So here's the thing about investing in electric vehicles, especially in China: sometimes the future arrives with a lot of fanfare, but the present day can be a real drag. That's the story for XPeng Inc. (XPEV) on Thursday. The stock was down, continuing a bumpy ride for Chinese EV makers. The usual suspects are to blame: government subsidies are fading, everyone is slashing prices to compete, and the number of cars actually getting delivered to customers has lost some steam. It's a tough neighborhood right now.

What makes this interesting is the timing. The stock is falling despite the company just breaking ground on something pretty futuristic—a brand new, 1.18 million square foot factory in Guangzhou built specifically to churn out humanoid robots. It's a classic case of near-term headaches (selling enough cars this quarter) overshadowing long-term dreams (building an army of robots by the end of the decade). Broader tech weakness in Hong Kong didn't help either, with the Hang Seng TECH Index dropping 2.87%.

The Big Robot Bet

Let's talk about that factory, because it's not a small side project. According to reports, Xpeng is targeting large-scale production of its "IRON" robot by the end of 2026. This facility will handle everything from research and development to trial runs and, eventually, full-blown manufacturing. The goal is ambitious: produce over 1 million of these IRON units by 2030 for jobs like tour guiding and retail services.

The IRON robot itself is a 5-foot-10, 171-pound machine that uses Xpeng's own Vision-Language-Action (VLA) technology. In the world of humanoid robots, this puts it squarely as a rival to Tesla Inc.'s (TSLA) much-hyped Optimus bot. So, while the car business faces headwinds, Xpeng is quietly building the infrastructure to compete in a whole new sci-fi arena.

The Delivery Reality Check

Back on planet Earth, the car business had a rough January. Xpeng delivered 20,011 vehicles. That's a 34% drop compared to January last year. Ouch.

To add some salt to the wound, look at its competitor. Nio Inc. (NIO) reported January deliveries skyrocketed 96.1% year-over-year. So it's not just a bad month for everyone; Xpeng is specifically losing momentum while others are accelerating. That kind of divergence really gets investors' attention—and not in a good way if you're holding Xpeng stock.

What the Charts Are Saying

If you look at the stock's technical picture, it's not painting a pretty picture for the bulls right now. XPEV is trading 1.3% below its 20-day simple moving average and a more concerning 15.1% below its 100-day average. That generally signals the intermediate-term trend is still pointing down.

The longer-term view isn't much better. Shares are down about 17.33% over the past 12 months. They're hanging out much closer to their 52-week lows than their highs, which tells you the sentiment has been pretty negative for a while.

Putting a number on today's move: XPeng shares were down 3.85% at $17.48 during premarket trading Thursday, according to market data.

So, to sum it up: Xpeng is making a bold, expensive bet on a robotic future while its core car business is stuck in a very difficult, very competitive present. Investors on Thursday seemed more focused on the latter.