XPeng has started small-batch production of a solid-state battery developed specifically for its humanoid robot as the company prepares to begin series production of the IRON robot, a Vice President said on Wednesday.
“The solid-state battery for XPeng’s IRON robot has entered small-batch production and rolled off the line,” XPeng Group VP Gu Jie said at the SAECCE annual congress. The robot is “currently in the pre-SOP stage,” he said, referring to the start of production.
XPeng presented it as a battery designed specifically for robots, not adapted from its cars. Because space inside the robot is limited, it uses a high-energy-density design that “redefines battery standards,” Gu said.
The battery is designed to stop thermal runaway from spreading between cells and can withstand impact and nail-penetration tests, the VP noted.
XPeng did not disclose the battery’s energy density, capacity, cell chemistry, supplier or how many units it has built.
Lighter than a liquid pack
The battery is about 30% lighter than a conventional liquid-electrolyte lithium battery and holds about 30% more charge, CNMO reported. The outlet did not say whether those figures came from Gu or a company spokesperson.
Most carmakers developing solid-state batteries are targeting vehicles. XPeng’s pack is instead built around the robot’s structural constraints.
‘All-solid-state’ a year ago
XPeng first said IRON would use a solid-state battery when it unveiled the latest version of the robot at its Tech Day on November 5, 2025. It described the robot then as the first humanoid to carry an “all-solid-state battery.”
The reports on Wednesday’s remarks used the broader term “solid-state battery,” and XPeng has not specified whether the robot pack uses a fully solid electrolyte.
The distinction matters in China as a national standard for EV solid-state batteries, drafted in December 2025 and scheduled for release in July, separates liquid batteries, hybrid “solid-liquid” batteries often marketed as semi-solid-state, and all-solid-state batteries. Its scope covers cars, not robots.
The road to mass production
XPeng commissioned the IRON production line in Guangzhou on September 8, when the first robot completed automated final assembly and walked off the line. More than 80% of the line’s core processes are automated.
The company plans mass production of the robot by the end of 2026 and deliveries from the first half of 2027, starting in commercial settings such as stores and shopping malls before moving into industrial and home use.
XPeng has an internal goal of producing more than 1,000 robots a month by the end of the year, The Wall Street Journal reported in July, citing people familiar with the matter.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer He Xiaopeng said on October 11 in Paris that IRON would roll out in Europe in the second half of 2027, without naming countries or a price.
XPeng’s robotics business raised more than $900 million in its first funding round on August 24 at a post-money valuation of more than $6.3 billion, according to the reports, a record for a single private round in China’s embodied AI sector.
The terms give outside investors the right to demand a buyback of their shares if the unit, Dogotix, fails to complete an initial public offering within seven years, according to an XPeng filing.
IRON runs on three of XPeng’s Turing AI chips with a combined 2,250 TOPS of computing power, according to the company.
UBS analyst Paul Gong initiated coverage of XPeng’s Hong Kong-listed shares at ‘Neutral’ in September, attributing 30% of his sum-of-the-parts valuation to robotics, a business that has yet to generate revenue.
