Robots could soon replace car salespeople in XPeng dealerships as EV brand zeroes in on AI, tech
The next person to sell you a car might not be a person at all.
Chinese EV maker XPeng plans to deploy its IRON humanoid robots as sales agents in its dealerships – and says Australia will be among the first international markets to get them.
Speaking at the brand’s Australian relaunch in Melbourne, XPeng vice chairman and president Dr Brian Gu said the robots were already being trained for showroom duty.
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“The IRON could function as a sales agent,” said Dr Gu. “It can greet customers, it can introduce the product, answer questions, take a walk with the customer around the vehicle, hand over a bottle of water, open the door and explain the inside (of the vehicle).”
And unlike its human colleagues, IRON doesn’t clock off: “24 hours if needed, except charging time.”
XPeng plans to deploy around 1000 robots into its Chinese stores, offices and factories by early 2027, initially as tour guides and product experts.
By later in 2027 it plans to sell IRON to external partners and customers for commercial, retail and office use.
“We want to make sure Australia is also one of the first international markets that we can launch IRON to our customers and have it maybe in our stores, maybe also selling to our partners for their own different use applications,” Gu said.
XPeng has been developing humanoid robots for eight years and claims IRON stands apart on three fronts: human-like size, posture and movement; automotive-grade components rather than the consumer-grade parts used by most rivals; and the company’s own Turing AI chip.
The realism has caused problems. When IRON was unveiled in China last November, many in the audience – and online – accused XPeng of putting a human in a robot suit.
“It was actually the first time a robot has to cut open its own skin to prove to the world it’s indeed a robot,” Gu said.
Asked what he’d say to people worried about robots taking jobs, Gu argued the technology would reshape sales roles rather than eliminate them.
“Maybe a robot can be a sales assistant, do a lot of the routine, repeatable, mundane jobs that currently some people are doing,” he said. “But it will free up people to focus on negotiating, making more sales, closing more deals … those things are not going to be replaced by a robot yet.”
