Electric robots and sweeping robots are already mature industry applications.
With the development of lithium battery and identification technology, lawn mowing robots are becoming a new blue ocean.
Lawn mowers are gradually saying goodbye to the era of fuel oil.
The global lawn mowing robot market is expected to reach a market size of US$3.5 billion in 2026, and the compound annual growth rate from 2021E-2026E is expected to reach 12%.
Facing new technology-driven markets, domestic technology companies are eager to try.
1
The history of lawn mower evolution from manual
Lawn mowers are a huge market, approaching a $30 billion market.
According to Grand View Research data, the global lawn mower industry will be worth $30.1 billion in 2020.
In the 1.0 era, lawnmowers ranged from manual to fuel mowers, to AC powered mowers (plugged in, with limited range of movement), to DC powered mowers (battery, removable).
Until today, these products in the 1.0 era are still the mainstream of the market and have their own application scenarios.
For example, for large areas of lawn, a riding lawn mower is suitable.
The lawn mower with external power supply and lithium battery is more suitable for small-scale lawns such as gardens and yards.
The emergence of lawn mowers has gradually bid farewell to the 1.0 era.
Husqvarna invented the first solar-powered robotic lawnmower in 1995, and the smart lawnmower industry has since kicked off.
Early lawn mowers, like sweeping robots, were technically non-autonomous to plan paths.
In the past two years, with the advancement of lithium battery technology, intelligent identification, automatic driving and other technologies, the penetration rate of intelligent robots that plan their own paths has increased rapidly.
The global lawn mowing robot market is expected to reach a market size of US$3.5 billion in 2026, and the compound annual growth rate from 2021E-2026E is expected to reach 12%.
2
What is the mystery of the first outbreak in the European market?
The largest markets for lawn mower-based garden equipment are the United States, Europe and Canada.
However, the penetration rate of lawn mowing robots is far ahead in Europe.
According to Husqvarna's data, the penetration rate of home robots in northwestern Europe is currently the highest, reaching a penetration rate of 50%-60%, while the penetration rate in the United Kingdom and the United States is still 5% or below, which 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.
This has led to slower growth in UK demand for home lawn mowing robots that can reduce labor costs and human input.
Therefore, mowing robots are popular in home application scenarios, and the pain point it solves is the high maintenance cost of home lawns.
According to an article by Titanium Media, the annual cost of outsourcing a home lawn in the U.S. market is roughly $1,000-$1,200.
Doing it yourself also requires time, equipment purchase costs, equipment maintenance costs and other costs, which are also expensive.
So why is European penetration much higher than the US market?
The first reason is that European lawns are small and medium-sized lawns, 300-400 square meters. However, the lawn area of the US household market is large, and the promotion of lawn mowing robots powered by lithium batteries still faces many pain points. Therefore, it is more suitable for small and medium-sized lawns in Europe.
The second reason is that Europe implemented strict environmental protection 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 United States' emphasis on environmental protection, the pain points of the US market are gradually being solved.
The market pattern of lawn mowers is relatively stable.
Mainly, Husqvarna, Baoshida, Greebo, Daye Co., Ltd., Chervon Holdings and many other veteran hand tool players compete, and have deeply cultivated the market.
These established companies have also gained a first-mover advantage in the lawn mowing robot market to a certain extent in the past.
The current competitive landscape of lawn mowing robots has a relatively concentrated market share. Husqvarna, Gardena (under Husqvarna Group), and Postel have a total of 3 brands, which will account for 90% of the market share as of January 2022.
At the same time, technology-leading new energy, power tools, and home appliance companies are coveting this huge market.
These companies broke the game with technology and launched smart lawn mowers one after another.
Speaking of which, the technical barriers of lawn mowers are mainly divided into the following aspects.
The first is sensors, including collision, ultrasonic, laser, vision and other solutions.
Ultrasound is the most economical cost and laser is the most accurate (high cost).
Industry leader Husqvarna mainly uses ultrasonic technology.
Second, algorithms for positioning navigation and obstacle avoidance.
Positioning and navigation, mainly RTK, based on GPS, improve the accuracy of outdoor range, it is difficult to have new technology in 10 years.
Obstacle avoidance is to avoid static/dynamic obstacles based on sensor data, maintain movement in the target direction, and navigate autonomously in real time.
In short, self-driving technology in enclosed areas.
In this regard, it is precisely the competitive advantages of technology-driven companies such as Ecovacs, No. 9 Company, IROBOT, and DJI.
4
Fast entry of domestic brands
The current global leader in the industry is Husqvarna.
Its market positioning is the leading lawn mower robot with the largest share of outdoor power tools in the world.
In 2020, the company ranked first in the global outdoor power tool market share, reaching 12.1%.
In fiscal 2021, the company's revenue reached $5.068 billion, of which $670 million was for lawn mowers.
Husqvarna’s lawn mowers are on the high end, with prices ranging from $1,399.99 to $4,799.99.
As of January 2022, Husqvarna has developed products for 1.25 acres with a maximum run time of 270 minutes and voice-activated technology.
In addition to Husqvarna, there are also traditional power tool companies in China that lead the world.
Baosteel is one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of power tools in China, headquartered in Suzhou.
In 1999, Baosade put forward a brand development strategy plan, and in 2004, the WORX brand successfully entered the overseas market. Currently owns WORX (Wicks), Rockwell and other brands.
Baoside is an important player in the "wiring + random collision" lawn mowing robot, accounting for about 25% of the market.
The price segment of Baoshida's lawn mower robots is distributed in the range of US$949.99-1399.99, which is relatively cost-effective.
New domestic players include No. 9 Company, Ecovacs, Cherfeng Holdings, etc.
The No. 9 company officially released the first intelligent lawn mowing robot Navimow in September 2021, which has achieved the leading edge in technology without threading.
The technical principle of the non-intelligent lawn mower robot is random collision, which requires manual pre-embedding.
This will save users a lot of labor costs and maintenance costs for laying lines.
Nine will open up the market through the acquired overseas well-known brand Segway.
The same technical reserves also include Ecovacs, DJI, and Stone Technology.
Regarding the future market prospects of lawn mowing robots, Zheshang Securities believes that the industry as a whole has a low penetration rate of lawn mowing robots and is in its infancy.
At the same time, there are still major pain points in some markets that have not yet been resolved, and technology & product core functions are the main driving factors at 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 that.
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