The electrical flying car developed by XPeng AeroHT, a sister company of the electric car maker XPeng, recently completed its first public test flight. According to Fox 5, the concept of the XPeng electric flying car was first revealed in 2021 and it was only last month that they successfully flew a prototype.
The XPeng electric flying car is just among the many flying car concepts that have surfaced over the years. However, some of them need a runway for takeoffs and landings which, makes them poorly suited for congested cities. But XPeng's model is a vertical takeoff landing (VTOL) vehicle that uses giant drone propellers to lift it up.
XPeng X3's Maiden Flight
XPeng is a Chinese electric vehicle automaker that is one of Tesla's rivals in the electric vehicle industry, Futurism reported. But among other EVs, XPeng probably just debuted the most absurd of them all, and based on its recent flight test it seems to work perfectly fine.
The company just tested its prototype, internally known as X3, which looks like a regular car but with a huge version of the rotors commonly seen in a commercial drone that makes it look like a giant toy.
The company shared a video of X3's maiden flight on YouTube, which shows it gradually lifting itself off the ground and hovering at 30 feet above the ground. The X3 then slowly flies forward once it stabilized and then manages to turn around and return to its starting point to land smoothly.
The X3 is said to weigh about 4,300 pounds, wherein much of it could be due to the battery weight. That only means that getting the electric car flying is an absolutely admirable achievement.
The car's eccentric design may not be as elegant as other flying cars, but it is definitely airworthy as shown by the company's demonstration. Its body is unusually long to accommodate the giant drone propellers and entailing hardware, making it look like a bastardized Chinook helicopter.
According to Insider, the X3 is theoretically roadworthy as well since the rotors are meant to be retractable, unlike in most flying cars where flying is the number one consideration.
XPeng X2's First Public Test
Aside from the X3 prototype, XPeng also demonstrated the X2's capability during the GITEX technology expo in Dubai last month. Per Technology.org, the vehicle uses eight rotors to lift in the air, it is fully electric and has vertically-opening doors reminiscent of the DeLorean in the 'Back to the Future' movie.
X2 also uses the flight principle of a drone in which its propellers provide all the necessary vertical lift so no runway is needed. More so, it is a two-seater vehicle and is aimed at urban use.
The eight propellers of the electric flying car can achieve a lift speed of around 2 meters per second and have a maximum horizontal flight velocity of 80 miles per hour (129 kilometers per hour).
Furthermore, the X2 model uses AI-based automation and is supported by manual and automatic flight modes. Its developers said that the car can learn to avoid traffics, buildings, and people as well. The company's representatives say that their flying car technology is almost ready for public use with the only obstacle being the lack of registrations.
Flying vehicles are gaining much popularity in China these past few years as the government announced that it will be launching flying taxis by 2025, so companies are racing to have production models for when that time comes.
Watch the demonstration of the X3 on the video below:
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