Too Human to Be a Robot: XPeng's IRON Sparks Online Debate

It looked too human to be real. When XPeng unveiled IRON, a humanoid robot, striding down the stage with the poise of a model on Wednesday, many netizens insisted it was a real woman in disguise.

It soon became one of the top trending topics on Weibo, XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng quickly stepped in to prove the robot was real. The next morning, he released a behind-the-scenes video revealing IRON's inner workings: lattice-like "muscles," shoulder transport fixtures, harmonic hand joints, and microphone arrays embedded in the head.

"People said there's a person inside," He wrote on Weibo. "We're happy and amused – some just can't believe how fast this world is changing."

XPeng went a step further that evening. During another live event on Thursday, the company powered up IRON on stage, then cut open its leg covering to expose the mechanical components underneath.

Visibly moved, He said, "We'd never cut open IRON's 'skin and muscles' while powered on before. We decided an hour before the event to do it – and I hope it's the last time we need to prove it's real."

After the video went public, XPeng's Hong Kong-listed shares surged nearly 9 percent, closing at HK$89.4 (US$11.5) per share, with a market capitalization of about HK$170.4 billion on Thursday.

According to the company, this new-generation IRON is the final pre-production version before mass manufacturing. Standing under 1.7 meters tall, it's the first humanoid robot to use a solid-state battery and is powered by three Turing chips and a large-scale physical world model.

He sees robotics as XPeng's next frontier. In an interview with The Paper, he said the global car market is worth about US$10 trillion, but robotics could reach US$20 trillion. He added that it may take 10 to 20 years, but there could be hundreds of millions of humanoid robots.

XPeng plans to build an automated factory to ensure automotive-grade precision and safety for its robots. The company also intends to open a Software Development Kit, enabling developers around the world to build new applications and features for IRON, according to the report.

Alongside IRON, XPeng on Wednesday also unveiled its second-generation Vision-Language-Action model, a Robotaxi fleet set to launch in 2026, and two flying vehicle systems developed by its affiliate Aero HT. The first flying car rolled off the production line on November 3.