Xpeng Motors will announce the exact price and specifications of its flying car in 2023 and will deliver it in small quantities in 2024, according to a Weibo car blogger with 1.76 million followers.
The blogger @电动扒士 revealed the information Wednesday while reposting a Sina Auto interview with Zhao Deli, president of HT Aero, Xpeng's electric flying car company, during the World New Energy Vehicle Conference in Hainan.
In the interview, Zhao said Xpeng conducted a lot of market research when developing flying cars and concluded that the price range for a luxury car - RMB 800,000 ($124,000) to 1.5 million - is reasonable for the product.
Separately, a report Wednesday on yiche.com confirmed the news. The report cited Zhao as saying that Xpeng's Voyager X2, which was released in mid-July, will be available as early as 2024.
It's worth noting, however, that current Chinese law does not allow such flying machines to travel as freely as cars.
HT Aero is currently launching the development of a next-generation flying car that will truly combine a flying vehicle with a car that can drive on ordinary roads as well as fly through the air, the report said.
It will also have a high degree of autopilot capability, as well as overall safety configurations, according to yiche.com.
Sina Auto said at the end of the above interview video that HT Aero's next product will be announced at the Xpeng Tech Day event on October 24.
Xpeng Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng announced on July 16 via Weibo that HT Aero released its fifth-generation flying car, the X2, its first two-person electric flying machine.
(Photo source: Xpeng)
At the end of August, Xpeng said the Voyager X2 was tested in extreme environments at high altitudes in Xining and Yushu, Qinghai.
At the Chengdu Auto Show on August 29, Xpeng displayed the flying car and said the X2 had also undergone several internal flight tests at flight bases in Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Jiangmen in early June this year.
The company used a closed cockpit for the first time on the X2, whose appearance shares design genes with the Xpeng P7, according to the company.
The X2's full fuselage is made of carbon fiber construction, weighs only 395 kg including the battery, and can carry two passengers with a maximum load of 200 kg.
Currently, X2 offers two driving modes: manual pilot and autopilot. Among them, the autopilot function can achieve automatic flight according to the set flight altitude, flight speed and flight time along the planned route, the company said.
X2 range of up to 35 minutes, designed to fly at an altitude of 1000 meters or less, the maximum flight speed of 130 kilometers per hour during the flight.
"In the field of flight and many other areas Xpeng is gradually laying out, and later this year Xpeng will launch a new transportation vehicle. At the same time, I believe that in the future, cars can drive as well as fly," He had previously said.
Interestingly, He showed on Weibo a picture sent to him by his friend showing a design of a flying sword, saying it made him feel amazing.
(Photo source: He Xiaopeng Weibo)
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