Luminar Hits Production, Visibility Milestones

Automotive lidar technology developer Luminar said that it began series production, ahead of schedule, of its Iris lidar units for an automotive client. The lidar units, the company said in revealing its financial results for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, will appear in the flagship electric vehicle from smart electric brand RISING AUTO. The brand is part of SAIC, China’s largest automaker.

Luminar’s technology helps power the vehicle’s RISING PILOT Intelligent Driving Program to enable advanced safety features and automated driving capabilities over time, the company said.

“With the start of series production, autonomous technology has for the first time evolved from R&D into consumer production vehicles,” said Austin Russell, Luminar founder and CEO.

The development came less than one month after Swedish automaker Polestar unveiled its Polestar 3 vehicle featuring lidar by Luminar, on Oct. 12. Luminar Iris is expected to be available to order on Polestar 3 beginning in the second quarter of 2023. Later this month, a third automaker, Volvo Cars, plans to unveil its fully electric EX90 vehicle. The model will come standard with Luminar on every vehicle.

For the third quarter, Luminar reported non-GAAP net loss was $63.4 million, or $0.18 per share. The company said it still expects to generate revenues of $40 million to $45 million for the full year.

Luminar said its production facility in Monterrey, Mexico, is on track to be production ready by the second half of 2023.