AeroHT, XPeng’s eVTOL division, reportedly received authorization from the Chinese government to resume human-powered flights in its “flying car” X2.
As claimed by the company, the X2 is the first VTOL in the country to receive such approval. This enables XPeng AeroHT to continue developing eVTOL products for mass production, such as its sixth-generation flying car, to enter production next year.
AeroHT, formerly known as XPeng Huitian, is an eVTOL-focused division of XPeng Inc. that is majority-owned by the organization and its founder, He Xiaopeng.
AeroHT has performed over 15,000 safe flights since its inception in 2013, intending to incorporate aerospace and automotive technologies to create safe, large-scale home electric aerial vehicles.
While the company is working on a real flying car called the X3, which we’ve seen drive, park, and start on its own, AeroHT had more progress with its X2 eVTOL, which the company also referred to as a “flying car” despite the lack of wheels because it shares the same body design DNA as XPeng’s P7 sedan.
X2 passed over 3,000 test flights
AeroHT has been working on X2 for much longer than we discussed. Since its initial launch in June 2021 as AeroHT’s filth-generation eVTOL, the X2 has completed over 3,000 test flights, including its first public flight abroad last fall in Dubai.
According to XPeng founder He Xiaopeng, his dream of a flying car will proceed after 2024 with a limited number of eVTOLs, accompanied by a much larger number of vehicles populating the skies by 2030.
With this latest approval, AeroHT hopes to continue its impressive international progress and make the scaled application of zero-emission flying cars an existence.
The X2 eVTOL from XPeng AeroHT has received its first conditional approval.
The company announced today that it had formally earned a special permit to fly from the Civil Aviation Administration of China after sharing details of its latest certification in a WeChat post from China (CAAC).
As a result, XPeng’s X2 is the country’s first human-powered eVTOL to receive authorization.
AeroHT can fly under supplemental licensed conditions thanks to the approved flight permit. Following the news, XPeng’s VTOL arm announced that it would proceed to conduct manned tests to collect data for future research and development.
The company also stated that it would continue flight testing on its way to mass production.
X2 credentials to manufacture X3
This is a significant step forward for XPeng AeroHT, as the company intends to use its most recent credential with the X2 to help develop and manufacture the X3 above.
The actual flying car seemed closer to manufacturing than ever during the last update of XPeng during its 1024 Tech Day Event previous fall and is expected to hit the Chinese market sometime in 2024 for around 1 million RMB (US$148,000).
We’ll see if that happens and at what price, but we anticipate seeing many more eVTOL flight videos from XPeng AeroHT’s Guangzhou flying car test center. Meanwhile, check out this video of the sixth-generation flying car taking off for the first time in public.
