Luminar announces new automated, high volume factory

The high-volume manufacturing facility is based in Monterrey, Mexico.

The first Luminar Iris sensors out of this new dedicated facility are beginning to ship to Luminar’s global high-volume series production customer in preparation for start of production by end of this year to support vehicle launches.

“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 design, manufacturing, and supply chain solutions company. 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 Organisation for Standardisation (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 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.