Li Auto Secretly Developing Humanoid Robot; Two-Wheeled Product to Launch Mid-Year

Li Auto is secretly advancing a humanoid robotics project codenamed "Nexus," led by He Junpei, former partner at Jiuguang Intelligent Hardware. The company has planned two products—two-wheeled and bipedal robots—primarily targeting factory manufacturing scenarios. The two-wheeled robot is already ready and is expected to be officially launched in mid-2025. The project was initially initiated by President Ma Donghui in 2023 but was temporarily shelved due to immature technology. At the end of 2024, founder Li Xiang decided to revive it, emphasizing that AI is central to the company’s future strategy. Li believes AI will redefine the value of professional expertise, and that top talent combined with AI will create significant competitive advantages. To this end, Li Auto is investing in embodied intelligence and its VLA (Vision-Language-Action) driver large model, accelerating its transformation into an AI-focused tech company.