Introduction
This year, humanoid robots have hardly taken a break, with videos of them dancing, running marathons, performing folk dances, and boxing continuously flooding the internet. On the other hand, related companies are experiencing an unprecedented peak in financing, with valuations exceeding hundreds of millions, and many well-known internet giants are becoming the financial backers.
Most opinions suggest that 2025 will be the year of mass production for humanoid robots, with the global market size expected to reach 6.339 billion yuan. Looking ahead, the market size for humanoid robots is projected to grow exponentially. Goldman Sachs predicts that by 2035, the global market size for humanoid robots will reach 38 billion USD.
The current growth is primarily driven by the urgent demand for automation and intelligent upgrades in manufacturing, logistics, and warehousing scenarios. For example, Tesla plans to deploy thousands of Optimus robots in its factories to perform tasks such as welding and handling. A larger market opportunity will come from applications in home services and healthcare, which may account for 45% of the total market.
Not limited to Tesla, domestic manufacturers such as Zeekr, Midea, BAIC, BYD, and Hengtong are increasingly exploring how to integrate humanoid robots into their production lines. However, transitioning from social media to real-world applications, where humanoid robots can work continuously and solve repetitive, high-cost labor issues, remains a long journey.
Among these, batteries, as the “source of power,” play a crucial role in the commercialization journey of humanoid robots. The energy system, especially battery technology, is not only the “heart” of the robot, providing power, but also the “Achilles’ heel” that determines its economic viability, practicality, and application boundaries.
In the face of this emerging market for humanoid robots, battery manufacturers are shifting from a wait-and-see attitude to proactive strategic planning. Leading domestic power battery companies such as CATL, Sunwoda, Guoxuan High-Tech, EVE Energy, and Honeycomb Energy have announced that they will include humanoid robots in their battery technology planning.
01The Dual Role of Battery “Economics”
From the perspective of hardware manufacturing, the proportion of power batteries in humanoid robots is not high. According to estimates by Minsheng Securities on the cost of Tesla’s Optimus robot, its core hardware costs account for about 69% of the total cost. In the BOM cost of Tesla’s Optimus, the battery cost is only 2180 yuan, accounting for 0.5% of the total cost.
However, this proportion is not unique; the industry generally believes that the battery accounts for about 1% of the cost of humanoid robots, which is lower than that of core motion components such as reducers, servo motors, and controllers.
Nevertheless, the demand potential for power batteries remains enormous. It is estimated that by 2030, the global shipment of humanoid robots will reach 5 million units. Based on a battery capacity of 2.5 kWh per unit, there will be a demand for at least 12.5 GWh of batteries, equivalent to 250,000 pure electric vehicles with a range of 500 km.
This presents a market opportunity that battery manufacturers cannot afford to miss. Sunwoda is a leading global lithium-ion battery company that has accurately captured the trends in consumer batteries, power batteries, and energy storage batteries. From 2023 to 2024, Sunwoda is the fastest-growing company among the top ten power battery manufacturers and top ten energy storage battery manufacturers globally.
At the same time, the importance of power batteries is also reflected in the fact that their performance directly determines the robot’s endurance, charging frequency, and overall work efficiency. The choice of technology and performance parameters has a profound and decisive impact on subsequent operating costs.
Therefore, despite the low BOM cost proportion, companies must consider long-term economic factors when selecting battery solutions, rather than focusing solely on initial purchase prices. Operating costs include not only energy consumption but also downtime caused by charging or battery swapping, maintenance labor costs, and the depreciation and replacement costs of the battery itself.
Otherwise, inefficient charge and discharge cycles will directly translate into high operating costs and low investment returns. Thus, when evaluating the economic viability of humanoid robots, it is more reasonable to use the total lifecycle cost as a measure.
From this perspective, performance indicators such as battery energy density, charging speed, cycle life, and safety directly determine the effective working hours, maintenance frequency, and energy efficiency of the robots.
Currently, mainstream power batteries can generally only operate for 3 to 6 hours, and heavy batteries further restrict their flexibility. “It’s like a tourist whose phone dies and has to go home disappointed; the potential of robots is similarly constrained by their energy core,” said Zhou Shuangjun, a technical expert in small power batteries at Sunwoda.
Limited endurance not only restricts the continuous operation capability of robots but also significantly increases operating costs by increasing charging frequency and downtime, becoming a key obstacle to their large-scale commercialization.
In this year’s humanoid robot half marathon, the Tiangong Ultra took first place. However, behind this victory, the Tiangong Ultra had to change batteries three times during the race.
It is evident that the endurance capability of humanoid robots has yet to keep pace with the rhythm of commercialization, directly undermining their cost advantage over human labor and extending their investment recovery period. The current balancing act is to innovate operational models (such as autonomous battery swapping functions) to compensate for endurance shortcomings.
02The “Pentagon Warrior” Approaching Its Limits
Ultimately, improving the performance of the battery itself is the fundamental way to solve the endurance problem of robots.
According to relevant data, the power batteries for humanoid robots are still primarily based on ternary cylindrical lithium batteries, which account for about 70% of the market share, with cell energy densities between 250 and 300 Wh/kg, and voltage platforms mostly concentrated between 48 and 58V. Some manufacturers also use lithium iron phosphate batteries and pilot semi-solid/solid-state batteries.
Leading lithium battery manufacturer Sunwoda has learned from research with several humanoid robot manufacturers that the endurance target for humanoid robots is 8 hours, which is still a distance away.
In response to this demand, Sunwoda’s technical team is innovating cell materials (such as high-nickel high-silicon chemical systems) and processes to enhance the energy density of the cells, aiming to initially increase it to 350 Wh/kg to solve the endurance problem.
The next step is to hope for the maturity of semi-solid and solid-state battery technologies, which theoretically can achieve energy densities of over 500 Wh/kg, 2 to 3 times that of traditional liquid lithium batteries, significantly extending the working time of robots.
Sunwoda has been laying out solid-state batteries since 2015 and has accumulated 10 years of R&D experience. It has already achieved small-scale production at 320 Wh/kg and 360 Wh/kg, completing flight tests with 100 kg-level drones.
“Humanoid robot batteries need to find a balance between energy density, cost, and safety,” said Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “2025 will be a watershed for technology routes; if semi-solid batteries can control costs below 150 USD/kWh, they are expected to open the market first.”
It is worth mentioning that energy density is not the only requirement humanoid robot manufacturers have for batteries; power output is also a crucial aspect.
From the performance of the humanoid robot half marathon in Beijing Yizhuang, the 48V voltage platform struggles to meet the robot’s demands for kinetic output, heat dissipation efficiency, and energy consumption control under long-term high loads. The battery needs to upgrade towards higher voltage and stronger power to adapt to the power demands in complex scenarios.
Additionally, during the robot’s daily operations, there are complex actions such as handling, rapid movement, and dancing, which require higher power. Robot manufacturers have found that the transient power of the battery is often insufficient, and there are significant kinetic fluctuations throughout the full discharge cycle.
This results in high voltage when fully charged, providing strong power for the robot, but as the charge decreases, the kinetic energy also declines, affecting the precision and continuity of movements, necessitating stable 3C-level continuous discharge capabilities.
At the same time, pursuing high rates places higher demands on the cycle life of the cells. Currently, high-rate cells on the market generally only last about 200 cycles, becoming a bottleneck for the lifespan of humanoid robots. Most manufacturers hope to increase this to over 600 cycles while ensuring system safety.
It is understood that Sunwoda’s strategy to address this is to use a full-tab design to reduce internal resistance in the cells, enhancing transient power output capability and kinetic stability. Additionally, Sunwoda has developed a BMS system that integrates EIS (Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy monitoring), edge-cloud collaborative control, SOX algorithms, and AI safety warnings to make the battery smarter and safer.
On the other hand, the batteries currently used in humanoid robots generally exhibit poor consistency in cell performance and weak adaptability to irregular structures.
Some humanoid robot manufacturers have reported that after multiple uses, the performance of the batteries noticeably declines, with significant capacity degradation. Additionally, due to the size limitations of the cells, the battery systems struggle to adapt to the irregular structures of the robots, failing to meet the spatial requirements of different parts.
In response, Sunwoda has innovatively adopted a hybrid architecture of “main body battery + joint micro battery,” combining lightweight structural materials to meet the adaptability of irregular body structures while reducing the overall weight of the battery.
The requirements for batteries in humanoid robots far exceed those for traditional consumer electronics or electric vehicles. They need a “pentagon warrior” that achieves an extreme balance between energy density, power density, safety, environmental adaptability, and cost. This almost stringent comprehensive performance requirement is driving battery technology towards new physical and chemical limits.
Sunwoda is well aware of the demand differences across industries. A representative from Sunwoda stated, “We provide fully customized battery solutions to precisely match the irregular structures of humanoid robots; leveraging our technological accumulation in materials, structures, and intelligent management, we focus on industrial and service high-frequency scenarios, which have higher requirements for battery lifespan and power stability, thus highlighting our technological advantages. At the same time, we collaborate with industry partners to participate in the formulation of industry standards and related projects to accelerate the large-scale commercialization of humanoid robots.”
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Source: Advanced Battery Industry Cluster
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