Luminar Announces New Automated, High Volume Factory Begins Building Sensors

Achieved Key 2023 Milestone Ahead of Guidance; First Sensors Shipping

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today Luminar (Nasdaq: LAZR), a leading global automotive technology company, announced the successful build-out and bring-up of a new highly automated, high-volume manufacturing facility in Monterrey, Mexico. The first Luminar Iris sensors out of this new dedicated facility are beginning to ship to Luminar’s lead global high-volume series production customer in preparation for start of production by end of this year to support vehicle launches. Luminar is continuing to deliver on its program milestones and captured a video of the new factory and status available for viewing here: https://youtu.be/CMOkICFDskQ.

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The new dedicated facility for high-volume production of Luminar’s sensors is operated in Monterrey, Mexico by Celestica, a leader in design, manufacturing, and supply chain solutions. (Photo: Business Wire)

“Industrialization is the fundamental challenge to enable and scale with our high volume series production wins. The successful bring-up of the automated factory is a major milestone and continues to show we can execute,” said Austin Russell, Founder and CEO of Luminar. “This enables an increase in capacity by well over an order of magnitude as compared to our existing, manual line to meet our growing automaker requirements on volume.”

The new dedicated facility for high-volume production of Luminar’s sensors is operated by Celestica, a leader in design, manufacturing, and supply chain solutions. This new facility measures 118,000 square feet and will have initial capacity for up to 250,000 sensors per year, expandable to approximately 500,000 sensors per year. The facility features 40,000 square feet of cleanroom space that meets International Organization for Standardization (ISO) specifications.

Celestica is also in the process of building an additional 200,000 square feet extension to the dedicated facility for Luminar, which will enable state-of-the-art testing for performance and quality and will provide the flexibility for future capacity expansion into the millions of sensors annually.

Construction of the dedicated facility began in July of 2022 and high volume line installation began in December of last year. The company brought this new high volume line online in conjunction with Celestica at the end of Q1, ahead of prior guidance provided at Luminar day for a Q2 start, which was a pull-ahead from the company’s original second half of 2023 timeline. The new facility is now scheduled to complete a rigorous validation process throughout the second half of 2023 to meet automakers’ standards and requirements for large-scale, global vehicle launches. Celestica also operates an existing low-volume production line for Luminar in a separate facility in Monterrey, Mexico.

Luminar has established a global manufacturing footprint that spans the United States, Mexico and Thailand. The company is actively planning ahead to ensure future capacity to support next generation products and capitalize on continuous improvements in the design for manufacturability of its sensors. Luminar expects to establish the next phase of its capacity installation in the Asia Pacific region, and will report continued progress during its first-quarter business update on May 9, 2023.

About Luminar

Luminar is a global automotive technology company ushering in a new era of vehicle safety and autonomy. For the past decade, Luminar has built an advanced hardware and software platform to enable its more than 50 industry partners, including the majority of global automotive OEMs. From Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz for consumer vehicles and Daimler Trucks for commercial trucks, to tech partners NVIDIA and Intel’s Mobileye, Luminar is poised to be the first automotive technology company to enable next-generation safety and autonomous capabilities for production vehicles. For more information please visit www.luminartech.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements included in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “aims,” “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “set,” “continue,” “towards,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “forward,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expected achievement, timing and cost of sensor production capacity, future expansion opportunities both within existing facilities and in potential new facilities in other geographic regions, and vehicle launches timing by automakers. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of Luminar's management and are not guarantees of actual performance. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements, including the risks discussed in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of Luminar’s most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, and other documents Luminar files with the SEC in the future. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made, and Luminar undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release.

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Source: Luminar

Released April 13, 2023