A “flying car” built by Chinese electronic vehicles maker Xpeng Inc. made its first public flight in the United Arab Emirates.
The X2 is a two-seater electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that is lifted by eight propellers – two at each corner of the vehicle. The 90-minute test flight was described as an “important base for the next generation of flying cars”.
Since flying cars will be very costly, most customers will likely be high-net-worth individuals or millionaires, experts suggest. There are more than 400 flying cars or eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles) companies in the world that are working to make their products safer and more reliable.
Dr. Brian Gu, vice-chairman and president of XPeng, said during a media briefing on the sidelines of Gitex, “three parallel developments need to come together to make flying cars realistic. The price of flying cars has not yet been decided but will most likely be in line with luxury cars such as Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Bentley. We want to start the process and make consumer products available that have the ability to drive and fly in 2025. It will take time to penetrate because people will slowly get confident.”
XPeng’s urban air mobility (UAM) company AeroHT has demonstrated huge progress for eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) vehicles by showcasing its fifth-generation X2 ‘flying car’ publicly taking off, flying, and successfully landing during a demonstration in Dubai.
AeroHT, fka XPeng Huitian, is a majority-owned entity of XPeng, Inc. and its founder He Xiaopeng. Since its inception in 2013, AeroHT has conducted over 15,000 safely manned flights with the goal of combining automotive and aerospace technologies to develop safe, domestic electric flying vehicles at scale.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/30-Jun-2021/flying-car-completes-first-inter-city-flight-in-slovakia
