Tesla audits China suppliers to push Optimus into mass production, report says

Phate Zhang

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Sept 21, 2026 at 2:48 PM GMT+8

Several Chinese suppliers have already secured Optimus orders and will start production soon after passing the audits.

The audits cover Ningbo, Hangzhou and Shanghai, and mostly involve existing suppliers to Tesla's auto business.

Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) humanoid robot team is auditing supply chain companies in China's Yangtze River Delta region, and several of them had already secured orders before the audits, The Paper reported on Monday, citing a person familiar with the industry chain.

The team began factory audits last week at companies including Tuopu Group, Sanhua Intelligent Controls and Joyson Electronics, according to the report.

These companies mainly supply Tesla with core electromechanical components such as joint modules, actuators and precision structural parts.

"Before this round of audits, these companies had all already received orders for Tesla's humanoid robot, differing only in size," the person said.

The audits will evaluate the quality and compliance of the relevant production lines, and production will begin soon after they pass, the person said.

The audits are not limited to Ningbo in Zhejiang province, as previously rumored, but also cover supply chain companies in Hangzhou, Shanghai and other parts of the Yangtze River Delta, most of which are existing suppliers to Tesla's auto business, the person said.

21jingji reported on September 17, citing industry chain sources, that a Tesla team arrived in Ningbo on September 16 and began a new round of mass production audits for the Optimus robot on September 17, and had already placed orders with supply chain companies.

The model set to enter mass production is Tesla's third-generation Optimus, its first designed for volume production.

The model features major upgrades to its dexterous hand mechanism and joint actuators, and will initially take on industrial tasks such as material handling and simple assembly line assistance in factories.

Tesla's former Model S and Model X production line in the Fremont plant has been converted into a dedicated Optimus line with a planned annual capacity of 1 million units.

The company is also preparing a second robot production line at its Texas Gigafactory, with a long-term designed annual capacity of 10 million units, expected to start production around summer next year.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said mass production of the humanoid robot is "the hardest product to scale manufacturing that we've ever made at Tesla."

He also said on the January earnings call that Tesla's biggest competitors in humanoid robots will come from China.

Tesla conducted a previous round of audits of its Chinese supply chain from September 2025 to around February this year to prepare for the redesign and mass production of the third-generation model, according to 21jingji.

That round of audits was based on automotive-grade standards, requiring fast cycle times and high yields, breaking down the per-unit cost, and requiring suppliers to have overseas manufacturing capabilities and tier-2 supplier management capabilities, according to the report.

Xpeng's humanoid robot production line has begun operating, with Iron walking off the line autonomously after assembly.