Lawn kicks off the self-driving race or the next big market for home robots?

Abstract: The lawn mowing robot is an intelligent competition on the lawn.

Power robots and sweeping robots are already mature industry applications.

With the development of lithium batteries and identification technology, lawn mowing robots are becoming the new blue ocean.

Lawn mowers are gradually saying goodbye to the fuel era.

According to Industrial Securities, the global lawn mowing robot market is expected to reach a market size of $3.5 billion in 2026, with a compound growth rate of 12% from 2021E to 2026E.

In the face of new technology-driven markets, domestic technology companies are eager to try.

1

Evolutionary history of lawn mowers starting manually

Lawn mowers are a huge market, close to $30 billion.

According to Grand ViewResearch, the global lawn mower industry will be $30.1 billion in 2020.

In the 1.0 era, lawn mowers went from manual to fuel lawn mowers, to ac-powered lawn mowers (plugged in, limited range of movement), to DC-powered lawn mowers (batteries, removable).

To this day, these products in the 1.0 era are still the mainstream of the market, and they all have their own application scenarios.

For example, a large area of lawn is suitable for a ride-on lawn mower.

The lawn mower with external power supply and lithium battery is more suitable for small lawns such as gardens and courtyards.

The emergence of lawn mowers has gradually bid farewell to the 1.0 era of lawn mowers.

Husqvarna invented the first solar-powered lawn mower robot in 1995, and the smart lawn mower industry has been around since then.

Early lawn mowers, like sweeping robots, technically involuntary planning paths.

In the past two years, with the advancement of lithium battery technology and intelligent identification, automatic driving and other technologies, the penetration rate of intelligent robots that independently plan paths has increased rapidly.

The global lawn mowing robot market is expected to reach $3.5 billion in 2026, with a compound growth rate of 12% from 2021E to 2026E.

2

What is the mystery of the First Outbreak in the European Market?

The largest markets for lawn mower-based garden equipment are mainly the United States, Europe and Canada.

However, the penetration rate of lawn mowing robots, Europe is far ahead.

According to Husqvarna's data, the penetration rate of household robots in northwestern Europe is currently the highest, reaching 50%-60% penetration, while the penetration rate of the United Kingdom and the United States is still 5% and below, and it is in the initial stage of the industry.

The reason for the low penetration rate in the UK is that there are more large public parks in the UK and the average home lawn is smaller.

As a result, the demand for household lawn mower robots that can reduce labor costs and manpower inputs in the UK has grown more slowly.

Therefore, the lawn mowing robot solves the problem of selling well in home application scenarios, and the pain point problem solved is the high maintenance cost of the home lawn.

According to the titanium media article, in the US market, the annual cost of home lawn outsourcing is roughly 1000-1200 US dollars.

Doing it yourself also requires time, equipment purchase costs, equipment maintenance costs and other costs, which are also expensive.

So why is the penetration rate in Europe much higher than in the US market?

The first reason is that the lawn in Europe belongs to the small and medium-sized lawn, 300-400 square meters. The lawn area of the US home market is large, and the promotion of grass mowing robots with lithium batteries as the main power is still facing more pain points. Therefore, it is more suitable for small and medium-sized turfs in Europe.

The second reason is that Europe implemented harsh environmental policies earlier.

The third reason is that Europe has a lower labor force participation rate, which means higher labor costs.

However, with the advancement of lithium battery technology and the importance of environmental protection in the United States, the pain points in the US market are gradually being solved.

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3

From lawn mowers to lawn mower robots

The market pattern of lawn mowers is relatively stable.

Mainly Husqvarna, Baoshide, Greebo, Daye Shares, Chervon Holdings and other veteran tool players compete, has been deeply rooted in the market.

These established companies have also gained a first-mover advantage in the market for lawn mowing robots to some extent in the past.

The current lawn mowing robot competition pattern, the market share is more concentrated, Husqvarna, Gardena (affiliated to the Husqvarna Group), Baoshide brand a total of 3 brands, as of January 2022 accounted for 90% of the market share.

At the same time, technology-leading new energy, power tools, and home appliance companies are coveting this huge market.

These companies have broken the game with technology and have launched intelligent lawn mowing robots.

Speaking of this, the technical barriers of lawn mowing robots are mainly divided into the following aspects.

The first is the sensor, including collision, ultrasonic, laser, vision and other solutions.

Ultrasonic is the most economical and laser accuracy is the highest (high cost).

Husqvarna, the industry leader, mainly uses ultrasonic technology.

Second, the algorithm of positioning navigation and obstacle avoidance.

Positioning navigation, mainly RTK, based on GPS, improves the accuracy of outdoor range, and it is difficult to have new technologies within 10 years.

Obstacle avoidance is based on sensor data, avoiding static/dynamic obstacles, maintaining movement in the direction of the target, and real-time autonomous navigation.

In short, autonomous driving technology in closed areas.

In this regard, it is the competitive advantage of technology-driven companies like Coworth, No. 9, IROBOT, and DJI.

4

Domestic brands quickly entered the game

The current global leader in the industry is Husqvarna.

Its market positioning is the world's largest share of outdoor power tools, the leader of mowing robots.

In 2020, the company ranked first in the global outdoor power tools market share of 12.1%.

In fiscal 2021, the company's revenue reached $5.068 billion, of which $670 million was for mower robots.

Husqvarna's lawn mowing robots are on the high-end side, with prices ranging from $1399.99 to $4799.99.

As of January 2022, Husqvarna has developed a product for 1.25 acres, running for up to 270 minutes and equipped with voice-activated technology.

In addition to Husqvarna, there are also traditional power tool companies in China that lead the world.

Prosed is one of China's largest manufacturers and exporters of power tools based in Suzhou.

In 1999, Baoshide proposed the brand development strategy plan, and in 2004 successfully launched the WORX brand into overseas markets. At present, it owns brands such as WORX (Wicks) and Rockwell.

Bosite is an important player in the "wiring + random collision" lawn mowing robot, accounting for about 25% of the market.

The price segment of Baoshide's lawn mowing robots is distributed in the range of 949.99-1399.99 US dollars, which is relatively cost-effective.

Domestic new players include No. 9 Company, Coworth, Chervon Holdings, etc.

In September 2021, Company Nine officially released its first intelligent lawn mowing robot, Navimow, which technically achieved the leading edge without burying a line.

The technical principle of the non-intelligent lawn mowing robot is random collision type, which requires manual pre-buried lines.

This will save users a large amount of labor costs and maintenance costs for laying wires.

Nine will open the market through the acquisition of Segway, a well-known overseas brand.

The same technical reserves also include Coworth, DJI, Stone Technology and so on.

For the future market prospects of lawn mowing robots, Zheshang Securities believes that the industry as a whole, the penetration rate of lawn mowing robots is low and in its infancy.

At the same time, there are still large pain points in some markets that have not yet been solved, and the core functions of technology & products are the main driving factors in the current stage.

When the product performance is gradually improved to solve the pain points, the overall growth rate of lawn mowing robots is far more than this.

Source:

Zheshang Securities, No. 9 Company In-depth Report, Intelligent Short-term Transportation is in the Ascendant, and Lawn Mowing Robots Are Expected to Exceed Expectations;

Tianfeng Securities, General Machinery Industry: Comparison of electric lawn mower products, focusing on investment opportunities in head brand companies;

Zheshang Securities, lawn mowing robot industry in-depth report: intelligence is imminent, subversion is coming;

Industrial Securities, consumer industry power tools in-depth series report (1): the demand for lawn-mowing robots has been opened, and who is the main ups and downs under technological change;

Brocade, titanium media, autonomous driving wars on the lawn, the next explosive product of big consumption, https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1721546790141826551&wfr=spider&for=pc