XPeng's robotics division is on the cusp of mass production and delivery.

Effective immediately, in addition to his role as Group CEO, He Xiaopeng will personally assume the position of CEO for the robotics business. This decision stems from the company reaching a pivotal historical juncture, with its robotics venture poised on the threshold of mass production and commercialization. According to an exclusive report, He Xiaopeng issued an internal letter on June 10th announcing his direct management of the robotics unit.

In the letter, He Xiaopeng stated that the humanoid robot project is currently at a critical stage, comparable to the period eight years ago when XPeng was about to launch its first vehicle, the G3, standing on the brink of volume delivery.

At the 2025 XPeng Tech Day, the humanoid robot IRON showcased a remarkably natural and fluid gait, so much so that it sparked speculation of a human operator being concealed inside. He Xiaopeng was compelled to cut open the robot's leg structure to prove otherwise, an incident that garnered widespread attention both within and outside the industry.

In He Xiaopeng's strategic vision, elevating the robotics business represents a crucial step in the company's transformation from an "intelligent vehicle company" to a "physical AI company." He stated that automobiles, robotics, and global operations constitute XPeng Group's three primary growth trajectories for the next decade.

The robotics business currently integrates the group's internal comprehensive capabilities, including hardware, large AI models, supply chain, marketing, and other operational modules, resulting in high complexity. XPeng Group needs to further accelerate its pace, effectively mobilize resources across various modules, and leverage the company's years of practical experience to form a cohesive, collaborative strategy.

He Xiaopeng's direct involvement in managing the robotics unit sends a clear signal to the industry: XPeng will dedicate more resources to the robotics business, aligning all company resources to fully replicate the supply chain, manufacturing, and global capabilities accumulated from the automotive sector onto the robotics venture, aiming for a rapid and high-quality delivery of the IRON robot.

Previously, He Xiaopeng also acted as the "number one leader" to fully drive the mass production and deployment of XPeng's second-generation VLA (Vehicle-Level Architecture). From the second-generation VLA to the IRON robot, a complete mass production methodology—encompassing full-stack in-house R&D, software-hardware synergy, and top-level leadership personal oversight—is being replicated by XPeng.

According to He Xiaopeng's plan: XPeng will achieve mass production of its humanoid robot in the fourth quarter of 2026. In the first quarter of 2027, the humanoid robot will be introduced into offline stores for customer guidance roles. The second quarter of 2027 will see the robot launched in overseas markets. By 2028, the robots are expected to begin entering more households.

In the internal letter, He Xiaopeng indicated that XPeng's robots differ significantly from those of other manufacturers in terms of technology, product, and commercial development roadmap. XPeng's vision is to bring robots into homes, aiming to create elegant, aesthetically pleasing, and safe humanoid robots capable of close-range interaction with humans.

The letter detailed that XPeng's goal is to develop human-like robots, not merely simple and powerful machines; to create robots capable of local natural language communication and thinking, rather than machines controlled locally by remote with capabilities residing in the cloud; and to build safe robots—fully enclosed, with gentle movements, supporting safety, ethics, privacy (SEP), and data privacy protection—not machines operating at a distance of over one meter from humans. It emphasized that to achieve the first large-scale production of advanced robots, full-stack in-house R&D plus cross-domain integration of hardware and software is essential, as is building large-scale data centers and mass production facilities.

2026 is poised to be a pivotal year for the mass production of humanoid robots. Morgan Stanley recently released a research report stating that the commercialization of humanoid robots is accelerating. Chinese system integrators are progressing from the demonstration phase to real-world pilot applications, covering areas such as inspection, tourism, services, manufacturing, and home assistance, while training methods are increasingly shifting towards reinforcement learning.

The firm raised its sales forecast for humanoid robots in China, expecting 2026 sales to increase by 133% to 28,000 units, doubling the previous forecast of 14,000 units. Furthermore, sales of humanoid robots in China are projected to grow exponentially, from approximately 12,000 units in 2024 to 262,000 units by 2030, reaching 2.6 million units by 2035.