XPeng announced on Wednesday that it plans to launch three robotaxi models in 2026 as it begins trial operations in China.
Speaking at the 2025 AI Day at XPeng’s headquarters, the company’s founder and CEO He Xiaopeng has also unveiled the second generation of the humanoid robot IRON and a 6-seater flying car.
The robotaxi models of the Guangzhou-based brand rely on vision-only solution and will feature four in-house developed Turing AI chips, with vehicle-side compute power up to 3,000 TOPS, which claims to be “the highest level globally.”
The company said it will launch a new intelligent-driving version called “Robo” next year, alongside its Robotaxi models.
The Robo version shares the same hardware configuration, safety redundancy and intelligent-driving capability as XPeng’s Robotaxi platform, and will offer two intelligent-driving modes — according to the carmaker.
XPeng said it will open its Robotaxi SDK to global partners in an effort to build out a broader Robotaxi ecosystem.
Amap will be the brand’s first global ecosystem partner on robotaxis, with the two companies planning to jointly provide Robotaxi services worldwide.
XPeng‘s Robotaxis were “born for driverless from the design beginning, relying on the capability of XPeng’s second-generation VLA+VLM, it can support ultra-low latency local-side interaction with autonomous driving systems,” the company said in a statement.
In the media roundtable held immediately after the event where EV participated, He Xiaopeng detailed that the three models are a 5-, 6- and a 7-seater — without providing any additional information.
During the event, the company showed several new features it aims to bring to its Robotaxi models.
Naming it “an industry-first,” XPeng showcased a “sun-visor external display” which is able to communicate short messages with pedestrians in low-speed driving or parking.
“Regarding the future direction of driverless, XPeng Motors also a brand new concept: one is the fully-shared model driverless car (Robotaxi), the other is the private-enjoyment model, i.e. human-driven L4-level experience car,” the company said in a statement.
Asked about the similarities with Tesla on the humanoid robot, the robotaxis and Musk’s suggestion that the new Roadster might have flying capabilities, the CEO praised the US firm.
“Tesla is a very respectable company,” He Xiaopeng stated. “I hope the world can have more companies like this.”
On Tuesday, Chinese media outlet ’21世纪经济报道’ reported that XPeng began transferring internal staff as part of next year’s push.
As reported earlier this month, the company has also appointed a new head of its Autonomous Driving Center after Li Liyun switched to another role within XPeng.
As of press time, XPeng shares were trading 2.6% higher at $23.27.
