China’s $215,000 flying car begins testing

The future is almost here, with an electric vehicle start-up beginning testing of a flying car.

Flying cars may become a reality in the near future, with Chinese company Xpeng pushing ahead with development ahead of a planned launch in 2024.

Less than a month after patent images surfaced online, XPeng appears to have begun road testing a prototype of its flying car concept, using a heavily-modified P7 electric vehicle as a base.

These spy photos, which first appeared on the Chinese microblogging website Weibo, show the camouflaged Xpeng P7 with an extended wheelbase, widened wheel track, and heavy-duty shock absorbers.

Perhaps more interestingly is the odd-shaped roof box, which appears to have large cables fed from the main body.

Some local media are speculating the company could be testing suspension systems designed to ensure the roof-mounted flying apparatus is as protected from road vibrations as possible.

It’s less than a year since the Chinese electric vehicle company showed off the Xpeng Voyager X2 – a 560kg carbon-fibre electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft designed to carry two occupants up to 130km/h, and with a claimed flight time of 35 minutes.

But while companies have been showing off flying car concepts for decades, Xpeng appears to be serious about its ambitions of launching such a vehicle by 2024.

At its annual 1024 Tech Day in October 2021, it revealed its plans to bring the low-altitude flying car to market by 2024, and with a price tag of less than one million yuan ($AU215,000).

The announcement came just a month after Xpeng revealed its ‘Little White Dragon’ – a four-legged robotic “unicorn” designed to be ridden by children.

Flying cars have long been considered as a part of a futuristic world, but the chief of the European Aviation Safety Agency predicts low-altitude eVTOL aircraft could be buzzing in the skies within the next three to five years, likely as taxis and ambulances to begin with.

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