Unitree launches cheapest humanoid robot on AliExpress to rival Tesla

[HANGZHOU] Unitree Robotics began selling its cheapest humanoid robot on Alibaba Group Holding’s AliExpress on Wednesday (Apr 15), expanding its international presence in a white-hot race featuring heavyweight players like Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Hangzhou-based Unitree’s R1 model will cost roughly US$8,150 with import fees factored in, and shipping to the US will be free of charge, the company said on Wednesday. It will also offer a scaled-down version priced at about US$6,800. The R1 robots will be sold to markets including the US, Canada, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore via AliExpress, according to a Unitree spokesperson.

It is an aggressive move to seek out customers in Tesla’s home market, at a time when the US company is still developing its Optimus humanoid product line.

Unitree’s partnership with Alibaba, which is making a bigger effort to sell Chinese goods to overseas markets, comes ahead of a 4.2 billion yuan (S$783.3 million) initial public offering on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-like Star Market.

The robotics specialist is widely seen as China’s leader in developing humanoids, and its founder Wang Xingxing rubbed shoulders with Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Tencent Holdings’ Pony Ma at a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in February last year.

Chinese robot makers led global shipment volumes in 2025, far outstripping US rivals including Tesla and Figure AI, according to research agency Omdia. Unitree launched the R1 in July in three configurations, starting at US$4,900 for the lower-spec R1 Air version, setting a new mark for affordability of such machines.

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Unitree already sells its robots overseas through JD.com’s JoyBuy platform and via Amazon.com Backed by Xiaomi chief executive officer Lei Jun’s venture Shunwei Capital, Alibaba and food delivery giant Meituan, Unitree sold some 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025, mostly to universities and research labs. Rising demand both at home and abroad for its bipedal and quadruped robots has fuelled a more than 300 per cent surge in revenue last year, according to the company’s IPO prospectus.

Alibaba, for its part, this week announced that it too is getting into the robotics arena with plans to develop and sell its own four-legged robot, which would compete with Unitree’s Go series. Its AliExpress has also tried to entice more established brand names over from Amazon, stepping up efforts to expand its footprint on the Seattle-based firm’s home turf. BLOOMBERG