China's Humanoid Robots Move From Demonstrations Into Mass Factory Deployment

China has begun deploying humanoid robots at industrial scale in battery production, electronics manufacturing, and service roles, marking the shift from prototypes to commercial operation. CATL, China's dominant EV battery maker, deployed humanoid robots for the first time in large-scale battery pack production in December 2025 at its Luoyang, Henan facility, using robots called Xiaomo to perform high-precision connector insertion with a 99%-plus success rate—matching skilled human workers while delivering nearly three times the daily workload. The robot was developed by Spirit AI, a Hangzhou startup backed by CATL itself.