XPeng flying car, it is almost a reality, and this one actually has wheels. Not sure if you could get it into an existing charging station though.
It has been a long while since I wrote about flying cars, it used to be a bit of an obsession with me. The trouble was that all of the Jetsons inspired cars that were being developed were either drones capable of carrying a human or were so compromised as a car or plane that they really were a bit of a joke.
Well that may be coming to an end as companies from China like XPeng, Ehang and others are trying to tap into the abundant EV technology in the country to claim their share of what could be a very lucrative global market, and guess what, most of their offerings actually resemble cars.
Aero HT, an off-shoot of XPeng, may be first to market with their aims to sell a dual-mode electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle (eVTOL) that is supposed to drive like a car on land but with the added benefit of a detachable module when the roads are just too boring.
The main advantage of their new beastie is that once it lands, it can drive as normal unlike most of the other eVTOL offerings. According to Qiu Mingquan the Chinese Civil Aviation Authority have already begun the certification process for the vehicle.
If you want one, XPeng will be accepting orders for them from October this year at an anticipated cost of about USD138,000. Which doesn’t sound like a lot to me but XPeng want to scale down the cost as they scale up production. Much of the early marketing activity will be in the Middle East as there is the lowest level of regulation.
They are not the first to market though, EHang already have certification and are marketing a two-seater that flies for about 25 minutes on a single charge. Marketed with a price tag of USD410,000 it went on sale on 1st April (no joke).
They plan to market to hotel groups and the like in the tourism sector and allege that they already received a mass of enquiries.
The EHang car is not really a car as it is not meant to be driven on the road, it is more of an upside-down helicopter. But you can go and buy one now if you want.
Currently about 50% of the known eVTOL craft are being manufactured in China. There is a lot of shared technology between them and EVs, however, for the eVTOL craft, the battery energy density needs to be cranked up to the max, 400-watt hours per kilogram and these are heavy.
The rest of the car has to be manufactured from light-weight materials to try and milk as much range out of the batteries as possible making many to fear that they will not score well on crash safety.
As usual, the Chinese National government has already announced that they will be working with the ‘Low altitude economy’ to further the development and many State governments are jumping onto the band wagon as well. So, more subsidies then.
As of now there are two problems with the fledgling industry. The first is obviously the lack of range and carrying capacity of the vehicles. The next is where can you land, and let’s not get started on how they will be taxed or who is liable in the event of a crash.
