Buying guide

AEON vs XPeng IRON in 2026

Comparing 2 humanoid robots across availability, pricing, capabilities, and verified deployments. Current as of 2026.

Key differences

On DEPLOY's record, AEON is further along: at the pilot stage versus XPeng IRON at the research stage, as of 2026.

AEON is at the pilot stage; XPeng IRON at the research stage.

Attribute	AEON View full model page →	XPeng IRON View full model page →
Manufacturer	Hexagon	XPeng Robotics
Form factor	humanoid	humanoid
Maturity	pilot	research
Autonomy	—	◐ not independently verified
Availability	internal-onlyenterprise	internal-onlyenterprise
Price	Not announced	Not announced
Capability claims	—	Picks and packs (claimed-only, claimed)
Brain	GR00T N1 (Isaac GR00T) (foundation-model)	VLT (XPENG VLA / VLA 2.0) (foundation-model)
Verified deployments	1Hexagon	1Baosteel Group
Privacy practices	—	—
Sources on file	6	7

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AEON

XPeng IRON

Editorial summaries

AEON

Hexagon's AEON is an industrial humanoid robot built for factory work such as assembly lines and high-voltage EV-battery manufacturing, developed with NVIDIA, Microsoft, and the Swiss actuator maker maxon. It carries 22 sensors and self-swapping batteries (about 23 seconds) for around-the-clock operation, with a walking speed near 2.5 meters per second.

DEPLOY records it at pilot maturity with one verified deployment, at BMW Group Plant Leipzig: the honest counterpoint to aggregator 'humanoids are working in factories at scale' framing, this is a verified pilot, not commercial-at-scale. As industrial equipment sold to manufacturers, it has no consumer price.

XPeng IRON

XPeng's IRON (from the Chinese EV maker XPeng) is a roughly 175-centimeter, 70-kilogram research humanoid, an automotive-OEM entrant into humanoids, the cross-OEM positioning that parallels Tesla Optimus emerging from a carmaker. DEPLOY records it at research maturity with no verified deployments. XPeng has shown IRON in staged demonstrations and stated consumer and industrial intentions, but the verification posture is demonstration, not verified autonomous deployment or commercial sale, and DEPLOY cap-flags aggregator 'autonomous' or 'shipping' framing. As a research platform it has no consumer price.

Common questions

How do AEON and XPeng IRON differ?

On DEPLOY's record, AEON is further along: at the pilot stage versus XPeng IRON at the research stage, as of 2026. AEON is at the pilot stage; XPeng IRON at the research stage.

What is the difference between AEON and XPeng IRON?

AEON and XPeng IRON are both humanoid robots on the DEPLOY registry. They differ in maker, maturity, price, verified deployments, and how much of their autonomy is independently verified. See the table above for the full head-to-head; each figure is sourced.

Is AEON or XPeng IRON more autonomous?

On the DEPLOY registry, neither AEON nor XPeng IRON has capabilities independently verified as fully autonomous yet; their recorded capabilities are teleoperated-assisted, demonstrated, or vendor-claimed. See the table for each capability's verification status.

Which has more verified deployments, AEON or XPeng IRON?

AEON and XPeng IRON each have 1 verified deployment on the DEPLOY registry (confirmed at named sites with primary sources).

Recent coverage

AAEON Leverages Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490 for its latest SMARC Module, the uCOM-Q6490AEON · TimesTech · 2026-08-21
Hexagon starts training AEON humanoid robots at Schaeffler factoriesAEON · Robotics and Automation News · 2026-08-19
Xpeng aims to build over 1,000 robots a month ahead of 2027 global roll-out - CnEVPostXPeng IRON · Google News · 2026-07-15
XPeng Aims to Produce Over 1,000 Robots a Month as It Plans Global Rollout - WSJXPeng IRON · Google News · 2026-07-15

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Which humanoid robots can you actually buy in 2026?Answer The verified list.Humanoid robot prices: every verified figureAnswer The verified list.All humanoidsRegistry Every verified record in the category.AEONModel The full model page.XPeng IRONModel The full model page.HexagonRecord The maker's verified record.

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