BMW Pilots AEON Humanoid Robot in German Production

• AEON is a humanoid robot from Hexagon Robotics with a human-like body, interchangeable hand and gripper tools, and the ability to move on wheels.
• At Plant Leipzig, it is being piloted for multifunctional use in high-voltage battery assembly and component manufacturing following lab and on-site testing.

BMW Group has started testing a humanoid robot at its Leipzig plant, marking the company’s first pilot of this kind in production in Germany. The robot, AEON, was developed by Hexagon Robotics and is being introduced under BMW’s Physical AI program. The pilot is overseen by the company’s new Center of Competence for Physical AI in Production.

At Leipzig, AEON is being tested for multifunctional use in high-voltage battery assembly and component manufacturing. The robot has a human-like body that allows a wide range of hand and gripper elements or scanning tools to be flexibly attached. It also enables dynamic use on wheels during testing and later in the pilot phase.

The Leipzig pilot follows a 2025 deployment at BMW Group Plant Spartanburg in collaboration with Figure AI. There, the humanoid robot Figure 02 supported the production of more than 30,000 BMW X3, handling the removal and positioning of sheet metal parts for the welding process and moving more than 90,000 components. BMW Group states that the insights gained from this project are being leveraged to further develop and scale Physical AI applications.

🌀 Tom’s Take:

BMW’s move from Spartanburg to Leipzig shows this is no longer a single-plant experiment. With structured pilots in the U.S. and Germany, the company is signaling that humanoid robots are being evaluated as a repeatable production capability across its global network.

Source: BMW Group