- Humanoid robots are helping Renault build EVs more efficiently.
- The first two-legged robots were deployed at the factory that builds the retro Renault 5 EV.
- Hundreds more will be added throughout the plant in the next 18 months.
French automaker Renault is deploying hundreds of humanoid robots at its electric car factory in France to remove backbreaking tasks from employees’ job descriptions. The first two-legged, headless robot is already hard at work putting tires on the conveyor belt that takes them to the assembly line.
That number will go up to 350 in the following 18 months as Renault sets its plan to cut production hours per vehicle by 30% in motion. The car company also wants to cut production costs by 20% over the next five years as it looks to become the go-to European automaker globally.
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Source: Renault
Developed by New York-based startup Wandercraft, the Calvin-40 robot can lift up to 90 pounds (40 kilograms) several hundred times a day without needing to rest. It has waist-mounted video cameras and uses LED lights to communicate its status.
In other words, this is not a fancy human-like robot like Tesla’s Optimus, but it’s not meant to be one. Calvin was designed to work independently and integrate safely and reliably into any industrial setting. This is the second generation of the robot, and its maker, Wandercraft, boasts that it was developed in just 40 days.
Its predecessor was developed in April 2025, but by using artificial intelligence training, the startup doubled the machine’s speed in just half a year. Just a few months later, in June 2025, Renault bought a minority stake in the company, investing $75 million to boost development.
The Calvin-40 robot can be trained to pick out mixed parts from bins, but for now, it is restricted to lifting tires and carrying panels in the body shop, as the limiting factors are speed and dexterity.
Thierry Charvet, Renault’s head of production, reassured human workers that the robot will not take their place anytime soon. “There are no robots replacing people on the final assembly line, where you put all the parts in the car, because [they lack] speed and dexterity,” he said.
The French car company claims its implementation of the Calvin-40 robot is an industry-first. “Lots of companies are using humanoids for a display at the Consumer Electronics Show; we like to put them on the line,” said Renault Group CEO Francois Provost.
