XPENG Commissions Humanoid Robot Lines as IRON Walks Off Production

XPeng Inc. has commissioned production lines for humanoid robots at its manufacturing facility and completed the line production of its first advanced humanoid robot, which walked off the lines autonomously, the company announced on September 7, 2026.

The Guangzhou-based company described the event as a transition from research-and-development prototyping to line manufacturing for its next-generation IRON robot. XPENG said the lines are the first automated production lines for advanced humanoid robots, combining automotive-grade quality systems from the smart electric vehicle industry with precision manufacturing for humanoid robots. More than 80% of core processes on the lines are automated, which the company said delivers a high-precision, highly flexible manufacturing system intended to ensure consistent critical-process quality and support scaled production and rapid capacity expansion.

Production Lines Built Without Precedent

He Xiaopeng, chairman and chief executive of XPENG, said the robot production lines were created from scratch with no precedent to follow. “Today’s step is small, but XPENG is building the production lines for an entirely new product category,” he said, adding that the company will continue to explore faster production rhythms and greater scale in robot manufacturing.

Built to automotive-grade quality standards, the facility establishes a quality system for mass production of advanced humanoid robots, according to the company. XPENG said the commissioning extends its automotive-grade manufacturing capabilities into robotics and marks a step toward volume production. He also placed a staff badge on the IRON unit that completed the line, a gesture the company said symbolized the robot officially becoming a member of the XPENG team.

IRON Hardware and Onboard Computing

XPENG positions the next-generation IRON as an advanced general-purpose humanoid robot platform combining a human-like form and movement with AI-driven intelligence, designed to support a broad range of applications and to keep improving through self-reinforcement in real-world settings.

According to the company, the robot carries 76 degrees of freedom across its body, with 21 in each hand, and uses a proprietary fully enclosed flexible lattice structure intended to balance aesthetics and safety. Three of XPENG’s in-house Turing AI chips supply up to 2,250 TOPS of effective computing power, allowing the company to run its Physical AI foundation model directly on the robot. XPENG said this on-device deployment lets IRON perform complex tasks autonomously without remote operation, while keeping inference latency low and strengthening data security. The company described the resulting dexterity and mobility as industry-leading, and said the platform is being developed to meet the highest safety standards.

Production and Commercial Timeline

XPENG said its robots are scheduled to enter mass production by the end of 2026. Initial commercial deployments will take place in the company’s own stores and campuses, with an official market launch and deliveries in China and overseas markets planned for 2027.

He said the company aims to build a robot with full generalization capabilities that can become part of everyday life.

The robotics business arrives at the production stage with fresh capital. On August 24, 2026, the unit entered into share purchase agreements with multiple investors, raising over US$900 million at a post-money valuation of over US$6.3 billion. XPENG said the round, led by IDG Capital with participation from Gaorong Ventures and strategic support from Tencent and Alibaba, is the largest single-round private capital raise in China’s embodied AI industry to date. The proceeds are designated for software and hardware research and development, Physical AI model training, data generation, mass-production facility development, and global commercial expansion. XPENG will retain controlling ownership of the robotics business, which will remain consolidated in the group’s financial statements.

Robotics as a Second Growth Curve

The commissioning fits into XPENG’s broader physical AI strategy, under which the company is building three growth curves: automotive, robotics, and globalization. XPENG said that, given the high technical barriers and limited high-quality supply in the advanced general-purpose humanoid robot segment, it expects the gross margin per robot unit to be significantly higher than that of new energy vehicles. The company described the robotics business as its second growth curve and said its value is becoming more visible as the unit moves into scaled manufacturing and commercialization.

XPENG, which is headquartered in Guangzhou and holds dual primary listings in New York and Hong Kong, has built what it calls a full-stack physical AI technology system covering Turing AI chips, physical world foundation models, and integrated software and hardware. Its product portfolio spans smart electric vehicles, robotaxis, and humanoid robots. The company said it is progressively connecting the full chain from model base and product research and development to industrialized deployment, bringing AI out of the digital world and into the physical world.