The company plans to mass-produce the flying car in the coming two years, with a target of selling 5,000 units, Wang Tan, co-founder and chief designer, said during a panel discussion at the South China Morning Post’s China Conference on Thursday.
“The first flying car delivered by Xpeng AeroHT will be in China next year,” he said. “First we will sell it in mainland China, and after that we will sell it globally. Maybe the Middle East, maybe Hong Kong. I think we’re going to have this opportunity.”
A precise release date for Xpeng AeroHT’s flying car is not yet available, Wang said.
The company, founded in 2013, began developing the vehicle a decade ago. It has a research centre and testing base in Guangzhou, the capital of southern Guangdong province and the headquarters of Xpeng, as well as research labs in Shenzhen and Shanghai.
“The government is very positive, supporting us with regulation and policies,” Wang said. “We still need to mature our technology to make sure our product is the safest aircraft. Today we have a lot of pilot zones in mainland China, and day by day in the future we will have more pilot zones. This is a very good beginning.”
The company developed all the eVTOL’s technology in-house, including the power train and flying control system, Wang said.
“Now AeroHT is the biggest flying car company in Asia,” he added. “We have 1,000 people. We’re going to deliver the best technology for our flying cars.”
In March, the flying car start-up announced its AeroHT Voyager X2 had completed a low-altitude flight in the central business district of Guangzhou.
In April, AeroHT signed a preliminary agreement with the district government of Panyu, another part of Guangzhou, to jointly construct take-off and landing sites for flying cars.
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Experimental electric flying car takes to the air for test run in northern China
Experimental electric flying car takes to the air for test run in northern China
Lilium, a German company, completed fundraising of US$830 million in a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2021. American electric air taxi start-up Joby raised US$1.6 billion in another SPAC deal the same year.