Car companies are flocking to "make humans"! BYD's humanoid robot to be launched in August, XPeng IRON is about to be mass-produced, and Li Auto is advancing on two fronts.

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The wave of Chinese car companies crossing into humanoid robotics is accelerating. From traditional giants to new car manufacturers, an industrial expansion from "four wheels" to "two feet" has fully entered the practical stage.

BYD has confirmed it will officially unveil its humanoid robot in August at the "Di Space," marking the first time it will publicly display a physical prototype in an official capacity. Meanwhile, XPENG’s humanoid robot IRON has begun small-scale trial production at its Guangzhou factory, with the mass production line entering the final adjustment stage. LI Auto has planned two robot products—one with wheels and one with legs—the two-wheeled robot will be unveiled to the public within the year.

The intensive moves by these three car companies mark a critical juncture where domestic automakers are advancing from proof of concept to scaled implementation in robotics.

The appeal of this sector lies in both technological and commercial logic: the technical overlap between smart cars and humanoid robots exceeds 70%, with highly shared supply chains, and automotive factories themselves are the ideal initial application scenarios for humanoid robots. With automotive industry profit margins under persistent pressure, more and more car companies regard humanoid robots as the core direction to open a second growth curve.

BYD Reveals in August, First Public Display of a Physical Prototype

BYD’s timeline for entering humanoid robotics dates back to 2022—when the company had already formed an embodied intelligence research team, laying out plans earlier than is widely known.

In May this year, BYD Executive Vice President Li Ke publicly responded to progress for the first time in an interview on the "BYD Shareholder Planet" platform, describing a vision of "deploying robots in every store in the future," and hoping robots will undertake standardized tasks like multi-language model explanation, in-car system demos, and interactive store traffic engagement. In early June, news circulated online that BYD's self-developed humanoid robot, codenamed "Yao Shun Yu," would see 20,000 units deployed internally this year—BYD quickly refuted this but confirmed their self-developed humanoid robot efforts.

On July 25, BYD's "Di Space" WeChat account released a humanoid robot poster, stating, "A new friend wants to meet you in early August." On July 28, BYD confirmed to China Securities Journal that the humanoid robot will be unveiled at "Di Space" in August. The industry widely expects this to be the first public display of a functional physical prototype, rather than just a conceptual technology release.

Strategically, Li Ke stated that the core of robotics competition lies in manufacturing, software, and hardware capabilities, which are of the same origin as automotive-related capabilities. She also revealed that BYD can build an open platform, both self-developed and collaboratively with other enterprises. As the global sales leader in new energy vehicles, BYD’s deep accumulation in motors, controllers, gear reducers, and other key components overlaps highly with humanoid robot supply chains, forming the backbone of its robotics crossover.

XPENG IRON Nears Mass Production, LI Auto Advances on Two Fronts

Among the new car manufacturers, XPENG is the most aggressive in its timeline. According to Renmin Caixun on July 24, XPENG’s humanoid robot has officially begun small-batch trial production at the Guangzhou factory, and the mass production line is entering final commissioning.

XPENG’s robot strategy was formally established at its 2025 Tech Day. At the time, He Xiaopeng announced XPENG Motors’ upgrade as "mobility explorer in the physical AI world, a globally oriented embodied intelligence company", and released the first-generation humanoid robot IRON. In June 2024, He Xiaopeng announced in an internal letter that he would personally serve as CEO of the robotics business, raising humanoid robots to the group’s highest strategic priority.

According to the plan, XPENG aims to mass-produce IRON by the end of 2026, with monthly production in the thousands by year’s end, first deployed in stores; national offline store rollout in Q1 2027 and overseas in Q2; entering more homes in 2028. IRON is 178 cm tall, powered by a Turing AI chip (total computing power 2250 TOPS) and an in-house physical world large model, and is already undertaking sorting, transporting, and quality inspection tasks at the Guangzhou factory. XPENG also announced Baosteel as an ecological partner for the IRON project, planning to explore applications in complex industrial fields such as inspections.

LI Auto’s progress is also accelerating. Reports state that LI Auto has planned two products: a two-wheeled and a bipedal humanoid robot. The two-wheeled version is mainly for factory use, scheduled for public release this year. In February 2026, LI Auto reorganized its intelligence department into three teams: humanoid robots, software entity, and base model, with the humanoid robot project codenamed "Nexus." LI says it is simultaneously developing autonomous driving as the "first half" of embodied intelligence and general-purpose humanoid robots as the "second half", with an R&D budget of up to 12 billion yuan in 2026—about 50% of which is AI-related.

Automakers’ “Building Humans” Blueprint: From New Forces to Traditional Giants

The intensive moves by BYD, XPENG, and LI Auto are just a microcosm of a larger wave of automakers entering the field. According to public reports, nearly 20 major car companies at home and abroad—such as Tesla, BYD, XPENG, GAC, Chery, Changan, Xiaomi, LI Auto, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai—have entered the humanoid robotics track via self-development, investment, or incubation.

Among traditional Chinese automakers, GAC Group unveiled the fourth-generation humanoid robot GoMate Mini in February 2026; Changan invested 450 million yuan to establish "Changan Tianshu Intelligent Robot Technology Co."; Chery released the "Mo Jia" robot brand. In addition, SAIC Group’s embodied intelligence robot "Nengzai 1" is already installed on production lines, Geely entered through investment, and Leapmotor has also tapped into the field.

Image source: People’s Daily

Internationally, Tesla’s third-generation Optimus entered mass production in Q2 2026, with Elon Musk confirming rollout at the Fremont factory in California by late July or August; Tesla’s dedicated Optimus factory at the Texas Gigafactory is ultimately planned for 1 million units annual capacity. Hyundai is advancing through Boston Dynamics, with the Atlas humanoid robot scheduled for production use in Hyundai plants from 2028. BMW chose direct procurement, deploying Hexagon Robotics’ Aeon humanoid robots in its Leipzig factory in Germany starting this summer.

Shared Technology, Built-in Scenarios: The Underlying Logic of Automakers Entering Robotics

Automakers’ rush into "building humans" is not just simple cross-sector diversification, but has clear industrial synergy logic.

On the technical side, smart cars and humanoid robots overlap over 70%. Key hardware such as joint actuators, power supply, and perception control is highly interchangeable; sensors like LiDAR, cameras, and millimeter wave radar can be directly transplanted; environment sensing, path planning, and real-time decision algorithms are also highly shared. As Xinhua cited He Xiaopeng, "70% of car companies’ technical reserves can be used directly in robots." On the supply chain side, motors, gear systems, lead screws, bearings, batteries, and sensors are core components for both electric vehicles and robots—the main difference is in precision requirements.

On the scenario side, automotive factories themselves are the ideal initial landing ground for humanoid robots—production lines are already designed for humans, and robots can be directly adapted to existing systems with little to no large-scale modification. Handling, assembly, quality inspection, and patrol checks are all tasks where humanoid robots can first substitute humans. Store guide and explanation tasks offer natural testing grounds as well, and high-quality operational data from internal scenarios enables rapid product iteration, forming a technical feedback loop.

Commercial impetus is clear as well. In 2025, China’s auto industry profit margin will fall to 4.1%, a new low since 2015. Under dual stresses of inventory competition and price war, humanoid robots are viewed as an important second growth route. Predicted by many investment banks to potentially generate $10 trillion in market value, the humanoid robot sector has become a new choice for car companies. Morgan Stanley expects the humanoid robot market may reach $5 trillion by 2050.

Promising Outlook, Persistent Challenges

The year 2026 is widely seen as a crucial verification period for humanoid robots from "zero to one," with global shipments expected to exceed 50,000 units this year and over 100,000 units in 2027.

However, challenges remain. Robots require much higher actuator accuracy and dexterous tactile sensing than automotive standards; initial cost per unit is still high, and large-scale commercialization is not yet within reach. Xinhua notes that the road from today’s programmed "tech demo" robots to general purpose, mass adoption in homes is still long—and will require not only sustained investment of money and talent, but breakthroughs in technologies like solid-state batteries and flexible sensors, as well as the next "ChatGPT-like leap" in physical AI.

The market opportunity must also be assessed clearly. Robotic arms can already handle nearly all large-scale manufacturing scenarios; jobs that cannot yet be replaced either face very high barriers or involve few workers to substitute. For automakers to open new growth curves in the short term, they must find a balance between cost, performance, and substitution efficiency, and explore further scenarios with clear, sustainable demand beyond their own production lines.

Nevertheless, automakers' advantage is exactly that—they do not need to wait for humanoid robots to be "perfect" to start using them. In highly structured factory environments, robots that can perform specific tasks already offer practical value. From this perspective, the expansion from "four wheels" to "two feet" is unlikely to be just a short-lived marketing gimmick.

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