15 Chinese car manufacturers are going to produce humanoid robots. They will use the same advantage that made them leaders

China is not late to humanoid robotics: it arrives with factories, suppliers, engineers and software already amortized, an advantage that is difficult to overcome. The supply chain of an electric car (sensors, motors, batteries, chips, perception algorithms…) overlaps by more than 60% with that of a humanoid robot, according to CITIC Securities estimates.

XPeng, one of the most technological manufacturers in the sector, It also ensures that its robot reuses 70% of the same AI software as its cars.. If those numbers are real without many asterisks, the Chinese manufacturers of electric vehicles are not that they are aspirants to robotics, it is that they are clear favorites.

The panoramic. Fifteen Chinese car brands have announced humanoid robot programs, according to the analysis firm Kaiyuan Securities. China already manufactures 70% of the components of “classic” industrial robotics, and the jump to humanoids takes advantage of the same factories, the same suppliers and the same talent that have given it leadership in electric vehicles.

The parallel with what Tesla is doing with Optimus is inevitable, but China is running it with dozens of companies in parallel, at a speed that no single company can match.

Between the lines. The bets diverge as much as the companies:

Yes, but. There are dark clouds on the sunny day that is humanoid robotics for China. XPeng’s IRON robot crashed in a shopping mall in Shenzhen a few days ago. The company has been in robotics for six years.

Driving on roads and moving through the rooms of each parent are very different problems.

• Roads have lanes, signs, and fairly predictable physics.
• The rooms have stairs, dozens of small objects, people moving, doors to open, intricate locations or chargers with a cable on the floor.

The manual dexterity and dynamic balance required by a humanoid robot have no equivalent in the control architecture of any car. And the most talented engineers in the sector know it: several former XPeng executivesLi Auto and Huawei have left their companies to found their own robotics startups.

When the path seems clear, the best are not afraid to go it alone.

The contrast. Unitree, a pure robotics company with no ties to the automotive industry, distributed 5,500 robots in 2025. Agibot is approaching 1 billion yuan in revenue, about 122 million euros. These companies built from the ground up for robotics are already delivering their product while car manufacturers are still in the reorganization phase.

The technological overlap between cars and robots is real in sensors and perception software, but it quickly thins out when the robot has to manipulate objects with great precision, maintain balance on uneven terrain, or work alongside humans.

• That last “frontier”, the 30% that does not transfer, may be where it is decided who dominates the industry.

In Xataka | China manufactures 90% of the world’s humanoid robots and the reason is not its industrial policy: it is crossing the street

Featured image | Xpeng