Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), the world’s largest battery maker, has successfully integrated humanoid robots into a live battery pack production line, marking a significant industrial breakthrough in the use of robots for precision manufacturing.
The company announced late Tuesday that its Zhongzhou base in Sichuan province has begun operating a fleet of humanoid robots. The robots, named “Xiao Mo,” will handle high-voltage cabling and end-of-line (EOL) testing. The deployment addresses one of the most persistent bottlenecks in battery manufacturing: the handling of flexible wire harnesses, a task previously deemed too complex for traditional industrial robotic arms.
According to CATL, the robots have achieved a success rate of over 99% in inserting connections and have met the “takt time”—or cycle speed—required to match skilled human workers.
What Exactly Does CATL’s Robot – Xioa Mo – Do?
While automotive assembly lines are highly automated, the manipulation of flexible components like cables and plugs usually requires human dexterity. Traditional rigid robots (like those from Fanuc or Kuka) struggle to adapt when a cable is slightly twisted or a connector is millimeters off-center.
The “Xiao Mo” units utilize an end-to-end Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model, allowing them to visually perceive the orientation of wire harnesses and adjust their grip force in real-time.
“The robot can dynamically adjust its strength when plugging and unplugging flexible harnesses, ensuring a reliable connection without damaging components,” CATL stated in a release.
The robots are tasked with the final functional testing of battery packs, a process involving hundreds of volts. By removing human operators from this station, CATL aims to eliminate the risk of high-voltage arcing accidents while stabilizing quality control. In multi-model production runs, the company claims the robots have tripled the daily output capacity compared to previous mixed-labor setups.
CATL’s Aggressive Robotics Strategy
The deployment underscores CATL’s strategy to control not just the battery supply chain, but the manufacturing technology itself. “Xiao Mo” was developed by Qianxun Intelligence (Qianxun Robotics), a domestic startup deeply tied to CATL’s capital ecosystem.
Corporate filings show that Borui Capital, a fund established by CATL co-founder Li Ping, led an angel investment round in Qianxun Intelligence in November 2024. Furthermore, the robots are powered by CATL-manufactured batteries, creating a closed-loop internal supply chain.
This move follows a broader pattern of aggressive investment in robotics by the battery giant:
- January 2025: Borui Capital invested in Vita Dynamics.
- March 2025: CATL signed a strategic agreement regarding robotic joint components with a major supplier.
- June 2025: CATL led a 1.1 billion RMB ($150 million) investment round in Galbot (Galaxy General), another prominent Chinese humanoid robotics firm.
“We are using the successful landing of Xiao Mo as a starting point to comprehensively upgrade the automation level of our PACK lines,” CATL said, signaling intentions to export this manufacturing model to its other global facilities.
What This Means for The Auto Industry
The announcement places CATL in direct competition with Tesla for the title of the first manufacturer to achieve viable scale with humanoid labor.
While Tesla CEO Elon Musk has frequently showcased the “Optimus” robot, intending it for use in Tesla’s electric vehicle factories, public demonstrations have largely been limited to controlled prototypes or pilot tests. CATL’s claim that its robots are now “indispensable members” of a running line suggests the Chinese supplier may have beaten the American automaker to actual industrial deployment.
Unlike Tesla, which aims to build a general-purpose robot for consumers and industry alike, CATL appears focused on a specialized, vertical application: optimizing its own production lines to lower the unit cost of batteries—a move that could further widen its margin advantage over Korean and Japanese rivals.
For a visual understanding of how rapidly China’s humanoid robotics sector is maturing, watch this report from the recent World Robot Conference.