Chinese EV maker XPENG says it’s planning massive investments to bring AI-powered humanoid robotics into everyday life.
Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng is quoted in Chinese state media as saying the long-term strategic project could warrant up to ¥100 billion ($14 billion USD). The Guangzhou-based manufacturer is developing its next-generation AI robot as it aggressively seeks to bring flying cars to market.
The Tesla rival’s Iron robot, introduced in November 2024, is a full-sized humanoid designed to mimic human mobility and dexterity. Standing 178 centimeters (5 feet 10 inches), the 70 kg robot features 60 articulated joints providing 200 degrees of freedom (DoF).
The dexterity is notable compared to Iron’s contemporaries. The reported degrees of freedom put the humanoid robot in the same league as Clone Robotics’ synthetic human prototype, Protoclone, and Kengoro by the University of Tokyo. The musculoskeletal robots are designed to mimic human anatomy.
Iron’s complex robotic hands have 15 DoF for delicate manipulation tasks. The reported dexterity surpasses the Generation 2 Tesla Optimus humanoid robot’s hand, which has 11 DoF. However, the next-gen Tesla Bot hand reportedly has 22 DoF, which Elon Musk has said is enough for virtually any human task. Human hands typically have 27 DoF.
XPENG claims Iron’s Eagle Eye perception system offers 720-degree 3D vision coverage. A specialized locomotion controller, which XPENG describes as a dynamic motor cortex, powers Iron’s human-like bipedal locomotion. In demonstrations, the robot has been shown walking autonomously, handling tools, and planning its motions to perform tasks safely around people and equipment.
Iron’s robot brain runs on XPENG’s proprietary Turing AI chip, a 40-core processor originally developed for the automaker’s self-driving vehicles. The high-powered chip can process AI models with up to 30 billion parameters.
Like Tesla, XPENG has essentially transplanted its automotive AI tech into its humanoid robot, including computer vision, sensor fusion, and decision-making algorithms. With its end-to-end AI model, Iron is capable of basic reasoning and can adjust its actions based on sensory input.
XPENG designed Iron for industrial and service applications. The robots have reportedly been deployed to the manufacturer’s own production lines, where they’re training for wider-scale deployment. According to XPENG, Iron humanoids are actively assembling upcoming electric vehicle models. Future iterations could serve in retail stores, offices, and even households.
XPENG’s chairman has said the company could become the first to mass produce humanoids globally if development stays on track. That’s an ambitious goal, with Shanghai-based AgiBot claiming it’s already manufactured more than 1,000 humanoids and competitors like Figure AI and Agility Robotics scaling production in the United States.
XPENG has not disclosed a price point for Iron, but the robotics firms it’s competing with are targeting between $20K and $30K once production is scaled.
XPENG formally ventured into robotics in 2020 when it acquired Shenzhen startup Dogotix for nearly $100 billion. The founder of that startup, Zhao Tongyang, kickstarted the carmaker’s humanoid robotics program with the PX5 bipedal prototype, which was showcased at Nvidia’s GTC 2024 conference. The founder eventually left XPENG in 2023 to launch EngineAI.