Hongqi Chain ends robot vending project after 16 months

Hongqi announced the robot vending project in March 2025. The move triggered a limit-up in its shares the next trading day, and the stock was about 35.0% higher than before the announcement as of April 23, 2025, the report said. In a risk notice at the time, Hongqi listed three shortcomings: robotic arms had high grasping failure rates and unstable performance when facing dense shelves and irregularly shaped goods; products made of glass, tissue and metal cans required different gripping force, angles and methods; and vision systems could misjudge goods or positions under different lighting. The system also had to avoid obstacles while maintaining stable data transmission for transactions.

The company said then that it had completed lab software and hardware tests and expected a prototype to roll off the production line in May 2025, but noted that lab conditions differed sharply from real stores and that the product was still some distance from market launch. In the termination notice, Hongqi said the system had not yet met large-scale commercialization standards and that it was ending the R&D based on input-output considerations. Its 2025 annual report showed R&D expenses of about 2.8668 million yuan; the report said Hongqi had not previously disclosed R&D spending in its financial reports.

A person close to Hongqi told QbitAI's ROBO that the company had hoped robots could replace staff for nighttime sales, but tests found the machines' abilities limited. In summer, condensation on glass bottles of cold drinks made them unstable in the robot's grip and they often fell and broke, the person said; the robot also could not reliably handle complex packaging. Real stores added difficulties such as narrow aisles and the need to work around customers and staff. One industry source told the outlet that Hongqi had underestimated the task, adding that a single core scientist's annual salary could exceed the project's likely spending.

Robot retail remains an active testing ground for embodied-AI companies even after Hongqi's exit. The report said China has more than 100 robot retail pods or retail layouts in over 30 cities, including Hong Kong, and that at least 10 embodied-AI companies are working on retail projects. Seventeen companies have put robots into real stores or standalone retail points, at stages ranging from regular operation to trial operation and in-store demonstration, it said.

At a roughly 10-square-meter robot retail pod in Zhongguancun, Beijing, a wheeled robot with two-finger grippers greets passersby and fetches drinks after customers order on a tablet. The report said the pick-up takes about 20 seconds and that the robot mainly moves to the shelf and carries goods to the sales window. A staff member on duty said the pod opens from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and needs a person present to replenish goods, charge the robot and report faults. Goods must be placed neatly in advance; if an item is askew or out of stock, the robot cannot handle it and waits or stalls, according to the report.

At a convenience store in Zhongguancun, a robot works only in the narrow checkout area and can take several uniformly packaged drinks and gum from a cabinet behind it; it has also been given the function of cooking sausages. A tester told QbitAI's ROBO that letting the robot move around the whole store would slow staff because it moves slowly and is still being adjusted. Grip force and position need tuning for different goods, and soft packaging would require dexterous hands, which the store did not use because of cost, the tester said. A store employee said the robot took nearly a minute to pick goods at first and now takes about a dozen seconds; customers often book visits to watch it interact.

The economics remain uncertain. The report said a retail robot model in use sells for nearly 700,000 yuan on e-commerce platforms, and an industry source estimated the cost of a complete retail pod at nearly 1 million yuan, while a pod carries only dozens of SKUs. Public reports cited by the outlet said one robot shop generated 21,000 yuan in weekly revenue during the May Day holiday in 2026, and some locations of another robot company exceeded 10,000 yuan in daily sales during the 2026 Spring Festival. A listed AI group's 2025 results showed its new business, including robot retail, accounted for 6.0% of group revenue, but the segment also includes three other businesses, so retail's share is lower, the report said.

Jia Chuan, a veteran industry practitioner and former industry sales manager at UBTech, told QbitAI's ROBO that the robot retail business model is not mature and many sales scenarios remain at the proof-of-concept stage. Zhou Xiang, a retail business head at a company that supplies robot retail brains and solutions, said many robot-body companies approach it because they lack real deployment scenarios. Retail sites offer high visibility and tolerance for error, making them a middle-ground choice while robots' factory and home applications remain constrained, according to the report.

Editor's Summary

Hongqi Chain has ended a 16-month robot vending system project, saying the system did not meet large-scale commercialization standards and shifting to 24-hour cloud staffing. The case shows that most retail robots in China still rely on human staff, handle limited packaged goods and remain in proof-of-concept or demonstration stages. The company's 2025 R&D spending was about 2.87 million yuan, while an industry source put the cost of a single robot retail pod at nearly 1 million yuan.