminar’s latest figures show the need for that streamlining effort, with the company posting an operating loss of $435 million in 2024. However following cost-cutting actions taken last year, the firm’s quarterly losses have decreased substantially.
For the closing quarter of 2024 Luminar posted an operating loss of $65.7 million on sales of $22.5 million, with the loss figure down dramatically from $149 million in the final quarter of 2023.
The latest quarter saw the company ship 4000 of its “Iris” sensors, the vast majority going to Volvo, bringing the annual shipment total to 9000. Russell and his team expect that sensor shipment total to “at least triple” this year, to somewhere between 30,000 and 33,000 units.
Halo performance
Highlighting generally positive sentiment around the adoption of lidar technology in automotive applications, including recent comments from Luminar partner Nissan, Russell said in the latest investor call:
“One thing is very clear. Compared to a few years ago, or even recent history, more automakers than ever are planning to integrate things like lidar, AI and advanced computing into their next generation vehicle line-ups, with the majority of them expecting to do so by the end of the decade.
“The question is no longer if lidar is a relevant technology for the industry, but rather when it will become standardized across vehicles.”
While welcoming the fact that lidar companies in China had enjoyed the most success thus far, largely in their domestic market, the CEO highlighted the difference between those relatively low-performance sensors, and the technology pursued by Luminar.
“[That technology] is not sufficient to ultimately unlock the higher levels of performance and capabilities, higher levels of safety and higher speeds,” he said. “And that’s really where Luminar comes into play.
“Now Luminar Halo is poised to lead the industry in performance, size, and cost. Its performance is multiples better than those of our previous generation of products, [and] is going to be the key enabler for what we believe to be widespread mass adoption of lidar, certainly in the Western world.”
Tariff tensions
While the focus on Halo instead of several different sensor models will help Luminar achieve the kind of streamlining it is working towards, Russell highlighted how the firm’s current business setup - which includes contract manufacturer Celestica making Iris sensors in Mexico - faced challenges from geopolitics and ongoing tariff confusion.
“Geopolitical tensions are creating significant uncertainty for companies with global supply chains like Luminar,” the firm’s CFO Tom Fennimore told investors. “At this point in time, we have determined that our lidar sensors, [which] we ship from Mexico to the US, are likely subject to the [most] recently implemented tariffs.”
While the overall impact on Luminar’s profits are expected to be modest, the company says that is “actively exploring alternatives”, which could include existing operations in Thailand, and with another of Luminar’s contract manufacturers, Taiwan-based TPK.
“We’re really the only company from a lidar standpoint that has [a] truly global footprint,” pointed out Russell in response to an investor query.
“Ultimately stuff in China, we believe will be produced for China. We have the flexibility to go with the ebbs and flows of the global trade ecosystem to be able to shift according to this crazy web of geopolitics and tariffs that we have to deal with - and everyone has to deal with.”
Ouster broadens outlook
Despite revealing annual sales of $111 million for 2024, up 33 per cent from $83.3 million in the prior year, Ouster’s CEO Angus Pacala faces a similar business challenge, with the San Francisco firm’s quarterly operating losses currently in the region of $26 million.
The 2024 sales figure came from the shipment of 17,300 sensors over the full year, including some that were deployed at the Paris Olympics.
“In 2025, Ouster, like other businesses, will be navigating a volatile and evolving climate,” Pacala reflected, adding: “The product portfolio transformation we have planned in 2025 will result in the largest increase in Ouster’s addressable market in our history.”
Highlighting collaborations with the likes of heavy equipment firm John Deere and traffic management applications of lidar, the CEO outlined three strategic priorities for 2025 - including new sensors said to mark a “step change” in the firm’s product portfolio and significantly improve performance, reliability, and security.
“We estimate these innovations will more than double our current addressable market, particularly for automotive, industrial, and robotics applications,” said Pacala.
Ouster also appears to have fewer concerns than Luminar over new US-imposed tariffs, with its CFO Chen Geng saying that although there remained significant uncertainty, the Ouster supply chain was “largely positioned” outside of countries currently impacted.
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