Volvo Cars has terminated its supply deal with Luminar Technologies, the US-based automotive lidar pioneer whose financial position already looks perilous.

In a November 17 filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Nasdaq-listed Luminar said it had received written notice of the termination from Volvo on November 14.

Originally signed in March 2020, the Volvo deal had provided Luminar with an anchor customer willing to deploy its particular approach to lidar, which uses a 1550 nm laser source to deliver relatively high optical power ahead of a vehicle - yielding a long-range sensor seen as capable of improving safety.

Volvo said at the time that Luminar’s technology would give its cars “the vision they require to make safe decisions”, and subsequently likened its adoption of lidar to that of seatbelts and airbags, as efforts to make driving as safe as possible.

In 2024 the Swedish car firm subsequently deployed Luminar’s “Iris” lidar system on its “EX90” electric SUV - although that production roll-out was delayed significantly after problems developing software associated with the sensor system.

‘Difficult realities’
As recently as March 2025 Volvo said that it would deploy Luminar’s lidar technology on another car, this time the “ES90”, but on October 30 Luminar revealed in a separate SEC filing that the auto giant had changed its mind - and decided not to deploy the lidar technology as a standard feature on either the EX90 or ES90 models.

In addition, Volvo deferred a decision to deploy Luminar’s upgraded “Halo” lidar system on vehicles scheduled for production from 2027, with the US firm adding that it was pursuing a claim for significant damages against the car maker, and suspending further commitments of Iris lidars to Volvo.

The October 30 filing also made it clear that Luminar was struggling financially, that the Volvo dispute was also impacting its relationship with key suppliers, and that the SEC was now investigating its activities.

Just a day before the subsequent Volvo termination Luminar had announced its latest quarterly financial results - covering the period up to September 30 - with CEO Paul Ricci admitting:

“This quarter has required us to confront difficult realities in the automotive lidar market and take deliberate steps to strengthen our capital structure and liquidity position.” Among those steps are a 25 per cent cut to the Luminar workforce by the end of the year.

Takeover proposals
Ricci, a private equity adviser who replaced Luminar’s co-founder Austin Russell as CEO following the latter’s resignation in May, reported a net loss of nearly $86 million on sales of just under $19 million for the quarter, with the company continuing to burn through cash rapidly.

Luminar’s latest balance sheet shows cash and liquid assets of around $74 million offset by debts of $429 million, with Ricci telling an investor conference call:

“This has been a pivotal and challenging quarter for Luminar. We’re now taking deliberate action to reposition the company.”

Initially that includes the workforce reduction and forbearance agreements with creditors, while also evaluating “multiple” preliminary proposals to acquire the company - one of which has been received from Russell via the former CEO’s new company “Russell AI Labs”.

In the meantime, Ricci described how Luminar was diversifying into lidar applications outside of the automotive sector, including more general autonomy, and aerospace and defense, as well as the broader potential of the firm’s “LSI” photonics-focused division. Work is also continuing on the development of the “Halo” lidar platform.

Aeva and Scantinel financing; Innoviz sales up
Elsewhere in the lidar sector, Aeva has gained $100 million in support from investor Apollo, in the form of convertible loan notes.

The Silicon Valley firm, which specializes in the more advanced frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) form of lidar, is working to scale its production output to 200,000 units annually, partly to support a key development partnership with Daimler Truck.

According to its most recent financial results, Aeva has burned through more than $90 million of cash so far this year as it works to further commercialize FMCW sensors that are capable of measuring both the position and velocity of distant objects.

Meanwhile Scantinel Photonics, another FMCW lidar developer, is set to join forces with the Washington-based technology firm MicroVision.

MicroVision, which previously specialized in display products but has since diversified into lidar, announced that an asset purchase agreement signed in October would see it and a funding partner jointly finance the formation of a new German entity known as Scantinel GmbH.

It is set to acquire Scantinel’s FMCW technology and related assets, which were originally developed with support from optics giant Zeiss, and to retain a team of approximately 20 engineers based in Ulm, Germany, with the deal expected to close by the end of the year.

Finally Israel-based Innoviz Technologies has posted a sharp increase in sales in its latest quarter. For the three months ending September 30 the Tel Aviv lidar firm said revenues of $42.4 million were up from $18.2 million year-on-year, with its operating loss shrinking from $82.7 million to $46.8 million.

CEO and co-founder Omer Keilaf said: "We were selected for series production of L4 class 8 autonomous trucks by a major commercial vehicle OEM, and expect to be able to share the name of the OEM in the coming weeks."

TrendForce 2025 Infrared Sensing Application Market and Branding Strategies
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