(Yicai) Aug. 19 -- Shares of Chinese autonomous driving technology developer Pony.ai fell after it reported a CNY307.7 million (USD45.6 million) second-quarter net loss, despite a nearly eightfold surge in its autonomous ride-hailing service revenue.

Pony.ai's Hong Kong-listed shares [HK: 2026] closed 5.6 percent down at HKD58.60 (USD7.50) today, representing almost a 50 percent slump from the start of the year. Its US-listed stock [NASDAQ: PONY] closed 2.9 percent lower at USD7.74 yesterday.

Pony.ai, which develops both autonomous driving software and hardware, narrowed its net loss by 15 percent from a year earlier, while total revenue jumped 69 percent to CNY245.8 million, the Guangzhou-based company revealed in its second-quarter financial report released yesterday.

Robotruck services were Pony.ai's largest revenue segment at CNY90.4 million (USD13.4 million), up 40 percent from a year earlier, while Robotaxi revenue surged nearly eightfold to CNY81.9 million and intelligent solutions edged up to CNY73.4 million. Research and development expenses rose 15 percent from a year earlier to CNY381.6 million.

Robotaxi Expansion Accelerates

Robotaxi revenue jumped from a low base to account for about one-third of the total revenue, becoming a key growth driver. More specifically, passenger fare revenue grew by more than 800 percent year on year, marking the fastest single-quarter growth rate on record. The company aims for its Robotaxi revenue in 2026 to be more than 3.5 times that of 2025.

Pony.ai said the strong growth in the Robotaxi business was mainly driven by the deployment of its seventh-generation vehicles, the expansion of commercial robotaxi operations, and partnerships to jointly develop fleets.

Pony.ai is expanding its ride-hailing fleet and overseas presence while pushing ahead with the commercialization of autonomous trucks.

Pony.ai's Robotaxi fleet totaled almost 1,980 vehicles as of June 30. The number of registered users of Pony.ai's app in China had surpassed 1.5 million as of this month, up significantly from one million in March.

Overseas, Pony.ai partnered with Bolt and Stellantis in June to launch Robotaxi testing in Luxembourg. In Singapore, its Robotaxi service has become available to the public through ComfortDelGro Corporation's Zig app. The company is also continuing to deepen its operations in Croatia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and South Korea.

Pony.ai plans to deploy more than 4,000 Robotaxis overseas, including over 2,000 vehicles across five European cities in partnership with Uber.

Autonomous Truck Push

Pony.ai is also moving to commercialize its autonomous trucking technology.

Pony.ai's fourth-generation autonomous heavy truck has entered mass production after completing vehicle-level testing and validation. The trucks will mainly be used in trunk-line logistics, bulk commodity transportation in northwestern China, and horizontal transportation at ports.

The company aims to deploy nearly 1,000 autonomous heavy trucks over the next two to three years and 100,000 autonomous light trucks by 2030, expanding the commercial use of Level 4 technology, which enables vehicles to drive without human intervention under specified conditions.

Editor: Emmi Laine