Pony.ai has signed a strategic partnership with JD Auto Service, the automotive maintenance arm of JD.com, to build a standardized maintenance and spare-parts network for its robotaxi fleet in China1,2. The agreement was announced on July 21, 2026.
The partnership initially covers Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. The two companies described the deal as the first comprehensive partnership of its kind in China, linking an autonomous-driving company with a nationwide automotive aftermarket platform.
Under the agreement, JD Auto Service will connect its service network with Pony.ai's fleet-management platform to coordinate maintenance capacity and parts supply. The companies will integrate their digital systems for work-order dispatch, service tracking, and settlement, automating the process from fault detection through completion. Selected JD Auto Service stores will reserve dedicated service bays for Pony.ai vehicles during off-peak periods. The partners will also establish a tiered inventory system for robotaxi-specific parts and maintenance materials.
The collaboration spans five interconnected areas: maintenance coverage, parts supply, dedicated off-peak servicing, standardized repair procedures, and automated operating systems. Pony.ai and JD Auto Service will jointly develop operating procedures for vehicle inspection, repair, post-service checks, and compliant handover.
JD Auto Service operates more than 2,200 self-operated locations and over 40,000 partner outlets, according to the company. JD Auto Service locations in cities where Pony.ai operates will serve as designated maintenance sites for Pony.ai vehicles.
Dr. James Peng, Founder and Chief Executive of Pony.ai, said robotaxi commercialization is as much an operational challenge as a technological one, with vehicle availability, service consistency, and lifecycle costs becoming critical unit-economics drivers as the fleet scales. Pony.ai has already achieved unit-economics breakeven in Guangzhou and Shenzhen on its Gen-7 Robotaxis. The company said vehicle costs declined and revenue increased in the second half of 2025.
Pony.ai is targeting a worldwide fleet of more than 3,500 vehicles across more than 20 cities by year-end 2026. The company operates a unified fleet-management system across its markets, covering vehicle dispatch, maintenance, and day-to-day operations, which it credits with improving vehicle reliability and availability.
ANALYSIS The deal reflects a shift in competitive focus for robotaxi operators: as Pony.ai scales past unit-economics breakeven in key cities, the bottleneck moves from autonomous-driving technology to fleet uptime and service logistics. Leveraging JD Auto Service's existing physical footprint allows Pony.ai to expand maintenance coverage without building out its own service infrastructure, a capital-intensive undertaking that would slow fleet growth. The arrangement also suggests that robotaxi-specific aftermarket needs — standardized parts inventories, automated work-order systems, off-peak servicing windows — are diverging enough from conventional vehicle maintenance to warrant dedicated partnerships.