Mitsubishi Is Getting Into the Humanoid Robot Business, With a Target of 1,000 Units a Month

Mitsubishi Motors has signed an agreement with Highlanders, a robotics startup that spun out of the University of Tokyo, to build humanoid robots at Mitsubishi’s Kyoto plant. The deal was signed on 9 July 2026, and Mitsubishi is aiming to start production in early 2027, with an eventual target of around 1,000 robots a month.

What’s actually confirmed so far

Worth being precise about what’s actually confirmed here. Mitsubishi’s own written press release only says the two companies will “examine the feasibility” of starting production in early 2027, without giving a monthly output figure. The 1,000-a-month number came out at a press conference around the same announcement, and it’s been confirmed independently by Jiji Press and by Kyodo News, so it’s a real stated target, just one that Mitsubishi itself is treating as a goal rather than a locked-in commitment.

The robots will be built on an unused production line at a Kyoto plant that currently makes engines, which fits a pattern happening across Japan’s car industry right now: domestic engine volumes are falling, and automakers are sitting on factory space they no longer need for combustion parts. Mitsubishi has already invested in Highlanders and says it plans to invest further. CEO Takao Kato put it simply at the announcement, saying Japan is the “leadoff hitter” in mass producing humanoid robots domestically.

Who is Highlanders

Highlanders was only founded in 2023, and its humanoid platform, sometimes called HL Human and sometimes referred to by the model name N, was first shown in 2025. It has 19 degrees of freedom and is built to handle perception, motion planning and basic natural language interaction on its own. Highlanders has also said future versions will get five-fingered hands able to grip objects up to 3 kg. The first robots will work inside Mitsubishi’s own factories, on things like parts transport and engine assembly, and only once that’s proven out will the two companies look at selling the robots to other manufacturers.

What makes this deal a bit different from most of what’s happening elsewhere in the car industry is that Mitsubishi isn’t just buying or deploying someone else’s finished robot, the way most European carmakers have gone about this. It’s aiming to actually manufacture Highlanders’ robot at scale itself, using its own engine-plant know-how, quality control, and unused factory space. I covered how the rest of the car industry is approaching this in more detail in my roundup of every major EV maker’s humanoid robot programme, and Mitsubishi’s approach is closer to what Hyundai is doing with Boston Dynamics than to Renault’s or BMW’s model of investing in and piloting an outside startup’s product.

Whether Mitsubishi actually hits 1,000 units a month by 2027 is very much still an open question. Right now this is an early-stage partnership built around a factory space that would otherwise sit empty, not a finished product with a price tag or a confirmed customer list.

Featured Image Credit: Highlanders