XPeng turns on IRON robot line as Tesla Optimus stalls — SkimNews
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- XPeng activated what it calls the world's first automated production line for advanced humanoid robots, with its IRON robot walking off the line under its own power and more than 80% of core processes automated, targeting mass production by end of 2026.
- IRON has 76 degrees of freedom (21 per hand), three of XPeng's in-house Turing AI chips delivering up to 2,250 TOPS, and runs XPeng's Physical AI foundation model on-device with no remote operator, the company claims.
- XPeng's robotics arm raised over $900 million at a $6.3 billion valuation — the largest single private round in China's embodied AI sector — led by IDG Capital with Tencent and Alibaba joining.
- XPeng plans first IRON deployments in its own stores and campuses, with commercial sales in China and abroad not scheduled until 2027, and is targeting more than 1,000 robots a month on the way to a million a year by 2030.
- Tesla's Optimus program lags in stark contrast: Elon Musk once predicted 10,000 units in 2026, but in January admitted none were doing useful work, with Fremont production set to be "quite slow" and the long-promised V3 reveal still slipping.
Why it matters: XPeng is the first automaker to actually turn on an automotive-grade humanoid robot production line while Tesla's Optimus remains stuck converting a car line at Fremont. The proof point is whether XPeng can scale to real volume by its end-2026 target — IRON still has no paying customers, and the claim that its per-unit gross margin will run "significantly higher" than XPeng's EVs is, for now, just a promise.
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