BYD confirms plans to build and sell humanoid robots
The world’s largest electric vehicle powerhouse is shifting gears into a brand-new industry: humanoid robotics.
In its most direct public statement yet regarding its future outside of the automotive world, Chinese EV giant BYD officially confirmed it is actively developing humanoid robots, News.Az reports, citing CNC.
BYD Executive Vice President Li Ke revealed that the company is already deep into the research and development phase. According to Li, the future of the robotics market will be won by whoever possesses the strongest manufacturing scale, software, and hardware capabilities—areas where BYD already dominates globally.
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The most surprising twist? If these robots successfully transition into household products, BYD plans to sell them right alongside its cars using its massive, pre-existing automotive dealer network.
While cars and humanoid robots might seem worlds apart, BYD sees them as two sides of the same coin.
"Automotive AI and robotics share common technological foundations." — Li Ke, BYD Executive Vice President
Modern intelligent electric vehicles rely on a heavy tech stack: advanced sensors, AI processing models, powerful computing platforms, electric actuators, and high-capacity batteries. Because both industries require precision engineering in perception, decision-making, and motion control, BYD can seamlessly port its automotive AI breakthroughs directly into its robot brains.
Furthermore, as a high-volume automaker that delivered over 321,000 vehicles in April 2026 alone, BYD already possesses the elite supply-chain management and safety-critical manufacturing experience needed to mass-produce complex hardware cheaply.
Instead of locking its technology behind closed doors, BYD is eyeing an open-platform strategy.
Under this hybrid approach, the company would manufacture its own signature humanoid robots while simultaneously opening its doors to cooperate with external robotics firms. This perfectly mirrors BYD's incredibly successful car strategy, where it builds its own core components internally but maintains a massive network of global suppliers and partners.
BYD is far from alone in this pursuit. The convergence of artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and embodied AI (giving AI a physical body) has sparked an aggressive robotics race among major Chinese car brands:
Chery: In April 2026, Chery's robotics arm officially launched online consumer sales for its Mornine M1 humanoid robot, priced at roughly 280,000 yuan ($41,400 USD), making it one of the first automakers to commercialize the technology.
Xpeng: The EV startup has explicitly tied its next-gen AI strategy and L4 robotaxi ambitions to future robotics applications.
While BYD has not yet released a commercial timeline, technical specifications, or pricing for its upcoming robots, the entry of the world’s EV volume leader guarantees that the humanoid robot race just got a lot faster.
By Aysel Mammadzada
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