Luminar Technologies Inc. ($LAZR), a leading lidar sensor developer, has taken its new high-volume manufacturing facility in Mexico online ahead of schedule. The new facility, located in Monterrey, offers Luminar a footprint of 180,000 square feet and has an initial production capacity of 250,000 sensors per year. However, the factory already has the capability to be expanded to about 500,000 sensors annually. Luminar has already begun delivering the first Iris sensors manufactured at the site to one of its largest customers.
Luminar’s Iris long-range lidar technology has been implemented in Volvo Cars vehicles as a prime component in the automaker’s Highway Pilot self-driving feature. Volvo has since continued to expand its relationship with Luminar, and Mercedes-Benz has announced an expansion of its existing partnership with Luminar with an investment reportedly in the “multibillions,” enabling it to implement Luminar’s next-generation sensor technology, Iris+, into all future Mercedes-Benz models.
According to Luminar, its new high-volume manufacturing facility is now online, and its progress toward today’s milestone has been documented in a video update. The new dedicated facility in Monterrey offers Luminar a footprint of 180,000 square feet with an initial production capacity of 250,000 sensors per year. The extended space will enable “state-of-the-art testing for performance and quality,” plus the option for additional lidar sensor production capacity into the millions annually.
Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell spoke to the potential of the new dedicated factory, saying that it enables an increase in capacity by well over an order of magnitude as compared to their existing manual line to meet the growing automaker requirements on volume. The company expects to reach high-volume production by the end of the year to support the upcoming vehicle launches of their mystery OEM, which could be any of the automakers mentioned above.
With the new high-volume facility joining an existing low-volume plant already operated by Celestica in Monterrey, Luminar’s manufacturing footprint extends up through Mexico into the US as well as overseas to Thailand. Looking ahead, Luminar plans to implement its next phase of sensor production in the Asia Pacific region, with more details expected during its Q1 business update on May 9, 2023.
