This article only represents the author's own views.
Autonomous driving is taking to China’s roads, with self-driving taxis now conducting road tests in many cities and at least 10 vehicle brands licensed for Level 3 semi-autonomous driving. While government support is helping to fuel the sector’s development, few are finding any profits just yet. To the contrary, many continue to struggle with low margins in an increasingly crowded and overheating field that includes iMotion Automotive Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. (1274.HK).
The autonomous driving technology company’s recently announced results for the first half of this year showed its revenue rose 17.1% year-on-year to 640 million yuan ($89.7million), while its gross profit also rose 9.3% to 44.9 million yuan. The company continued to lose money, though the loss narrowed slightly to 98.6 million yuan from 99.8 million yuan a year earlier. During the six-month period, iMotion delivered 96,000 sets of its self-driving solutions and products, nearly double the figure from a year earlier.