Investors put pressure, and robots also have to engage in a "price war" | Focus Analysis

Written by Tian Zhe

Edited by Su Jianxun

As Christmas approaches, Boston Dynamics released a video demonstration of its humanoid robot Atlas. No longer needing to be connected to a bulky cable, Atlas, dressed in a Christmas costume, crouched down and leaped backward, completing a backflip in place.

Although Boston Dynamics did not announce the price of the electric-driven version of Atlas, a robotics industry insider told Intelligent Emergence that the estimated price is one million yuan.

Boston Dynamics' Electric-driven Atlas Performing a Backflip in Place

On the same day the Atlas video was released, the Chinese robot market on the other side of the ocean ignited a battle: Zhongqing Robotics launched the humanoid robot PM01, with a starting price of only 88,000 yuan.

This once again lowers the price limit of humanoid robots. In May 2024, Unitree Technology released the humanoid robot Unitree G1, starting at 99,000 yuan, bringing the price of humanoid robots to within 100,000 yuan.

High costs used to be an obstacle to the mass production of humanoid robots. Xiaomi released a humanoid robot in 2022, but due to a single unit cost of more than 600,000 yuan, it was difficult to achieve large-scale mass production. With the continuous emergence of robot startups, this situation is quietly changing.

"There are more robot players, and the competition is more intense. Now, when developing robots, not only technology needs to be compared, but also price." Many people in the upstream and downstream of the industry told Intelligent Emergence.

Currently, the humanoid robot industry is still in the early stages of development, there is no unified pricing for products, and customers are relatively scattered. Therefore, low prices have become one of the means to attract customers and increase product shipments.

An industry veteran said that since 2024, the humanoid robot industry has shown a trend of price wars. Because his product is priced 50% lower than similar products in the market, this has brought him a large number of orders. He said that in 2025, the sales volume of his company's humanoid robots will reach several hundred units, several times or even dozens of times that of its competitors.

Unitree G1 with a Starting Price of 99,000 Yuan from Unitree

He attributes part of the reason for the price war to investors' demands for sales. "Now, funds in the primary market are beginning to converge to a few enterprises. Only by increasing sales can they attract investors."

The "explosion" of the humanoid robot industry has only been in the past two years, but the commercialization pressure is like a heavy mountain on the shoulders of robot companies, and price reduction and promotion are the best means to increase sales in the short term.

Reducing Manufacturing Costs to Trigger Price Wars

From lead screws to joint modules, a humanoid robot can have up to thousands of parts. But at this stage, robots usually require manual assembly, which means that humanoid robots cannot yet be mass-produced through machine production lines like automobile manufacturing to share costs and thereby reduce the price of robots.

An industry insider told Intelligent Emergence that a technician can only assemble one robot per day. If the number of robot cables exceeds 200, the assembly time will increase to four days. If an outsourcing company is sought for assembly, although the assembly time is shortened, the cost will increase.

For robot companies, if they cannot temporarily reduce costs through industrial-scale mass production, they can only look for the possibility of price reduction from parts.

Lidar is one of the indispensable parts of a robot, which can provide the robot with the ability to perceive the external environment. Therefore, its price trend reflects the overall cost change trend of the robot to a certain extent.

Yunshēnchù's Robotic Dog with a Lidar on Its Head

The mid-term financial report of RoboSense in 2024 shows that in the first half of this year, the sales volume of lidar for robots and other businesses increased by 1,600 units compared to the same period last year, but the revenue decreased by 11.9% compared to the same period last year. The reason is that the proportion of low-cost lidar products has increased.

For relatively mature parts like lidar, the manufacturing cost can be reduced by choosing cheaper products. However, for joint modules, most robot companies can only helplessly accept high prices.

Joint modules are the core parts with high cost in robots, accounting for more than 30% - 60% of the robot's BOM cost. The reason is that the price of the raw material lead screw remains high.

An lead screw manufacturer told Intelligent Emergence that after Tesla announced that its humanoid robot uses planetary roller screws, in the past few years, domestic lead screw manufacturers have flocked to buy grinding machines to produce planetary roller screws, and even regarded the number of grinding machines they own as proof of their strength.

But the price of a grinding machine is as high as five million yuan or as low as about two million yuan. After a large number of grinding machines are purchased, the lead screw manufacturers need to recover the cost as soon as possible. The above-mentioned person predicts that the price of planetary roller screws will not significantly decrease in the next three years.

For this reason, some robot companies research and develop their own parts to replace external purchases.

He Liang, the CEO of Yunmu Zhizao, told Intelligent Emergence that due to the high cost, the company is currently researching and developing its own joint motors, hydraulic power systems, and dexterous hands. He estimates that through self-developed parts, the overall cost of the robot will decrease by 30% - 40%.

In addition, people close to companies such as Unitree and Yunshēnchù also said that the company has been researching and developing its own motors for several years, significantly reducing the motor cost; In-time Robotics even buys lead screw raw materials and grinding machines to achieve self-sufficiency in lead screws.

Market and Investors Pressure Accelerating Robot Price Wars

Robot companies are trying every way to reduce prices and release demonstration videos to increase sales. But the reality is that the functions currently available in humanoid robots are relatively limited. Many industry insiders said that it is "already a good technology" if a humanoid robot can walk smoothly.

According to Intelligent Emergence, robot companies divide humanoid robots into two categories overall:

Humanoid robots with a price of hundreds of thousands or millions of yuan have dozens of joint degrees of freedom and the ability to run, jump, etc. At the same time, they have rich open interfaces that can meet the various development needs of scientific research institutions and will be applied in factory and other scenarios in the future.

And humanoid robots with a price of less than 100,000 yuan are extremely simplified versions, with usually only more than ten joint degrees of freedom and fewer interfaces.

No matter which type of humanoid robot, there is currently no suitable large-scale application scenario, which means that the robot shipment volume of robot companies is limited. But the pressure from investors forces robot companies to reduce prices and promote sales.

"Investors' requirements for humanoid robot companies have changed significantly this year." A robot company executive told Intelligent Emergence that in the first half of the year, as long as the robot could walk, it could get financing. But in the second half of the year, investors hope that the robot can complete complex tasks and are more inclined to invest in companies with abundant funds.

He said that if non-top companies want to continue to raise funds, they can only acquire the ability of large-scale commercial income as soon as possible, otherwise it will be difficult to survive.

At the same time, the increase in the number of robot companies and the shift of market dominance from robot companies to buyers also prompt the price reduction of robot products.

Fang Hainan, the marketing director of In-time Robotics, told Intelligent Emergence that at the beginning of 2024, considering the market development situation, In-time Robotics reduced the retail price of a single dexterous hand by 15,000 yuan, and the shipment volume of its dexterous hands has reached nearly 2,000 units this year.

In addition to price reduction, robot companies also expand their business of parts and components and sell their self-developed parts.

For example, Unitree won the bid for module materials and robotic arm projects in many universities; Zhiyuan Robotics sells motors. During this year's "Double Eleven" period, Yunshēnchù announced that the prices of its quadruped robots and integrated joints were reduced by hundreds or thousands of yuan.

Under the dual pressure of capital waiting and market selectivity, price reduction is no longer just a makeshift measure, but has become a strategy for robot enterprises to increase sales and obtain financial support. Only by increasing sales can they have more income and the opportunity to attract the attention of investors.

Not all robot companies are willing to actively enter the price war. After Zhongqing Robotics released the PM01 with a price of 88,000 yuan, an industry insider told Intelligent Emergence: "I really dislike such enterprises. Everyone should first show their own abilities and win over their own customers, and then talk about the price war."

However, the robot industry is in the early stage of the market, and there is still sufficient time for robot companies to grow. They all hope that the price war will come later.