# XPENG Unveils Next-Gen IRON Humanoid Robot at AI Day 2025

November 6, 2025 – Chinese electric vehicle and smart mobility company XPENG presented its next-generation humanoid robot, the IRON, as a flagship achievement in its “Physical AI” strategy during AI Day 2025 in Guangzhou.

“By combining anthropomorphic design with advanced AI and on-board computation, IRON marks the next step in robotics that can work alongside humans in real environments,” said Chairman & CEO He Xiaopeng during the event.

Key Features of Next-Gen IRON

• Extreme anthropomorphism: The robot features a humanoid spine, bionic muscle architecture, fully covered flexible skin, and supports up to 82 degrees of freedom in the body and 22 degrees of freedom in each hand.

• Advanced AI brain: IRON is powered by three of XPENG’s in-house Turing AI chips enabling high-performance computing (thousands of TOPS) and built on a multi-model AI framework combining vision, language and action stacks (VLT + VLA + VLM).

• Human-like motion demonstration: During the unveil, IRON walked across the stage with fluid posture, realistic gait, and natural hand movement—raising questions if a human was inside the suit.

• Production timeline and ecosystem: XPENG aims to begin mass production of IRON by end of 2026, with early deployment scenarios in service, industrial inspection, hospitality and corporate settings.

Strategic Significance

• Bridging cars and robotics: While XPENG is primarily an EV maker, the reveal signals its shift into broader AI-enabled hardware and robotics, aligning mobility, automation and embodied intelligence.

• Human-centric robotics vision: By designing IRON to mimic human proportions and movement, XPENG argues the best way to collect real-world interaction data and build useful applications is to build robots that operate in human spaces.

• Commercial vs research pivot: The demonstration underscores XPENG’s pivot from research prototype to commercial deployment mindset—targeting real-world use rather than purely lab environments.

Looking Ahead

With IRON now public, the next steps involve:

• Ecosystem expansion via developer SDKs, third-party applications and service partners

• Industrial pilot projects for inspection, logistics and hospitality

• Scaling production and cost reduction—in key to making humanoid robots commercially viable

• Monitoring regulatory, safety and ethical frameworks as humanoid robots begin to enter public and industrial spaces