Did Aubo get a huge order from BYD?
Universal Robots is the world market leader, Elite Robots and Neuromeka and probably Jaka and Doosan Robotics want to replace the Danes. However, Aubo from China might be the most likely to make it. Probably in response to yesterday's KUKA article, I received info and source from a reader about a major order that would probably be unparalleled.
Addendum: A reader of this article emailed it to me - further confirmation of what follows.
Agreement should have been signed in January 2023.
At the beginning of the year, BYD (Build Your Dreams), the large Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicles, is said to have ordered 7,500 robots from Aubo; this was preceded by an initial order for up to 700 units in 2022. BYD already sells 15 times as many electric vehicles in China as VW and also wants to become the market leader for electric vehicles in Germany(link). The purchase of such a number of cobots would be surprising for several reasons: On the one hand, car manufacturers prefer to use industrial robots for mass production and then the limited payload of maximum 20 kg actually speaks against Aubo.
China expert Georg Stieler
With all due respect to my "informant", who is a proven robotics expert and does not regularly visit China, I asked Georg Stieler for an assessment. Georg Stieler is a China expert and published a study on industrial robots in China last year(link). He has looked around and thinks that there might be something to the statement. At the same time, he points to the huge drop in the price of cobots in China. From almost 70,000 RMB (just under 10,000 €) in 2021 to sometimes only 40,000 to 50,000 RMB (roughly 6,000 €). Aubo would have already sold several thousand models to a massage salon operator in 2021.
Incidentally, Georg Stieler was recently back in China for the first time since Corona and described his impressions on LinkedIn. In this article, he also refers to Chinese robotics, which wants to further reduce prices. I would like to add to his reference to the loss of market share by European manufacturers as a result of the supply chain during Corona: M.W., European integrators stopped coming to the country during Corona to install more robots for German automakers. A car manufacturer thus had only the choice between waiting for Corona to end (was not foreseeable for a long time - there was even speculation that Corona would be used to permanently isolate the country) or contracting the Chinese. This, too, is likely to have shifted market shares. Since contracts such as the major order reported are only feasible with generous discounts, Aubo seems to be focusing strongly on rapid growth instead of profitability.
Aubo plans humanoid robots
If there really is this big order - the one for the massage parlors is fixed - we would notice Aubo in Europe less than Jaka or Elite Robots because Aubo would already be well utilized at home. Then it could well be that Aubo would be unit leader at the end of the year, but probably not sales leader. The price difference between Aubo and Universal Robots is too great for that. But if Aubo sells 1,000s of robots to BYD, the company must be absolutely convinced of the performance of its robots. The risk of exchanging them (for what?) would threaten the company's existence.
If one follows the rumors, Aubo wants to quickly introduce humanoid robots for production. This is happening so quickly that it seems conceivable that part of the delivery to BYD will be just such robots.
Are we networking? LinkedIn
-> Go to the Cobot group on LinkedIn (link). The author is also a consultant (robotics, tech & finance/ valuations). Hardly anyone is likely to have a comparable market and solution overview. Thanks to government funding, SMEs have the option of a company tour with concrete recommendations etc. for a flat rate of €1,750 ("special areas" €800) incl. travel.
