China’s Xpeng’s flying car completes test flight in Shanghai’s central business district

Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng Motors’ subsidiary AeroHT said on Dec. 14 that its modular flying car, the Land Aircraft Carrier, completed a low-altitude flight in the central business district of the eastern city of Shanghai. According to a video published by the company on Chinese social media platform WeChat, the six-rotor, four-seater flying vehicle took off from the rooftop of a high building in the city’s Lujiazui area. It later circled among the city’s well-known landmark the Oriental Pearl Tower, as well as the Shanghai Tower and World Financial Center, the current tallest buildings in the city at 632 and 492 meters, respectively, for dozens of seconds. This is the first time that an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) completed a low-altitude flight in China’s biggest city by economic output, the company said. Scheduled for pre-sale this month at a price tag of around RMB 2 million ($274,600) and deliveries early next year, the carrier boasts a two-in-one design that can fold up its wings and other components into the vehicle body. [Xpeng AeroHT statement, in Chinese]