Chinese EV giant BYD confirms entry into humanoid robot market

Chinese automaker BYD is now building humanoid robots. Executive Vice President Stella Li said the company is developing them in-house, with its own production lines as the first testing ground before a consumer rollout.

BYD joins Tesla and Hyundai Motor Group in a race for the robotics market, which Citigroup has projected could reach $7 trillion by 2050.

BYD starts robot deployment in-house

Li explained BYD’s strategy in a recent interview with local media. The plan starts with factories. BYD operates some of the world’s densest production lines for electric vehicles and batteries. Li said the company expects to be its own largest customer for the robots it builds.

The logic is to deploy robots to dangerous or repetitive tasks, then use the data to refine the technology. This will drive down unit costs through volume, leading to expansion into new markets.

BYD established a robot division in June 2025 and hired a research team focused on algorithms, structural design, and simulation.

“Automotive software is complex, and porting it into robots is very easy for us,” Li said in the interview.

BYD pictures three robots in every home

Li described a future where three robots would operate in every household. One robot is for cleaning, one for cooking, and one as a walking companion.

To get there, BYD plans to build an open robotics platform capable of manufacturing both its own robots and products developed with outside partners.

The company is also eyeing its sprawling auto dealer network as a retail channel for consumer robot sales, which is a distribution advantage pure robotics startups can’t match.

In Li’s view, Chinese robots need better AI, and American robots need better physical hardware. BYD is building toward both.

Automakers race to build humanoid robots

Hyundai Motor Group acquired Boston Dynamics and is deploying its next-generation Atlas robot in smart factories in Singapore and Georgia as both a workforce tool and a data collection platform.

Tesla has been developing its Optimus robot since 2021, with CEO Elon Musk claiming the program could eventually make the company worth $25 trillion.

In China, Chery-incubated brand Aimoga recently began selling a humanoid robot to consumers at a retail price of 285,800 yuan, or about $42,260. SAIC-GM has put wheeled humanoid robots on its battery assembly lines.

Nio is holding back for now. CEO William Li said in March that the company’s priority is selling more cars.

BYD hasn’t shared a timeline for its first robot either. But its subsidiary, PaXini, raised $148 million in March, surpassing a 10 billion yuan valuation, and is reportedly looking at a Hong Kong IPO.

If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.