Chinese car manufacturer, XPeng Motors, has announced that it is aiming to begin mass production of its flying car in 2026.
The company’s chairman, He Xiaopeng, told reporters over the weekend that XPeng intends to become the first firm in the world to mass produce what it is calling a “land aircraft carrier,” a drone-like modular vehicle that forms part of a 6-wheel electric-powered car known as the “ground mothership.”
The two vehicles are intended to complement one another, with the 4-seat mothership serving as a regular car, and the 2-seat flying vehicle allowing passengers to take their journey into the air, enabling them to speed up their journey and travel to remote destinations.
The vehicles don’t come cheap, as media reports list the flying car’s price as 2 million yuan (US$276,000).
Despite this, The Straits Times reports that around 3,000 orders for the land aircraft carrier have been made since its inaugural public flight during last November’s Zhuhai Airshow.
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XPeng looks geared to deliver on its promise of mass production, as the company began construction of a factory in October, which will allow for the manufacturing of 10,000 flying car models per year.
Market response to XPeng’s announcement has been enthusiastic, with Bloomberg reporting that the firm’s stock prices in Hong Kong surged by 7.1 percent.
“China’s low-altitude economy is rapidly moving forward,” He said, adding that “we are integrating vehicle control with AI to develop a new flight control system into such flying cars, making it safer and more user-friendly.”
The country’s low-altitude economy is forecast to reach 1.5 trillion yuan in value this year, a figure that will surge to 3.5 trillion in 2035, according to China Centre for Information Industry Development data cited by state media.
While XPeng’s plans remain ambitious, its CEO acknowledged that the widespread acceptance of flying cars would take a “relatively long” time, pointing out that the lack of specific legislation and guidelines were proving to be an obstacle.
