The Stuttgart-based industrial group Bosch will begin mass production of humanoid robots at its plant in B\u00fchl in the Black Forest starting in summer 2027. The site southwest of Baden-Baden, which has been particularly hard hit by the company-wide cost-cutting program in recent years, is set to become the first Bosch plant worldwide to begin industrializing this future technology.<\/p>\n
Production will be carried out on behalf of the British startup Humanoid, with which Bosch entered into a partnership in the spring. Following successful field tests in B\u00fchl, Bosch is taking over manufacturing of the robots on behalf of Humanoid, a Bosch spokesperson confirmed. The start of series production is planned for August 2027. Bosch is also examining whether to supply components such as drives, motors, sensors, and other parts for the robots in the future.<\/p>\n
The model to be manufactured in B\u00fchl is a new robot generation called Gamma, designed as a platform for industrial use. One of the first customers will be the Franconian auto supplier Schaeffler, which has also entered into a partnership with Humanoid. The planned production volumes are initially modest: several hundred units are slated for 2027. How many employees will work in manufacturing remains open; at launch, the number is expected to be in the double digits.<\/p>\n
For the B\u00fchl plant, the project represents a glimmer of hope in difficult times. The site currently employs 2,700 people who manufacture, among other things, small electric motors and components for automotive window regulators. By 2030, Bosch plans to cut approximately 1,100 jobs at the location. The company attributes the job cuts to the ongoing crisis in the automotive supply industry and the necessary restructuring of its portfolio.<\/p>\n
Late Entry into a Booming Market<\/p>\n
Bosch entered the humanoid robot market comparatively late. To catch up, the company has forged a series of partnerships in Europe and China this year. According to industry sources, more than 200 companies worldwide are working on developing human-like robots \u2014 from Tesla to the German startup Neura Robotics based in Metzingen, to Chinese providers such as Unitree, AgiBot, UBTech, and XPeng.<\/p>\n
The hype surrounding humanoid robots was recently demonstrated impressively on the Chinese stock market: Unitree’s IPO in Shanghai was massively oversubscribed, with the stock temporarily surging by around 600 percent. According to the company, Unitree has already produced more than 5,000 humanoid robots \u2014 a multiple of what Bosch and Humanoid initially plan to build in B\u00fchl.<\/p>\n
Partner Humanoid believes it has substantial manufacturing capacity to expand production as demand grows. The startup, founded in 2024 by Russian entrepreneur Artem Sokolov, closed a $152 million funding round in July and was valued at $1.35 billion. Investors included Bosch and Schaeffler.<\/p>\n
Robotics as a Service Instead of Sales<\/p>\n
Humanoid pursues a business model that differs from traditional equipment sales: the robots are not sold to customers like Schaeffler but rented out \u2014 under the banner of “Robotics as a Service.” They are intended to take over monotonous and physically demanding tasks in industrial production and logistics. In the long term, manufacturers are also targeting applications in healthcare, elder care, and as household helpers.<\/p>\n
The AI-controlled machines with arms, hands, and in some cases legs are seen as a major source of hope for the next stage of automation. China’s state leadership has listed so-called physical AI, which includes human-like robots, as a strategically important future field in its new five-year plan.<\/p>\n
European Competition Takes Shape<\/p>\n
Companies in Europe and the United States are also pushing into the future market. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been announcing his humanoid robot Optimus for years but was forced to admit in July that production would initially ramp up “extremely slowly.” U.S. companies such as Apptronik and Figure are also working on human-like robots, though so far only in small quantities in practical use.<\/p>\n
In Germany, alongside Neura Robotics, Munich-based Agile Robots is also making headlines. The company is currently commissioning its own manufacturing facility for humanoid robots in F\u00fcrstenfeldbruck. Automaker BMW is testing the use of initial humanoid robots from Swiss manufacturer Hexagon at its Leipzig plant, with series production also slated to begin next year.<\/p>\n
Experts see the complex mechanics and electronics of humanoid robots as a promising new business field for Europe’s struggling auto suppliers. According to a study by the Fraunhofer-IPA Institute and consulting firm P3, the majority of value creation lies not in the AI software but in the hardware of the robots. Companies like Schaeffler therefore aim to both supply components for humanoid robots and deploy the machines themselves as helpers in their own production.<\/p>\n
For Bosch, the engagement in B\u00fchl could signal that the company is investing in promising technology fields despite its ongoing cost-cutting program. Whether the robotics division can make a meaningful contribution to group revenue in the medium term remains an open question given the early stage of the market. However, entering through contract manufacturing status with Humanoid allows Bosch to build industrial expertise without having to bear the full risk of its own product development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Stuttgart-based industrial group Bosch will begin mass production of humanoid robots at its plant in B\u00fchl in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21054],"tags":[29165,6213,5307,56644,56646,6395,24662,21064,31524,6032,1621,56645],"class_list":["post-77005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bosch","tag-agile-robots","tag-bmw","tag-bosch","tag-buhl","tag-fraunhofer-ipa","tag-humanoid","tag-neura-robotics","tag-robert-bosch","tag-robert-bosch-gmbh","tag-schaeffler","tag-tesla","tag-unitree"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}