Chinese automaker XPeng has updated its hiring plans for this year, increasing the number of new hirings from 6,000 to 8,000, the company said in an internal event.
The new target was revealed on Wednesday by founder and CEO He Xiaopeng, in an internal speech, where He highlighted the company’s focus in recruiting top-performing university students.
The company recently launched its 2026 campus recruitment program, aimed at developing young talent internally. According to the chief executive, XPeng will have a workforce of about 30,000 people by year-end.
The Explorer Program led to a higher number of open positions in fields related to the development of large AI models, including Vision-Language-Action and Vision-Language Models.
The company has unveiled its humanoid robot in late 2024, and plans to start mass-production of the ‘Iron’ robots next year.
“The robots have already been integrated into XPeng’s daily operations and focus on internal applications, such as factories and stores,” He Xiaopeng said at the unveiling event.
The new hires are expected to contribute to the development of XPeng vehicles with Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous driving capabilities, local media reported on Wednesday.
Despite plans to launch a robotaxi in 2026, the chief executive told EV earlier this year that “there are huge challenges” to address “in a short period of time” without confirming if the project was scrapped or postponed.
“In 2025, we will first start with the software L3 and followed by hardware L3 capabilities in 2026, and as well as L4 part of that,” He added.
The company hopes “that gradually going forward, all the different cars will be able to become a humanoid robotaxi and a highly advanced L3 or L4.”
XPeng aims to deliver 380,000 vehicles this year, doubling from 2024. The number of markets where it is active is also planned to be doubled from 30 last year to 60.
