XPENG now has a date range for its IRON humanoid in Europe. At the company’s Paris Night event on Sunday, October 11, the eve of the Paris Motor Show, CEO He Xiaopeng showed a slide with three steps: mass production in late 2026, first deliveries in the first half of 2027, and a “European rollout” in the second half of 2027, according to EV (eletric-vehicles.com) and other outlets that covered it.
XPENG’s own written version is vaguer. Its October 12 press release from Paris says IRON “is planned for global rollout in 2027,” and that two IRON robots are on its stand. There’s still no price, no list of countries and no word on how the robot will be sold. And if you compare XPENG’s own releases, the robot that came off the production line in September has a smaller spec sheet than the one unveiled last November.
What XPENG has actually said, and when
| Date | Where | What XPENG said | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 5, 2025 | AI Day release, Guangzhou | Next-gen IRON unveiled; aims for “large-scale mass production” by end of 2026; first jobs in commercial settings such as guided tours and shopping guides | Company plan |
| Aug 24, 2026 | Funding release | Robotics business raises more than $900 million at a post-money valuation above $6.3 billion | Company announcement |
| Sep 7, 2026 | Production-line release | Production lines in operation, over 80% of core processes automated; mass production by end of 2026; first rollouts in XPENG’s own stores and campuses; market launch and delivery in China and overseas in 2027 | Company plan |
| Oct 11, 2026 | Paris Night slide (reported) | Mass production late 2026; deliveries H1 2027; European rollout H2 2027 | Reported company plan |
| Oct 12, 2026 | Paris Motor Show release | Two IRONs on the stand; “planned for global rollout in 2027” | Company plan |
So the Europe half-year comes from a slide as reported by journalists in the room, not from a written XPENG document. The year, 2027, is in XPENG’s own releases. “Delivery” also needs care: the September release says the first robots will work in XPENG’s own stores and on its campuses, so early deliveries may mostly be to XPENG itself.
The spec sheet got smaller
When XPENG unveiled this generation of IRON at its AI Day on November 5, 2025, it gave these numbers. Its September 7, 2026 release, about the first robot off the new production line, gave different ones.
| Spec | Nov 2025 (AI Day unveil) | Sep 2026 (production line) |
|---|---|---|
| Degrees of freedom, whole body | 82 | 76 |
| Degrees of freedom, each hand | 22 | 21 |
| AI compute | 3 Turing AI chips, 3,000 TOPS effective | 3 Turing AI chips, up to 2,250 TOPS effective |
| Battery | All-solid-state, “pioneered” in the industry, XPENG said | Not mentioned |
| Height, weight, runtime, payload | Not in the release | Not in the release |
XPENG hasn’t explained the differences. The September release calls the production robot “next-generation IRON,” the same label it used in November, so it’s presented as the same product rather than a new model. It could reflect design changes made for manufacturing, or a different way of counting, but that’s a guess; nobody at XPENG has said. Fewer joints isn’t automatically worse (our degrees-of-freedom explainer covers why), but it’s a change buyers should know about. The battery is the bigger open question. A solid-state pack was one of the headline claims last year, and runtime is still one of the hardest limits on humanoid robots.
What IRON is meant to do first
XPENG has been consistent on this point: commercial settings before factories or homes. The November 2025 release listed guided tours, shopping guides and directing foot traffic. The September release said the first rollouts would be in XPENG’s own stores and campuses. That’s a sensible start for a robot whose selling point is a very human-like body, and a modest one: greeting and guiding customers is a long way from the factory work that Figure and Tesla talk about for Optimus.
The September release also says XPENG’s Physical AI model runs on the robot itself, letting IRON “autonomously perform complex tasks without remote operation.” That’s a company claim. We haven’t found published task success rates, or a breakdown of which public demos were scripted, teleoperated or autonomous.
What’s still missing
- Price. XPENG hasn’t published one. In September it said it expects IRON’s per-unit gross margin to be “significantly higher” than its cars’, which suggests it won’t be cheap. For what other humanoids cost today, see our humanoid robot price list.
- Countries and channel. No European country, distributor or sales model has been named.
- Volume. XPENG hasn’t said how many robots it has built. EV reported a July target of more than 1,000 a month by the end of 2026; it isn’t in the September or October releases.
- Basic specs. None of the releases we read give height, weight, battery capacity, runtime or payload.
The next checkpoint is XPENG’s own year-end target. If IRON is in mass production by December, a unit count and a first store deployment are the things to look for. XPENG’s August raise is in our robotics funding tracker.
Frequently asked questions
When will the XPENG IRON robot be released?
XPENG says IRON is “planned for global rollout in 2027,” with mass production by the end of 2026. A slide shown at its Paris event on October 11, 2026, reportedly put first deliveries in the first half of 2027 and a European rollout in the second half.
How much does the XPENG IRON humanoid cost?
XPENG hasn’t announced a price. It has said it expects the robot’s per-unit gross margin to be significantly higher than that of its electric cars.
How many degrees of freedom does XPENG IRON have?
XPENG’s September 2026 production-line release lists 76 degrees of freedom across the body and 21 in each hand. When it unveiled this generation in November 2025, it said 82 and 22. The company hasn’t explained the change.
Can you buy XPENG IRON for your home?
No. XPENG says the first robots will work in commercial settings, starting in its own stores and campuses, doing jobs such as guided tours and shopping assistance. It hasn’t given a date for home use.
Does XPENG IRON have a solid-state battery?
XPENG said in November 2025 that IRON was the first humanoid to use an all-solid-state battery. Its September 2026 release about the production robot didn’t mention the battery, so that isn’t confirmed for the production version.
Sources
- XPENG, “XPENG Launches the G9L Next-Gen AI Flagship SUV in Europe, Debuts NGP and Expands Global Technology Collaboration at 2026 Paris Motor Show,” PR Newswire, October 12, 2026: prnewswire.com
- EV (eletric-vehicles.com), Cláudio Afonso, “XPeng Sets Second-Half 2027 European Rollout for IRON Humanoid Robot,” October 11, 2026: eletric-vehicles.com
- XPENG, “IRON, the World’s First Advanced General-Purpose Humanoid Robot, Walks off the Production Lines as XPENG’s Humanoid Robot Manufacturing Facility Is Officially Commissioned,” PR Newswire, September 7, 2026: prnewswire.com
- XPENG, robotics business funding announcement, PR Newswire, August 24, 2026: prnewswire.com
- XPENG, “XPENG Shares Achievements in Physical AI Emergence: Unveils XPENG VLA 2.0, Robotaxi, Next-Gen IRON, and Flying Car,” November 5, 2025: xpeng.com
- XPENG, “XPENG ROBOTICS: ONE STEP AT A TIME” (official video; source of the featured image), September 9, 2026: youtube.com
Related: Humanoid robot prices in 2026 · Tesla Optimus status · More robot company coverage
Last updated: October 13, 2026. To report an error, see our corrections page. Articles are drafted with AI assistance and reviewed and edited by an editor; see our editorial policy.
