Chinese electric car maker Xiaopeng Motors, better known as Xpeng outside of China, shared its vision of flying cars through HT Aero last year. Fast forward to 2022, the company offers some updates on the development at Xiaopeng Tech Day.
The design has changed from a dual-rotor flying car to a quadcopter flying, also with retracting rotor arms. The concept car’s design has also been tweaked, now rocking a more angular and sporty off-road stance. The quad rotors stowed up top look like an oversized rooftop utility box which makes the overall flying car design more cohesive.
Xiaopeng Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng said that the new design is closer to the look of the production version which is a signal that the flying car will be produced. It is just the question of when.
In fact, the company has already moved on to the testing phase in which a test vehicle in camouflage was strapped to four rotors and successfully made the first flight to an altitude of 10 meters (33 feet) and for several minutes.
While it is not the flying car we read on sci-fi books, or saw in TV shows and movies, it was quite an achievement. The fact that the four rotors managed to make a 1,936 kilogram (4,268 lbs) vehicle take to the sky is in itself a milestone.
You can catch this momentous occasion in the video below. You can also watch the concept video as well as the entire presentation dubbed in English embedded below.
Though it is worth noting that Xpeng AeroHT, as it is called, is not the first and not the only in development. Klein Vision is another example. It not only made the first intercity flight but also drove straight “home” into the garage from the local airport after touching down.
Images: HT Aero.
via InsideEVs.
