XPENG YOYO Secures Guangzhou-Wide Robotaxi License: Three Paths, Three Bets

On October 26, XPENG Group was granted a smart connected vehicle application demonstration operating qualification in Guangzhou, allowing it to conduct L4-level Robotaxi demonstration operations across the entire city, with the vehicle model named "XPENG YOYO." The real significance of this license lies in the fact that XPENG has chosen a path of not building its own fleet, but only doing technology output.

XPENG Robotaxi fleet on the streets of Guangzhou, with autonomous driving sensors mounted on the roof / Source: Sina Finance

Technology Path: Pure Vision as the Foundation

The XPENG YOYO is built on the XPENG GX and is China's first fully self-developed, pre-installed mass-produced Robotaxi. It is equipped with 4 self-developed Turing AI chips, with 3,000 TOPS of effective vehicle-side computing power, which the company claims is the highest vehicle-side computing power in the world. It adopts the second-generation VLA large model, does not rely on LiDAR or high-precision maps, and is also the only brand in China pursuing commercialized Robotaxi through a pure vision route. On safety, six major systems including computing power, braking, steering, braking, and power supply are dual-redundant, with switching completed within 100 milliseconds when the primary system fails. Inference efficiency is 12 times higher than the previous generation, and the entire system's operating latency is kept within 80 milliseconds.

Deployment Progress: Pushing Testing Into the Public Eye

The timeline is clear. In November 2025, the Robotaxi strategy was announced; in January 2026, the Guangzhou road testing permit was obtained; in March, the Robotaxi business unit was established; in May, the first mass-produced vehicle rolled off the line; in July, internal employee testing began and He Xiaopeng completed the first ride; in August, the qualification for testing without a safety driver in the main driver's seat was obtained, with more than 2,000 internal test orders completed cumulatively; and on October 8, it was named "XPENG YOYO" and a ride-hailing mini-program was launched. This qualification advances the business from public testing and internal employee testing to public-facing demonstration operations, initially opened gradually via invitation codes. According to the plan, safety drivers will fully exit vehicles in early 2027, and the operating scope will be expanded in 2028, with Guangzhou serving as a template to be replicated in cities such as Shenzhen.

The actual XPENG YOYO vehicle, with the XPENG logo visible on the side / Source: Sina Finance

Commercialization: Asset-Light Operations or Heavy Assets

Unlike most companies that build their own fleets, XPENG has chosen "asset-light operations." XPENG Group Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng made it clear that XPENG "only acts as a technology provider and ecosystem enabler," and does not directly undertake large-scale offline fleet operations. Revenue comes from hardware sales, technical services, and commission sharing, while offline operations are handed to local partners, with Amap being the first global ecosystem partner. His exact words were: "We have cars and software, and SDK interfaces. We open up our capabilities, and everyone can buy our Robotaxi to operate." During the Paris Motor Show, he revealed that the company is in talks with several leading European mobility platforms for cooperation. By comparison with two other players: Apollo Go uses multi-sensor fusion plus high-precision maps and heavy-asset self-operation, having covered 28 cities with more than 23 million cumulative orders; Pony.ai is mainly LiDAR-based, heavy-asset, self-operated plus joint ventures, with about 2,000 vehicles globally and already expanding overseas.

The large screen at the XPENG YOYO launch event, showing One Foundation Model, L2 to L4 Unified / Source: XPENG Motors

Same-City Competitors and Conclusion

WeRide, also headquartered in Guangzhou, had about 3,400 L4 vehicles globally and more than 1,800 Robotaxis as of July 31, 2026, and has already provided 24-hour unmanned commercial services in Huangpu, Tianhe, and Haizhu. Demonstration operations do not equal commercial operations. According to the Guangzhou Smart Connected Vehicle Innovation and Development Regulations implemented in February 2025, large-scale operations require sufficient validation through road testing and demonstration applications. The entire industry is still stuck on high per-vehicle costs, limited operating areas, and unproven profit models. How far XPENG's license can go depends on how low it can push service costs.