While the development of several flying cars has been announced for a decade, private ownership of these vehicles has yet to be offered to the public. Volocopter has only offered a limited flying taxi service in Paris. eHang offered its flying car last year but until now its public use in China has not been approved by authorities. This week, Xpeng announced that its flying car will go on sale to the public starting next year under its sub-brand AeroHT.
The AeroHT Land Aircraft Carrier (LAC) is a six-wheeled van with a flying car stored in the back of the vehicle. When the user wants to fly, the flying car, which can carry two passengers, is released from storage.
In van mode, the electric LAC can travel 997 kilometers CLTC before the battery needs to be recharged using a charging station or the vehicle's gasoline engine. The van's battery and gasoline engine have enough capacity to allow the car to fly 6 times.
Since its public debut at the Zhuhai Air Show, the LAC has received 3,000 orders. The number of orders is quite high even though each LAC is sold for RMB $2 million (~RM 1.22 million) each. AeroHT also has not yet received government classification for this vehicle and whether owners need a special license to fly.
But if all the processes for obtaining permission from the authorities go smoothly, AeroHT will be the first company to offer a hybrid vehicle of a flying van and car commercially in the world.