XPENG founder He Xiaopeng has personally taken charge of XPENG Robotics, the Chinese EV maker said on 10 June, as the company races to put its IRON humanoid robot into mass production in the fourth quarter of 2026.
From 'Smart EV' To 'Physical AI Company'
Effective immediately, He Xiaopeng will continue serving as XPENG Group CEO while also leading the robotics business. The move, he told employees, marks a strategic transformation from a 'smart EV company' into a 'physical AI company,' with XPENG's automotive supply chain and manufacturing capabilities now redirected toward humanoid commercialisation. Investment in the robotics unit will rise sharply and customer deliveries of IRON will accelerate, he said.
IRON, which debuted at XPENG Tech Day on 5 November 2025, drew attention for a fluid 'catwalk' gait that prompted online scepticism. He Xiaopeng followed up with a teardown video exposing IRON's internal frame to silence the doubters. According to XPENG disclosures, IRON carries roughly 200 degrees of freedom — about 82% of the 244 DoF found in the human body.
Guangzhou Factory, 1,000 Units A Month
Construction of IRON's mass-production facility — a roughly 110,000 sq m site in Guangzhou's Tianhe District — broke ground in Q1 2025. XPENG plans to enhance IRON's motion and control capabilities through the second half of 2026, with monthly capacity expected to exceed 1,000 units by year-end. Initial deployments will go to XPENG's own retail stores and campuses where the robots will work as shopping guides and customer-experience hosts before broader commercial deliveries begin in 2027. The company has publicly committed to an annual run-rate of 1 million IRON units by 2030.
Crowded Chinese Humanoid Field
XPENG is racing into a market already crowded with Chinese automakers. BYD has confirmed a humanoid push via its dealer network, Chery plans Mo Jia Wu You deliveries in 2026, and Xiaomi already runs robot trials inside its EV factories. Tesla's Optimus Gen 3 remains the global benchmark, with Elon Musk targeting summer 2025 production and large-scale rollout by 2027.
XPENG itself is shifting from showroom story to production reality after rolling out a mass-produced Level 4 robotaxi in Guangzhou last month. With Apptronik scaling Apollo on $935M of capital and Neura Robotics raising a record $1.4B, the humanoid sector is converging on commercial cadence in Q4 2026.
Reporting based on coverage from Internet Info Agency, Gasgoo and XPENG corporate disclosures.