When rush hour calms down around 8 p.m. at Shenzhen’s Futian railway station, autonomous robovans get to work. They begin moving back and forth along a designated route, carrying parcels from a storage facility and dropping them off at a spot near the platform. The vehicles broadcast audio alerting people to keep a two-meter distance, but stop when passengers walk in front of them.
Each van has ten cubic meters of cargo capacity and can carry up to 500 kilograms. After parcels are unloaded, staff carry them onto subway trains that take them to a logistics center, where they will be distributed to their destinations. The aim is to make use of idle space inside subways, according to an employee of SF Express, one of China’s largest delivery companies, that runs the operation.
The robovans are slow. In the metro station, they travel only slightly faster than walking speed and are much slower than humans at unloading parcels. And even inside the station, where autonomous navigation is easier than on public roads, they make the short trips in a disciplined, military-like style.
Despite such limitations, China is racing ahead of the rest of the world in the adoption of robovans. Neolix, the Beijing-based developer of the vehicles used in the Shenzhen metro operation, recently said it has deployed 10,000 of them, becoming the first company to reach this milestone in autonomous vehicles. The figure will balloon to ten million vehicles within ten years, Neolix executive president Will Zhao told Nikkei Asia in an interview.
“The algorithm will get better and better, and the vehicles will be faster and faster, as long as they are safe,” he said. “There will be a turning point where human drivers will not be as strong as autonomous vehicles. Our belief is that robovans are the first market.”
Like robotaxis, robovans hold the promise of bringing down costs and increasing the reliability of services. As e-commerce penetration rises globally, logistics companies face the challenge of delivering goods quickly and cheaply. A US survey by consultancy AlixPartners last year showed that almost 80% of transportation, logistics, and supply chain executives said per-package delivery costs had increased from a year earlier.
Nowhere is the pressure stronger than in China, where the average citizen received over 100 parcels in 2024, according to the State Post Bureau. Operating in the world’s biggest e-commerce market, delivery companies charge extremely low prices but make up for it by handling hundreds of millions of parcels every day. The battle for scale has intensified the price war, resulting in even the biggest players like ZTO Express, YTO Express, SF Holding and JD Logistics, the delivery arm of e-commerce company JD.com, reporting lower profit margins for the first half of the year.
That has sent them on the hunt for technologies that can reduce the cost of delivery. SF Express operated 1,800 robovans as of June, according to the company. China Post, a state-owned company, is also another big customer of Neolix. JD Logistics began operating robovans in several areas in Shenzhen. One was recently spotted parked alongside dozens of conventional delivery bikes that have a large cargo space on the back.
A major advantage for Neolix and other Chinese robovan makers is the homegrown supply chain. The price of light detection and ranging sensors, which map the surrounding environment and are widely used for autonomous vehicles, have plunged in recent years, driven by competition among Chinese producers. Chinese suppliers also lead in batteries and are catching up in chips that power self-driving systems.
Compared to robotaxis, autonomous delivery vehicles are also easier to strip costs down because there are no passengers. The cost of a robovan is “already 20–30% cheaper than a commercial vehicle,” Zhao said. “There’s no need for a human cabin, air conditioner or audio player.” He said the savings are even greater if the salary of the driver is taken into account.
Under President Xi Jinping’s call to lead the global race in advanced technology, many local governments are embracing robovans. Beijing gave Neolix the first robovan permit in 2021. Last year, the city of Qingdao in eastern Shandong enabled trial operations on 121 roads across eight districts, including some of the most populated areas. This year, Shenzhen announced that autonomous vehicles would be allowed to operate in routes that cross different districts.
Neolix, which does not disclose revenue or profit figures, sells and leases vehicles to delivery companies, including via third parties. It has also partnered with ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing to roll out freight services in Qingdao for as low as RMB 9.9 (USD 1.4) per delivery. In addition to last mile delivery, the company said it serves various segments of intracity logistics, such as the transportation of goods from wholesale markets to shopping malls.
While the fleet is growing fast, autonomous deliveries still face an uphill challenge toward widespread adoption. Motorbikes that handle last-mile deliveries are quicker. Robovans can’t handle many parts of the delivery operation, like sorting parcels or dropping them off in front of customer doors. Local governments are more reluctant to give permits for robovans to operate on highways, where the stakes are high in the form of potential fatal accidents.
Nevertheless, investors seem to be excited about the prospects. Neolix raised RMB 1 billion (USD 140 million) in February and is nearing a new, larger round of funding, according to Zhao. That would pave the way for a potential IPO, likely in Hong Kong, as early as next year. Some of its peers in autonomous vehicles are racing ahead: Cidi, a producer of autonomous mining trucks, and Uisee Technologies, which makes autonomous tractors used in airports, have already filed to go public in Hong Kong.
Within China, Neolix competes with other startups like Zelostech, which said it raised USD 100 million from investors led by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group. With the domestic market becoming increasingly crowded, Neolix is also eyeing growth overseas, where governments are drawing up regulatory frameworks. Neolix has announced plans to roll out trials in South Korea’s Incheon and the UAE. It is bullish about Japan, where the government said it plans to conduct “intense trials” of delivery robots in the next three years. Zhao expects orders for more than 1,000 robovans overseas by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, global peers have bold ambitions. US based Starship said it plans to expand its fleet of 2,700 robots, which are smaller than robovans and run on sidewalks, to 12,000 by 2027. Nuro, another US startup, has shifted from making its own vehicles to licensing its self-driving technology, but a spokesperson said that it still sees “strong potential” for autonomous delivery applications.
Neolix is betting that China’s huge size, a willingness by delivery companies to adopt new technologies and a government push to lead the artificial intelligence race will keep it ahead of rivals. “We will have the advantage of the data, the advantage of algorithms, that we will leverage to roll out the fleet globally,” Zhao said.
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.