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Daniel Ren

When Nio CEO William Li outlined earnings prospects for the Shanghai-based carmaker in March, he could not help but liken the automotive business to the development of robots.
“I think robotics will represent a natural extension of our carmaking capabilities and business acumen,” Li told reporters at a media briefing after Nio posted its first-ever quarterly profits for the three months ending December.
“Don’t you think that every car we produce in the future will actually be a robot? Its perception, decision-making, and execution will all be based on artificial intelligence.”
While Li has adopted a “latecomer” strategy in robotics to avoid potential big losses in early-stage investment, he is convinced that robotics and carmaking have synergistic benefits.
The premium cars Nio is building already embody perception, decision-making and control systems – similar to those of robots.
That perspective on the future of mobility, buoyed by rapid growth of physical AI, is typical of the more than 10 Chinese manufacturers of intelligent vehicles that have ventured into robotics.
These players, from BYD – the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) maker – to Stellantis-backed Leapmotor, are once again being labelled as Tesla imitators because the US carmaker is accelerating commercialisation of its humanoid robot Optimus.

Some of the Chinese firms – with clear-cut time frames to begin production and deliveries of self-developed robots – could compete against Elon Musk’s Tesla on an equal footing in robotics, buoyed by government support, an integrated supply chain and consumer willingness to embrace new technologies, according to analysts.
“AI’s enhanced role in cars provides a catalyst to automotive companies’ diversification into robotics,” said Qian Kang, owner of a vehicle circuit board factory in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. “More importantly, Tesla’s business scope and model is inspiring Chinese companies to explore embodied AI.”
The robotics sector has supply chain synergy with smart EV production because key components like cameras and radar, as well as software, are needed for both.
Other key parts, from motors to heat control systems, are strongholds for automotive firms but also actively sought after by robot builders.
Chinese EV maker Xpeng and autonomous driving technology developer Baidu got off to an early start in building robots. Five years ago, they offered a sneak peek into their vision of the future of mobility, underscoring the role of robotics technology.
In August 2021, when Baidu founder and CEO Robin Li Yanhong unveiled a prototype “robocar”, he said that in the future “a car will be equivalent to a robot”.
The two-seat vehicle looked like something out of a science fiction movie. It had no steering wheel or pedals, featured two retractable doors, and the cockpit was dominated by a large curved intelligent display and a control pad.

A month later, Guangzhou-based Xpeng announced its plan to release a four-legged robot pony for children, banking on its design and manufacturing capabilities to churn out robotic products equipped with power modules, motion controls, intelligent navigation, and emotional interaction capabilities.
Today, Chinese carmakers are viewed as strong rivals to Tesla as they meld the latest AI technologies with mobility, industry officials and analysts said.
In December, Musk endorsed Xpeng’s Iron humanoid robot on social media while predicting Chinese companies would ­dominate the global robotics market alongside Tesla.


Tesla has yet to sell any of its Optimus humanoid robots, and Musk is now transforming the EV maker from a hardware-centric business into a ­physical AI firm.
Tesla has halted production of its Model S and Model X cars at its plant in Fremont, California, and instead will build humanoid robots in the facility.
In April, Tesla’s China president, Allan Wang Hao, said the company’s Shanghai Gigafactory had the potential to produce humanoid robots, taking advantage of the mainland’s complete supply chain and advanced manufacturing techniques.
The contest between Chinese carmakers and Tesla in humanoid robots takes on broader importance in the context of the heated China-US tech rivalry.
The two countries are battling for supremacy in a number of fields, with humanoid robotics one of the key areas where Beijing and Washington hope their companies can establish global dominance.
Thanks to the country’s diverse supply chain and large production scale, upstream Chinese suppliers could make high-quality, cost-efficient and innovative components for various types of robots, including humanoids, according to Lu Hancheng, former director of the Shenzhen-based Gaogong Robot Industry Research Institute.
Mainland China was now home to more than 150 humanoid robot makers, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. They delivered 97 per cent of the total humanlike robots on the global market in the first half of the year, according to Morgan Stanley.
Early this year, the US bank predicted that the global humanoid market would achieve US$7.5 trillion in annual revenue by 2050.

Morgan Stanley also forecast in July that China’s humanoid robot shipments could hit 446,000 units by 2030, jumping nearly ninefold from about 50,000 units this year, spurred by competition to reach deployment scale and to close the real-world data feedback loop.
Among the Chinese carmakers diversifying into robotics, BYD and Xpeng are now under the spotlight due to their development and manufacturing heft as their mass production plans draw near.
At the end of July, BYD said in a statement to the South China Morning Post that its first humanoid robots would debut in August at the firm’s Di Space experience centres, but that timetable has now been delayed.
In June, Stella Li, BYD’s executive vice-president, predicted that China would become the first market to “see full commercialisation of humanoid robots”.
However, automotive giants do not just see themselves as just making robots to sell on the open market. They also aim to achieve a high level of automation in production by gaining experience in embodied AI technology.


In late July, BYD formed a strategic partnership with Chinese robotics start-up PaXini Tech to deploy robots in manufacturing. The carmaker will create real-world industrial environments for the robots, generating operating data to help train embodied AI models.
Xpeng’s robotics subsidiary Dogotix received US$900 million in its latest round of financing last month, which valued it at US$6.3 billion. The fundraising, which attracted Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the SCMP, and IDG Capital, marked the biggest single private-equity deal involving a Chinese robotics maker.
The company said it planned to begin producing its Iron humanoid robots at the end of 2026, targeting an initial volume of 1,000 units, to be deployed as sales assistants at its domestic showrooms.
Iron runs on the firm’s Vision-Language-Action 2.0 AI model. Unlike older systems that translate images into text-based code before executing a movement, the newer model allows the robot’s neural network to convert visual data directly into motion, improving task efficiency and reducing information loss.

Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng said in November that the company aimed to sell 1 million robots annually by 2030, when costs would be brought down to a level to make the products affordable for household use.
Rivals Li Auto, Xiaomi and Leapmotor have all ramped up the development of humanoid robots, which are expected to perform tasks such as factory work and elderly care.
Since early 2024, Chery Automobile has been working with AI company Aimoga to develop Mornine, a humanoid robot capable of understanding natural language and interpreting human intentions.
At the World Robot Conference in Beijing last month, the industry’s mindset had firmly pivoted towards real-world application ramp-up, Goldman Sachs said.
“While demonstrations of locomotion and entertainment still attract interest, discussions are now centred on quantifiable metrics such as task performance, success rates, throughput, and payback periods, reflecting a healthy maturation of the sector,” the bank said in a research report. “Logistics sorting has emerged as one of the most visible early commercialisation directions.”
Shao Yu, chief economist with the Sci-tech Innovation Centre at Fudan University’s School of Management, said tech industries, propelled by government support and an influx of private capital, were acting as the major growth driver for the Chinese economy.
Shao added that tech sectors, from advanced semiconductors to embodied AI, would sustain their strength over a period of time despite worries of an AI-generated bubble.
“With the trend of innovation, more investment will be made to those hi-tech areas to reflect the K-shaped structure of the Chinese economy,” Shao said. “The crux point is how to leverage hi-tech companies and products to benefit society as a whole.”
A K-shaped divergence refers to China’s economic structure, where hi-tech manufacturing and exports are thriving while consumption, property and traditional industries are experiencing slower growth.
But Xu Mingqi, a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, threw a wet blanket over investors’ expectations for quick returns from investing in physical AI.
Real benefits from AI won’t be achieved quickly
Xu Mingqi, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences
“No AI technology with material impact on people’s lifestyle has been in sight yet,” he told reporters in a media briefing this month. “Real benefits from AI won’t be achieved quickly and it will still turn out to be a long drawn-out process.”


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Robotics

Robotics has supply chain synergy with smart EV production because key components like cameras and radar, as well as software, are in both


Robotics has supply chain synergy with smart EV production because key components like cameras and radar, as well as software, are in both.


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Robotics has supply chain synergy with smart EV production because key components like cameras and radar, as well as software, are in both

Robotics has supply chain synergy with smart EV production because key components like cameras and radar, as well as software, are in both