BYD has confirmed it is entering the humanoid robot market, becoming the latest Chinese automaker to follow Xpeng, Chery and SAIC into embodied AI. Executive vice president Stella Li said in a televised interview that the Shenzhen-based EV giant is developing humanoid robots through its 15th Business Unit and is considering bringing the products into household scenarios — sold, when ready, through BYD’s vast auto-dealer network.
Around 150 Prototypes Already Testing Inside Factories
According to people familiar with the project cited by Yicai and CnEVPost, roughly 150 BYD humanoid prototypes are already in pilot use inside the company’s own manufacturing facilities. The internal program is led by BYD’s 15th Business Unit, which focuses on electronic integration and intelligence, and was reportedly initiated in 2022. Li said BYD plans to build an open robot platform that can host both its in-house designs and partner-developed robots — an attempt to mirror the automotive supplier ecosystem BYD already controls.
The Dealer-Network Distribution Bet
If the robots reach households, Li said BYD will leverage its existing automotive dealer footprint — a structural advantage Chinese carmakers expect to weaponize against pure-play robotics startups. “Automotive software is complex, and porting it into robots is very easy for us,” Li said. She argued that auto-related AI and humanoid AI share a common technology stack, and that China is positioned to lead robot commercialization. As BYD’s own technology matures, she suggested the company could become the largest buyer of its own robots, deploying them as sales guides in European stores to alleviate local hiring pressures.
China’s Brains-Versus-Limbs Critique
Asked about the global landscape, Li offered a pointed analysis: Chinese humanoids today lack a fully developed ‘brain,’ while U.S. humanoids face the opposite problem — underdeveloped ‘limbs.’ BYD’s stated goal is to build practical robots where both are equally capable, leveraging its manufacturing scale and battery/sensor stack. The strategy joins a fast-growing list of Chinese automakers crossing into robotics: Chery’s Aimoga humanoid is already on sale to consumers at 285,800 yuan, and SAIC-GM has deployed wheeled humanoids on a Buick battery line.
Beyond BYD: A Pattern
The confirmation comes the same week we covered JAKA Robotics’ Pi 1.22m compact humanoid and Hexagon Robotics’ embodied-AI partnership with Microsoft. Generalist AI, a U.S. startup founded by alumni of Google DeepMind and Boston Dynamics, just raised $400M at a $2B valuation to build a foundation model for general-purpose robots — underscoring how quickly capital is flowing into the humanoid brains race. Nio, by contrast, has said it will stay focused on cars for now.
Reporting based on coverage from CnEVPost, CarNewsChina, Yicai and TechNode.