From the South China Morning Post, November 19:
Xpeng, Cherry and others expand beyond cars, with humanoid robot Iron winning praise from Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers from Xpeng to Chery Automobile, leveraging their technological and manufacturing strength, are intensifying efforts to build humanoid robots as they position themselves as potential game-changers amid Beijing’s ambitions to gain an upper hand over the US in the hi-tech sector.
Guangzhou-based Xpeng said it envisioned sales of 1 million units by 2030 after its next-generation humanoid robot Iron won praise from Tesla CEO Elon Musk early this month.
He Xiaopeng, co-founder and CEO of Xpeng, told an earnings results briefing on Monday that the cost of producing humanoid robots would eventually come down to the level of building cars, paving the way for their use by households in the near future.
“I hope Iron [robots] will become a new member in Xpeng’s stores, office parks and factories by the end of next year,” He said. “I believe the market potential for robots is greater than that for cars.”
His upbeat forecast came just 10 days after Musk endorsed Iron on social media, while predicting Chinese companies would dominate the global robotics market alongside Tesla.
Iron, now in its seventh generation, is powered by Xpeng’s Vision-Language-Action 2.0 AI model, which relies primarily on visual data for training and decision-making. The artificial intelligence model allows the robot to interpret its environment directly rather than translating images into language first, improving efficiency and reducing information loss.
Mass production of Xpeng’s humanoid robots would start at the end of 2026, He said.
State-owned Chery, based in eastern China’s Anhui province, has also joined the race. Since early 2024, it has been collaborating with AI company Aimoga to develop Mornine, a humanoid robot designed to understand human language and interpret interaction intentions....
....MUCH MORE
