“If you get stuck in traffic, you can fly with it.” The first transforming car, this is the price!

American and Chinese companies are racing over the future of mobility, by betting on the flying car.

In the past months, the Chinese company “Xpeng Aeroht” organized the first two flights of its aircraft. The 90-second experiment near Dubai’s iconic Palm Jumeirah in October was followed by a second experiment in Guangzhou, China. After the Chinese company overcame regulatory hurdles to win market share in a trillion-dollar market.

Despite the fears of investing in tech startups in this year’s high interest rate environment, I was impressed Flying car companiesIncluding Lilium NV, Joby Aviation Inc, and Archer Aviation Inc. Investors with multi-billion dollar funding rounds. But it is now trading near historical lows.

And according to a study by Canadian company Horizon Aircraft published this month, most investors expect companies to close and many mergers in the coming years, even as orders gradually increase.

For his part, Zhang Junai, a partner at the advisory firm Oliver Wyman who helped found investment firm Nio Capital, said investors are looking for “Tesla to make flying cars.” However, it may take 10 to 15 years for the market to flourish, according to Bloomberg, and Al Arabiya.net reviewed it.

While many flying cars, or “eVTOLs” – electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft – don’t have wheels and can’t be driven on the ground, Aeroht’s sixth-generation model is an actual car that also works on the road. It looks like a luxury car rather than a small plane on wheels, which is the approach of some competitors.

In fact, the model is designed to be driven on the road more than 90% of the time and only fly when there are traffic jams or obstacles. The car – which contains 4 electric motors and eight propellers – is expected to enter mass production in 2025, according to CEO Zhao Daily.

Dailey expects the car to cost around 1 million yuan ($140,000), much cheaper than the Joby ($1.3 million). This is partly because Aeroht can take advantage of Xpeng’s extensive supplier chain throughout China.

Morgan Stanley analysts said the value of eVTOL, or urban air mobility, might reach $1 trillion by 2040.

Zhao first met the founder of Xpeng in 2020 following he had struggled for nearly a decade to keep his startup from collapsing. Not long following the meeting, Xpeng invested in Zhao’s startup and renamed it Xpeng Aeroht.

But what threatens the industry is that even Aeroht’s most well-known backer is grappling with investor uncertainty — and Xpeng shares are the year’s worst performer on the MSCI China index.