While Tesla, founded by Elon Musk, broke sales records in the US and European markets, Chinese automakers rolled up their sleeves to rival Tesla and established several different rival companies. XPeng, one of these companies, is seen as China’s biggest rival to Tesla.
XPeng, which draws attention with the electric cars it produces, recently conducted the first flight test of the eVTOL (Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing) vehicle it has developed for the last 2 years. The most striking point of this test is that Xpeng’s eVTOL tool, AeroHT, looks like a car with added propellers.
The propellers look like they were made with Photoshop (!)
After 2 years of development, the first usable prototype of AeroHT was tested in the open for the first time. Although the vehicle looks like the gigantic drone wings photoshopped into an electric car, the tests have proven that the vehicle is functional. The Chinese automaker stated that this vehicle is still a prototype and the wings will be fixed in the first model, and the engineers also stated that they want the wings to be retractable and removable in future models.
We’ve seen a lot of concept work and prototypes of flying cars before, but often these prototypes looked more like mini helicopters than cars. XPeng’s eVTOL vehicle, on the other hand, is the first fully working “car-looking” flying car we’ve ever seen.
Although the high-powered engines and propellants used by the vehicle are currently at great risk for ordinary users, XPeng engineers announced that the vehicle will be overhauled in accordance with the necessary rules and regulations before it is completed, and the product to be sold will be completely safe for users.
To watch the first flight test of XPeng’s flying car AeroHT, check out the video below at 1:11:34
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