Chinese industrial robots have broken through in auto welding, one of the most guarded strongholds of overseas robot makers.
In the first half of 2026, nearly 100 domestic spot-welding robots entered the main welding line at Geely’s Yiwu plant, running alongside international brands at the same cycle time and comparable quality, supporting mass production of high-end new-energy models including the Lynk & Co 900, Xinhua Finance reported on October 5. It is the first large-scale deployment of Chinese robots in the core welding process, ending a 30-plus-year monopoly by foreign brands — and was highlighted at a State Council Information Office press conference on April 21.
Geely and Siasun spent four years on the program. The new spot-welding robot delivers a mean time between failures (MTBF) of at least 80,000 hours, and handles lightweight bodies and flexible mixed-model production. Before the Yiwu rollout, Geely had gradually deployed more than 20 units at four bases from 2023 to 2024, covering spot welding, arc welding, handling and gluing. The robots now cover more than 95% of mainstream welding processes on Geely’s lines.
For more than 30 years, foreign brands had dominated China’s auto welding lines, building closed ecosystems in which robots were tightly bound to proprietary tools and standards — limiting how quickly Chinese carmakers could iterate. The Geely-Siasun breakthrough is therefore not only a single win on the line, but a systemic step toward supply-chain self-reliance.
Geely is now the first Chinese carmaker to deploy domestic robots at scale on a main welding line, and the rollout covers more than 95% of mainstream welding processes — from the main body line to the underbody, front-door and side-frame stations.
The wider cobot market is also booming. China’s share of global collaborative robot shipments rose from 28.9% in 2018 to 54.7% in 2025, heading toward a projected 61.4% by 2030, according to Interact Analysis. Domestic cobot sales hit about 49,500 units in 2025, up 45.6%, with 64,700 units expected in 2026. Worldwide, cobot installations reached 66,000 units — about 11% of all industrial robot installations — the International Federation of Robotics reports.
The takeaway: Chinese robots are no longer limited to low-end jobs — they are now working on the most demanding lines, side by side with the world’s best brands.
Post time: Nov-05-2026
