Dongfeng is joining the robot race. The Chinese carmaker says its humanoid robot, called Xiaodong, will enter its factories in October to handle sorting and quality inspection tasks, ahead of small-batch trial production by the end of 2026.
The company is setting itself an aggressive development target after that. “We aim to bring its working capabilities on par with those of human workers by the end of next year,” said Zhang Zhenlin, Dongfeng’s chief engineer of intelligent technology.
Xiaodong made its public debut at the World Robot Conference in August. It’s aimed squarely at material sorting in automotive manufacturing for a start, with Dongfeng saying development is moving from single repetitive actions towards fully autonomous execution of flexible operations – in plain terms, from doing one rehearsed task on repeat to figuring out varied jobs on its own.
There’s a second machine in the programme, too – a quadruped robot dog called Yuanzai, with autonomous navigation, multimodal perception and intelligent interaction, pitched at campus patrol and smart services. Dongfeng says it will reach commercial use sooner than the humanoid, with its first deployment being customer guidance at dealerships – so a Dongfeng showroom visit in China may soon begin with a robot dog showing you to the car.
The logic behind carmakers building robots is consistent across the industry: the supply chains, manufacturing discipline and AI stacks developed for cars – particularly for autonomous driving – transfer readily to embodied robotics, and Dongfeng says it intends to commercialise such products across multiple sectors.
Xpeng’s Iron humanoid already has a production line running, with mass production targeted by the end of this year; Chery-backed Aimoga Robotics has delivered over 3,000 robots globally and is preparing for an IPO; and Li Auto, Seres and Leapmotor have all announced embodied-intelligence plans of their own. Tesla has long promised its Optimus, and BMW put Figure’s humanoid to work at its Spartanburg plant back in 2024.
For Dongfeng, the robots are the latest expression of a wider push to be taken seriously as a technology player – the state-owned giant is also chasing solid-state batteries for its EVs.
Malaysians, meanwhile, know the brand through the 007 EV sedan and Vigo EV SUV sold through Dongfeng by Carro in PJ Midtown – no robot dogs in the showroom here just yet.
