Joyson Electronics built its business supplying automotive components. Now the Ningbo-based company wants to supply the parts that help humanoid robots sense, move, and manage power.
It is part of a broader shift across the automotive sector. Price competition in vehicles and components has squeezed profits, while companies and investors see humanoid robotics as a potential source of growth. Dozens of automakers, including Xpeng, Chery, BAIC, Nio, and BYD, have made moves into robotics.
Joyson started with automotive functional components before expanding through acquisitions of Germany’s Preh, Quin, and TechniSat’s automotive business, the US-based KSS, and assets from Japan’s Takata. It adapted those capabilities for the Chinese market and became one of the world’s 30 largest automotive parts suppliers. In 2025, it generated more than RMB 60 billion (USD 9 billion) in revenue, over 70% of it overseas, with factories in more than 20 countries.
In 2025, Joyson adopted a strategy spanning automotive products and robotics. It positioned itself as a first-tier supplier for humanoid robots, providing systems and components to robot manufacturers. Its plans cover decision-making and motion control systems, limbs, and energy, including robot head assemblies, energy management systems, controllers, electronic skin, dexterous hands, and robotic body structures.
The electronic skin, a form of flexible tactile sensor, is primarily developed and manufactured by JoysonQuin, a business jointly owned by Joyson Electronics and Senssun.
Kang Yuran, who leads JoysonQuin’s electronic skin business, told 36Kr that robotics ranks first in the group’s current strategic plan and is intended to become its next major source of growth.
Joyson’s move shows both what automotive companies can transfer to humanoid robotics and where manufacturing experience alone falls short.
An automotive supplier searches for new growth
Founded in 2004, Joyson initially focused on automotive functional components. Its 2011 acquisition of German automotive electronics company Preh helped take revenue beyond RMB 10 billion (USD 1.5 billion) and began more than a decade of international acquisitions.
In December 2014, it acquired German premium interior trim supplier Quin for more than EUR 90 million (USD 100.4 million). That business was subsequently combined with Joyson’s existing functional components operations to form JoysonQuin.
JoysonQuin specializes in cabin air management systems and smart surfaces. It also has experience with real wood, aluminum, carbon fiber, new materials, and manufacturing processes, and has long supplied Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, General Motors, and Lamborghini.
Between 2016 and 2018, Joyson acquired TechniSat’s automotive business, automotive safety supplier KSS, and selected Takata assets. Those deals helped make it the world’s second-largest automotive safety supplier and fourth-largest supplier of intelligent cockpit domain controllers, which manage vehicle cabin functions. Its products reached almost every major automaker.
By 2025, Joyson had more than 40,000 employees in over 20 countries and supplied more than 100 automotive brands. It recorded revenue of approximately RMB 61.2 billion (USD 9.2 billion) that year, including RMB 44.446 billion (USD 6.7 billion) from overseas, or 72.64% of the total.
In recent years, vehicle price competition has spread from the mass market into higher-priced segments. Vehicle and component manufacturers have struggled to translate rising revenue into higher profits, prompting them to seek growth elsewhere.
In May, Li Auto founder Li Xiang described autonomous driving as the first half of embodied intelligence’s development and humanoid robots as the second.
According to Robotics Business Review, an industry publication, more than 15 automakers had entered humanoid robotics by August 2026. Upstream component suppliers, including Joyson, have followed.
Joyson is already working with leading Chinese robot manufacturers. It provides contract manufacturing for an Agibot robot with two arms and a wheeled chassis, handling manufacturing, assembly, and testing of the head, arms, and chassis.
Joyson is also building a business collecting data to train embodied intelligence. After assembly, robots will work in several real-world settings established within the company. Data from their tasks will be used to train physical AI models.
Testing robot components on the factory floor
Kang said Joyson is extending its automotive first-tier supplier model into robotics. It plans to supply components across a robot rather than develop its own complete machine or specialize in a single part. Its portfolio spans robot head assemblies, energy management systems, decision-making and motion controllers, dexterous hands, and electronic skin.
Electronic skin acts as a robot’s sense of touch. A flexible electronic film attached to its surface can detect signals such as pressure, slipping, vibration, and temperature.
JoysonQuin is pursuing several sensing technologies, using piezoresistive sensing as its foundation and combining multiple sensing modes. Kang said piezoresistive technology is the most mature option, supports dense integration and mass production, and offers cost advantages. It detects changes in electrical resistance under pressure and is not affected by strong magnetic environments.
JoysonQuin’s first generation of electronic skin uses piezoresistive sensing. It has launched fingertip and gripper tactile sensors, along with a full-hand tactile sensing system for dexterous hands.
For the second generation, it plans to develop capacitive electronic skin for larger surface areas. Capacitive sensing detects pressure through changes in capacitance. Kang said it offers higher sensitivity and can also detect proximity, making it suitable for covering larger parts of a robot’s body.
JoysonQuin is also working with research institutions and universities on flexible electromagnetic electronic skin under a Zhejiang provincial R&D program. This approach detects changes in magnetic fields and is intended for applications that are not sensitive to magnetic fields.
The electronic skin has already been integrated with Joyson’s in-house dexterous hands and industrial grippers. JoysonQuin tests and validates products on its own production lines before supplying external customers. The aim is to catch problems early, then extend deployment to customers’ lines, including those of automakers.
Kang described this as a key advantage in developing robot components. Real production needs determine which modules an application requires and how accurately they must measure pressure. More deployments generate more data, enabling improvements in reliability and cost. Lower costs can then help attract more orders.
He identified three strengths: engineering, access to operating data, and customer relationships. Decades of production experience give JoysonQuin the ability to turn prototypes into products that can be delivered reliably at scale. Its own manufacturing operations provide representative working conditions in which to test and improve robots and electronic skin.
JoysonQuin’s factories are also potential buyers of robots, while Joyson supplies robot manufacturers with components. That makes the relationship reciprocal: the group can manufacture robots and sell their parts, then buy robots to use on its own production lines.
Still, Kang said that commercialization remains difficult across the humanoid robotics industry, including for automotive companies with extensive manufacturing experience.
He grouped JoysonQuin’s immediate challenges into two areas: balancing customer requirements against R&D costs, and finding customers able to buy at scale.
“Customers with real needs at scale are still emerging. Those willing to pay want complete solutions that can be deployed directly and operate reliably over the long term, rather than samples,” he said. “That requires hardware and software systems to run continuously for one to two years without maintenance, with total costs kept within what companies and production lines can afford.”
JoysonQuin plans to begin its overseas robotics expansion at Joyson’s own factories. After deploying and validating robots on those lines, it would gradually offer them to other manufacturing customers abroad.
Kang sees a substantial opportunity in serving existing overseas factories, where international policies permit expansion. Automotive customers will remain the principal target: Joyson’s current buyers of vehicle components are also potential buyers of its robotics products.
KrASIA features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Feng Yaling for 36Kr.
Note: EUR, RMB figures are converted to USD at rates of EUR 0.90 = USD 1 and RMB 6.66 = USD 1 based on estimates as of November 2, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are approximate and, where appropriate, rounded for ease of reference. They may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.