Robotaxi industry gears up for mass production

China's robotaxi industry is rapidly pivoting from small-scale pilot programs to mass-produced commercial fleets, as major automakers and ride-hailing platforms reveal timelines for custom-built autonomous vehicles.

SAIC Motor's mobility arm revealed plans last week for a mass-produced robotaxi scheduled to launch in 2027. The vehicle will be built on an IM Motors electric platform and powered by Momenta's autonomous driving system, as reported by local media.

XPeng completed its first internal robotaxi ride by CEO He Xiaopeng earlier in July, just eight months after announcing the project in November 2025. During the company's first-quarter earnings call, He revealed that the GX fleet, which is equipped with multiple backup systems to enhance safety and reliability, has been conducting limited public road Level-4 testing in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. It plans to launch a robotaxi pilot service in the city in the third quarter of 2026.

Geely-backed Cao Cao Mobility laid out a more aggressive expansion blueprint in June with the launch of its RoboX strategy. The company revealed the Eva Cab, a custom robotaxi built on Geely's SEA architecture that integrates in-house hardware, self-driving algorithms and fleet-dispatching systems. Cao Cao aims to deploy 100,000 robotaxis and 100,000 autonomous delivery vans across China by 2030.

The push for ready-made robotaxi models represents a critical upgrade from the industry's earlier retrofit approach. Industry analysts note that integrating autonomous systems on assembly lines demands strict automotive-grade reliability, functional safety and cybersecurity compliance; standards more rigorous than those applied to retrofitted test vehicles.

Dedicated L4 players including Baidu Apollo, Pony.ai and WeRide have long dominated China's robotaxi trial landscape. Their sensor-rich autonomous vehicles have accumulated millions of kilometers of road data and are operating commercial paid services across multiple Chinese cities.

Recent operational metrics underscore their growing commercial footprint. Baidu's Apollo Go logged 3.2 million fully autonomous orders in the first quarter, with cumulative global orders surpassing 22 million across 27 cities as of April. Pony.ai's global fleet has exceeded 1,700 vehicles, with first-quarter revenue jumping 395.4 percent year-on-year. WeRide's fleet stands at roughly 1,300 vehicles, averaging more than 17 orders per vehicle daily in China and peaking at 28 orders.

"Technology gets robotaxis on the road, but operations determine how far they can scale," said Han Feng, COO of GAC-backed ride-hailing platform OnTime, also known as Ruqi Mobility.

Han stressed that large-scale fleets require mature systems for intelligent scheduling, centralized maintenance, cloud-based remote control and cost management to achieve sustainable commercialization.

Zhao Chenhui, CTO of Cao Cao's RoboX division, said that algorithm performance is no longer the sole competitive battleground. Future competition hinges on trusted vehicle-operation integrated mobility systems, Zhao said, adding that platform traffic data is helping transform L4 autonomous driving from showcase trials into everyday consumer transportation services.

Enhanced operational efficiency and advancements in manufacturing technology have led to cost reductions across the sector, addressing a long-standing industry challenge. Ongoing iterations and the effects of mass-production scaling have narrowed the cost gap between robotaxis and human-driven vehicles.

The improving outlook has prompted upward revisions to industry forecasts. In April, Goldman Sachs raised its 2026 China robotaxi fleet estimate from 13,000 to 14,000 vehicles, while upgrading its 2030 forecast from 632,000 to 705,000 units.

The bank projects China's fleet will expand to 3.1 million vehicles by 2035 — a figure that would account for more than half of the world's total robotaxi fleet.