Hesai Group stock (NASDAQ: HSAI) started the week in the red on Monday, December 22, 2025, even as the company disclosed a headline-grabbing expansion beyond its core automotive LiDAR business: a strategic partnership with Meituan Drone that puts Hesai’s FTX solid-state LiDAR into Meituan’s newly launched M-Drone 4L platform. [1]
The juxtaposition—strong product/news momentum vs. a down day for the shares—is exactly why HSAI has become such a magnet for “future-of-autonomy” investors. Today’s story isn’t just “stock down.” It’s about what the market is pricing in: rapid growth, manufacturing scale, geopolitical risk, and whether LiDAR demand keeps widening into drones, robotics, and higher levels of assisted driving.
Below is a full, Dec. 22, 2025 snapshot of the latest news, forecasts, and analyses shaping Hesai Group stock.
What happened to Hesai Group stock today (Dec. 22, 2025)?
Hesai Group Sponsored ADR (HSAI) fell sharply in Monday trading, with one market recap noting the shares were down about 4.4%, touching an intraday low around $22.61 and trading near $22.53, after a prior close of $23.56. Trading volume was also reported as unusually light versus typical levels (down roughly 79% vs. average daily volume in that report). [2]
Another real-time market summary listed HSAI around $22.80 on the day, with a reported 52-week range of approximately $10.41 to $30.85—a reminder that this name can move like a caffeinated squirrel. [3]
Why that matters: in high-growth hardware names like LiDAR, down days don’t always require a single “bad headline.” Often, it’s a mix of profit-taking, broader risk sentiment, and investors recalibrating around the next catalyst (earnings, guidance, big design wins, regulation).
The biggest headline: Hesai’s Meituan Drone partnership puts FTX LiDAR into M-Drone 4L
On Dec. 22, Hesai announced a strategic partnership with Meituan Drone in which Hesai’s second-generation fully solid-state perception-and-positioning LiDAR (FTX) received a mass-production designation for Meituan’s drone platform. [4]
What Meituan launched—and why LiDAR is central
Hesai’s release ties the partnership to Meituan’s Dec. 19 event in Shanghai, where Meituan presented an “integrated low-altitude route network” concept—pushing drone delivery from point-to-point routes toward something closer to a city-level aerial logistics network. [5]
Meituan also introduced its fourth-generation long-range drone, the M-Drone 4L, which (per Hesai) is positioned as a first-of-its-kind move in the sector by making LiDAR standard for perception and positioning. Hesai said the drone’s sensing system integrates 10 sensors, including one FTX LiDAR, alongside vision and GNSS for multi-sensor fusion. [6]
The quote that jumped out to investors
In Hesai’s announcement, Meituan’s vice president and the head of its drone unit said that without LiDAR, drones can’t deliver a more general nighttime low-altitude logistics service, and that Meituan can navigate at night without satellite or visual navigation—relying on LiDAR-based navigation—citing a demonstration where positioning drift stayed within 0.25% using LiDAR alone. [7]
Scale signals: routes, orders, and real-world use cases
Hesai’s statement also claims Meituan has opened 65 routes across multiple major cities and completed more than 740,000 orders, and highlighted a healthcare logistics example where the new drone platform transported blood samples between hospital campuses, reducing transport time by 50% and doubling overall testing efficiency. [8]
Product detail investors care about: FTX manufacturing timeline
Hesai says the FTX offers more than 2x the prior-generation resolution and is 66% lighter, aiming to cut integration complexity and cost for drones—while improving obstacle detection and performance in night/fog/haze conditions. Hesai also states it plans to begin large-scale mass production and deliveries in 2026. [9]
Why this matters for HSAI stock: Investors have generally valued Hesai as an automotive LiDAR scale story. A credible drone platform win reframes the narrative into “LiDAR everywhere”—autonomy on roads, in warehouses, and now in the air.
Analyst forecasts for Hesai Group stock: “Buy” consensus and a ~$30.80 average target
On Dec. 22, one widely-circulated analyst roundup pegged Hesai Group with a consensus “Buy” rating from nine analysts, broken down as one hold, six buys, and two strong buys, and an average 12‑month price target of $30.80. [10]
A separate market recap also listed notable rating actions in recent months, including:
- Goldman Sachs raising a target (in that recap) to $36 with a buy rating
- Sanford C. Bernstein upgrading to strong-buy
- Weiss Ratings reiterating a hold rating [11]
One Hong Kong-focused note also referenced Goldman Sachs assigning a 12‑month target price of $36 for the U.S.-listed shares (and a separate HK target for the Hong Kong line). [12]
How to read this like a grown-up: price targets are not prophecies. They’re best treated as a market-implied “consensus map” of what analysts think the business could be worth if execution and macro conditions behave.
The most important fundamental context: Hesai’s last quarter and near-term revenue outlook
Hesai’s most recent reported quarter (Q3 2025) gives crucial context for both bulls and skeptics.
Q3 2025 highlights (reported)
Hesai reported:
- Net revenue of RMB 795.4 million (US$111.7 million)
- Total LiDAR shipments of 441,398 units
- Net income of RMB 256.2 million (US$36.0 million) [13]
The company also broke out shipment mix:
- ADAS LiDAR shipments:380,759
- Robotics LiDAR shipments:60,639 [14]
Management emphasized scale and market share claims (citing third-party data), including maintaining leadership in long-range automotive LiDAR and highlighting a 46% market share figure in August for long-range automotive LiDAR. [15]
Q4 2025 revenue guidance
For Q4 2025, Hesai guided net revenue to RMB 1.0 billion to RMB 1.2 billion, implying a year-over-year increase of roughly 39% to 67%. [16]
Full-year profitability guidance (as described in a transcript recap)
An earnings-call transcript recap said Hesai raised full-year GAAP net income guidance to RMB 350–450 million, and discussed longer-term shipment ambitions (including 2–3 million LiDAR units by 2026), while also cautioning about potential average selling price pressure from mix and volume pricing. [17]
Translation into stock logic: HSAI is being valued as a company that can (1) keep scaling shipments, (2) defend margins enough to stay profitable, and (3) extend LiDAR demand beyond a single auto cycle.
Another key growth pillar: Li Auto design win reinforces automotive scale
Hesai also continues to stack automotive partnerships. In a Nov. 2025 release, Hesai said it was selected by Li Auto to supply LiDAR for all models in Li Auto’s next-generation assisted driving platform, including the L Series, i Series, and MEGA, and noted Li Auto had delivered over 1.46 million vehicles as of Oct. 31, 2025. [18]
This matters for investors because the “bull case math” for LiDAR gets much easier when adoption becomes standardized across model lines rather than limited to premium trims.
Technical analysis pulse: Relative Strength rating improves
A market-technical datapoint circulating on Dec. 22: Investor’s Business Daily reported Hesai’s Relative Strength (RS) Rating rose from 80 to 84, a threshold IBD often associates with stronger market leadership characteristics. [19]
Even if you don’t trade on RS ratings, this signals one thing clearly: HSAI has been outperforming enough versus the broader market to get noticed by momentum-oriented screens.
The shadow over the story: U.S. policy risk and “blacklisting” headlines
No serious HSAI coverage is complete without the geopolitical/regulatory risk section—because this stock has one, whether investors like it or not.
Reuters reported on Dec. 11, 2025 that a U.S. lawmaker proposed phasing out Chinese-made LiDAR sensors in self-driving cars and critical infrastructure, including a proposal to bar new purchases after a transition period (with waivers in certain cases). Reuters also noted the U.S. Department of Defense added Hesai to a list of entities it alleges assist China’s military, and that Hesai challenged the designation in U.S. court but lost. [20]
Why this matters to the stock today: even if Hesai is growing fastest in China (and increasingly in non-automotive segments), policy constraints can affect:
- access to certain U.S. customers and programs
- sentiment and risk premiums demanded by global investors
- supply chain decisions and “friend-shoring” pressures
What investors are watching next: the 2026 catalyst calendar
Here are the forward-looking items that, based on today’s disclosures and recent reports, are most likely to move Hesai Group stock in coming months:
- FTX ramp into mass production (2026): Hesai explicitly points to 2026 for large-scale production/delivery of the FTX solid-state LiDAR used in Meituan’s drone platform. [21]
- CES 2026 visibility (Jan. 6–9, 2026): Hesai has said it will exhibit at CES 2026, showcasing its ADAS and robotics LiDAR line-up, including ETX and FTX. [22]
- Next earnings + guidance credibility: After posting profitability and strong shipment growth in Q3, the next reports will be scrutinized for confirmation that margins and growth can coexist. [23]
- Policy headlines (U.S./China tech rules): Whether proposed U.S. restrictions advance—and how customers respond—can swing multiples quickly. [24]
Bottom line: why Hesai Group stock is still a “big story” on Dec. 22, 2025
On a day when HSAI shares pulled back, the underlying news flow was actually pretty bullish on the product side: Hesai is pushing LiDAR into new autonomy domains—with Meituan’s drone logistics network as a concrete, scaled example. [25]
Analysts, meanwhile, are broadly positive, with a Buy-leaning consensus and price targets that imply meaningful upside from today’s trading range—though those targets come with the usual caveats about execution and external risk. [26]
If you’re tracking Hesai Group stock, the mental model to keep handy is this: HSAI is priced as a scaling story. The key debate isn’t whether LiDAR is useful; it’s whether Hesai can keep widening its lead and customer footprint fast enough to outrun the two big enemies of every hardware darling—price compression and politics. [27]
References
1. www.marketbeat.com, 2. www.marketbeat.com, 3. in.investing.com, 4. www.hesaitech.com, 5. www.hesaitech.com, 6. www.hesaitech.com, 7. www.hesaitech.com, 8. www.hesaitech.com, 9. www.hesaitech.com, 10. www.marketbeat.com, 11. www.marketbeat.com, 12. www.aastocks.com, 13. www.globenewswire.com, 14. www.globenewswire.com, 15. www.globenewswire.com, 16. www.globenewswire.com, 17. www.investing.com, 18. www.prnewswire.com, 19. www.investors.com, 20. www.reuters.com, 21. www.hesaitech.com, 22. www.stocktitan.net, 23. www.globenewswire.com, 24. www.reuters.com, 25. www.hesaitech.com, 26. www.marketbeat.com, 27. www.investing.com
