Hyundai CEO Says Local Car Dealerships Could Soon Sell Boston Dynamics Humanoid Robots

Hyundai Motor CEO Jose Munoz said at the company's 2026 CEO Investor Day, held August 26, that the automaker is exploring the use of its existing car dealership network to sell robots, including Boston Dynamics' humanoid Atlas and its Spot quadruped. Munoz said Hyundai has existing potential distribution for selling robots through its dealer partners, a move that would give the industrial robots a consumer-facing retail channel.

Financing and Production

Hyundai Capital, the automaker's financing arm, is studying whether it can offer loans or leases for robot purchases similar to auto financing. Munoz said Hyundai would soon begin mass-producing the Atlas humanoid, building on a plan for a U.S. robotics facility with annual capacity of about 30,000 units starting in 2028, with the first 25,000 units committed to Hyundai's own Metaplant in Georgia.

Context

Hyundai Motor Group acquired a controlling 80 percent stake in Boston Dynamics in 2021 in a deal that valued the company at $1.1 billion, and later bought out SoftBank's remaining stake to make it a wholly owned subsidiary. The investor day remarks came one day after Hyundai's South Korean union reached a tentative agreement ending a strike in which job protections against automation were an explicit grievance. Munoz insisted that robots are not replacing humans.

Industry Signal

The dealership plan is the most concrete sign yet that humanoid robot makers see retail as an eventual channel, not just factories. Boston Dynamics already sells Spot for industrial inspections and Stretch for warehouse logistics. Hyundai's proposal remains exploratory, with no pricing, timeline, or participating dealerships disclosed, but it signals that the humanoid market is shifting from research pilots to commercial distribution questions.