In November XPeng demonstrated in Dubai, the ability of a prototype AeroHT electric car, which is being developed by a start-up of the same name funded by it, to rise into the air to a height of tens of meters using eight propellers and four electric motors. Later, a test flight was also carried out in the company’s native Guangzhou, and by 2025 the company intends to launch a production version at a price of regarding $140,000.
Image Source: XPeng AeroHT
This is reported Bloomberg with reference to the comments of Zhao Deli, the founder of AeroHT startup, who has been working on the creation of such a hybrid of an electric vehicle and an octocopter since 2013. Now the existing prototype of a flying electric car has reached the sixth generation in its development and is one of the few vehicles that allow most of the time to move on the ground, and only in rare cases to rise into the sky. It is assumed that 90% of the time the car will move exactly on the earth’s surface, and it will have to take off only to overcome some exceptional obstacles or traffic jams. However, the developers consider the main difficulty not at all technological challenges, such as the creation of sufficiently light traction batteries, but regulatory restrictions from the authorities. In the case of the “flying electric car”, everything is aggravated by the fact that the people operating them are unlikely to count on the need to obtain a pilot’s license.
As the developers explained, now the prototype of the flying electric car is equipped with experimental Chinese-designed batteries and four electric motors. In general, cooperation with Chinese component suppliers allows AeroHT to expect that the cost of the machine in serial incarnation will not exceed $140,000. XPeng AeroHT is headquartered in Guangzhou, and research centers are located in Shenzhen and Shanghai. If in 2020, before the investment from XPeng, AeroHT had a staff of just over 10 people, now it has grown to 700 employees. In 2021, the startup managed to raise regarding $500 million in funding, the capitalization of the business is estimated at $1.5 billion. XPeng, although a strategic investor, is not the only one who believed in the success of the idea – many US venture capital companies have already invested in the capital of AeroHT.
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