BEIJING, March 11 (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle

maker Xpeng ( XPEV ) sees humanoid robots as a long-term

project and is considering large investments that could go up to

100 billion yuan ($13.80 billion), state media reported its CEO

as saying on Monday.

CEO He Xiaopeng said on the sidelines of the annual

parliamentary session that while the company's current

investment could be considered conservative given how it was in

the early stages of entering the sector, it was ready to invest

much more, the Securities Times reported.

"Xpeng ( XPEV ) has been working in the humanoid robot industry for

five years, may continue to be in the business for another 20

years, invest additional 50 billion yuan and even 100 billion

yuan," He said, without disclosing the company's current

investment.

The Guangzhou-based EV maker entered the humanoid robot

industry in 2020 and unveiled its humanoid Iron in November to

rival Tesla Bot.

Xpeng ( XPEV ) is among an increasing number of automakers betting on

humanoids, which Chinese policymakers have signalled as an area

they want to see tech breakthroughs in.

Stellantis ( STLA )-backed Leapmotor has set up

a robot team of dozens of people, which is currently in the

pre-research stage, CEO Zhu Jiangming told reporters on Tuesday.

The products are aimed at adoption in industrial scenarios such

as Leapmotor factory assemblies where robots can replace human

to improve work efficiency.

Automakers could invest 1-2 billion yuan per year in

applicable scenarios to deploy humanoid robots, according to He,

the Economic View report on Tuesday.

($1 = 7.2480 Chinese yuan renminbi)