Market and Technology Trends

Automotive LiDAR 2025

Mar 2025

LiDAR market surges with 1.6M units shipped in 2024—BYD, Li Auto, and Huawei are reshaping competition with mass-market integration

YINTR25483

Report's Objectives

Present an overview of LiDAR for automotive applications
- LiDAR penetration and dynamics in automotive applications
- The technologies used and the ongoing evolutions
- LiDAR hardware – volume forecast, ASP forecast, revenue forecast broken down by technology and by application
Provide a scenario for LiDAR dynamics in automotive applications within the dynamics of the autonomous automotive market
- Hardware for LiDAR – revenue forecast, volume forecast
- Impact of autonomous driving on the LiDAR market
Deliver an in-depth understanding of the ecosystem and players
- The leading players. The relationships in this ecosystem
- The key suppliers to watch and the technologies they provide
Offer key technical insights and analyses into future technology trends and challenges
- Key technology choices
- Technology dynamics
- Emerging technologies and roadmaps

What's New?

Comparison between Navigate On Autopilot (NOA) and Highway pilot.
Better understanding of Operational Design Domain of eyes-off cars and comparison with Waymo Robotaxi.
Focus on the ecosystem with the potential role of geopolitics and new US rule from the Bureau of Industry and Security and how it could impact the LiDAR market.
Insights on vertical integration of LiDAR manufacturers and potential advantage of those organizations.
Insights on stacked structure used at the receiver side (Stacking of SPAD and SoC).
Evolution of VCSEL and photodetector market revenues since 2018.
Focus on LiDAR integration behind the windshield.
Comparison of LiDAR structure and bill of material.

Key Features

2025-2030 forecast for LiDAR (Munits, $M)
2025-2030 forecast by:
- Range
- Ranging technology
- Imaging technology
- Type of emitter
- Type of receiver
Market trends in passenger cars with comparison of operational design domain.
Overview of key technical insights and analyses into future technology trends and challenges with:
- Technology choices
- Technology dynamics
- Emerging technologies and roadmaps
Focus on FMCW LiDAR with:
- Ecosystem
- Mapping of players and their activity
- Understandings of the technology

China is leading, Europeans and US hesitate

The global LiDAR market for automotive is expected to grow from $861M in 2024 to $3,804M in 2030 at a 28% CAGR between 2024 and 2030. While in 2022, we were at the crossroads between the PC&LCV and robotaxi markets, in 2024, the LiDAR market for PC&LCV was more than four times bigger than the one for robotaxi.
Regarding US robotaxi players, Waymo, remains the leading U.S. robotaxi operator, providing 150,000 rides per week across Austin, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay area. General Motors shut down Cruise in late 2024, marking the end of its robotaxi operations after safety incidents and financial challenges.
On the Chinese side, Baidu’s Apollo Go leads China’s robotaxi market, operating in over 10 cities with fully driverless services using remote operators. Baidu plans to deploy 1,000 sixth-generation robotaxis in Wuhan, targeting profitability in 2025, and aims to expand to 65 cities by 2025. Other players like AutoX, DiDi Chuxing, Pony.ai, or WeRide are continuing their expansion in the country.
Regarding passenger cars, around 120 car models have been released with LiDAR since 2018. The deployment is accelerating with around 40 new car models with LiDARs in 2023 and 2024.
Chinese OEMs have aggressively embraced LiDAR, integrating it into a wide range of vehicle segments, including affordable models. Cars from the D-segment are still the sweet spot to integrate LiDAR. What is new is that they are now integrated in cars with a lower ASP and even some with an ASP around $25,000 embedded a LiDAR in 2024.
On an opposite way, European and U.S. OEMs adopt LiDAR more cautiously, primarily limiting it to premium or luxury segments, leading to low volume production. Only few OEMs like Audi, Mercedes, BMW or Volvo are implementing such sensor. LiDAR adoption is growing modestly for more programs from global OEMs are expected before the end of the decade.

Huawei is the rising star, and competition intensifies among Chinese giants

When looking at the global automotive LiDAR market including robotaxi and passenger cars, Hesai is still the leading player with 30% of the market, followed by RoboSense, Huawei and Seyond. These four Chinese players are controlling 88% of the market.
When looking at the passenger car market, the ranking has drastically changed compared to last year. RoboSense is the leading player with 29% of market shares in revenue, followed by Huawei (24%), Hesai and RoboSense. These four Chinese players are controlling 92% of this market.
In the last few years, RoboSense and Hesai were the main players. But in 2024, Huawei was ranked 2nd thanks to multiple partnerships with OEMs like, Aito, Luxeed, or Avatr. For several car models from these OEMs, the LiDAR is mounted as standard.
Chinese firms are dominating due to cost, scale and government support while Western players (Valeo, Luminar, Innoviz) face higher costs and slower adoption. The use case is also quite different. While Chinese OEMs are focusing on Navigate On Autopilot (NOA) feature where the driver is still responsible, global OEMs are focusing on highway pilot which is an eyes-off feature where the driver is not responsible anymore in case of accident.
In total Chinese LiDAR manufacturers supplied ~1.5 Munits in 2024 while the total volume was ~1.6 Munits. This is more than doubling compared to 2023.
BYD’s “God’s Eye technology” (announced in February 2025) drives LiDAR into affordable C-segments, while Li Auto’s February 2025 announcement standardizes LiDAR across all 2025 models, bolstering D-segment premiums.
Other Chinese OEMs might follow, fueling LiDAR growth in 2025.

From 905nm EELs to VCSELs and SPAD-SoC innovations

Early LiDAR systems, including Velodyne’s 3D real-time LiDAR from 2005, primarily used 905nm wavelengths, which are cost-effective due to mature semiconductor technology. Since that time, 905nm (or the emerging 940nm) is still the preferred wavelength by LiDAR manufacturers and it is not expected to change in the next five years. 1,550nm is used by a few manufacturers like Seyond or Luminar but this technology suffer from high cost that is difficulty compatible with OEMs’ requirements.
In terms of emitters, EELs were the dominant emitters in early LiDAR systems. They offer high power and range but are bulky and power-hungry. As a result, their use is declining in favor of VCSELs. VCSELs gained traction in LiDAR for their compact size, low power consumption, and array scalability. With 2D addressable arrays enhancing field of view and point density, and multi-junctions enhancing output power, VCSELs are expected to dominate and be widely used in new LiDAR designs.
Receivers are evolving rapidly. APDs were standard in early LiDAR but have been replaced by SiPMs and SPADs that are much more sensitive. These new receivers enable a better noise rejection, compact design, and scalability for mass production.
A SPAD-SoC structure, stacking a SPAD and processing, is emerging. Main advantages of this structure are a higher fill-factor for photon detection, a reduced footprint. This structure integrates SPAD arrays vertically with a custom ASIC for signal processing, reducing size, latency, and cost.
While first LiDAR generations had a limited resolution under 300,000 points/sec and a range around 150m, latest generations will enable a resolution up to 24M points/sec and a range around 300m.
With higher LiDAR volumes and technologies compatible with mass production, the ASP of LiDAR is decreasing very fast and some entry-level LiDAR will be found around $200 in 2025.