Personal 'Aircraft Carrier' and eVTOL poised to become the Model T of 3D transportation

Henry Ford did not invent the motor car. The key to his success was his introduction of the moving assembly line and the affordable cars he was able to produce.

In 12 months from now, the modern-day equivalent of Ford’s moving assembly line will be mass-producing flying cars. The mass-produced equivalent of the Model T Ford is likely to be this vehicle, the XPeng AeroHT Modular Flying Car.

We estimate the cost of the package to be around $400,000 for each module, with an additional $140,000 for the Aircraft Carrier and $260,000 for the air module.

While no price has yet been announced for the Modular Flying Car's aerial module, the company has showcased a slightly larger eVTOL model at international auto shows, priced at around $200,000 by company sources.

In February (2024), Chinese eVTOL manufacturer eHang announced a suggested retail price of US$410,000 for its EH216-S pilotless passenger-carrying eVTOL aircraft in global markets outside of China, and it’s clear things will get even cheaper in the long run.

So while the total cost of both modules of XPeng’s Modular eVTOL System is not expected to exceed $400,000, the cost is estimated to not be much less due to the origami and miniaturization required to fold the two-person eVTOL into the available space.

The 6X6 ground module could conceptually be built to carry the air module, but by selling the vehicle separately, it’s quite possible that XPeng intends to sell the cavernous ground module as a multi-purpose SUV that can be fully repurposed by a single person in minutes.

The robust three-axle layout uses rear-wheel steering and is capable of loading and carrying relatively heavy modules of the same size. It also has a large battery and can charge the eVTOL aerial module multiple times… or power an entirely different recreational or commercial activity when needed.

A cavernous SUV with a robotic loading system and alternative modules could easily become a people mover, food stall, mobile hair salon, disaster response vehicle, mobile health clinic, ultimate mobile office… anything with a built-in power source. Add autonomy to the ground vehicle and you have a mobile home that can carry you 600 miles while you sleep and then transform again for a different role when you get there.

The whole story becomes much more complex and even more compelling when you realize that XPeng distributes its cars internationally and will therefore have showrooms available around the world to demonstrate its new air transportation options… and will get there years before the transportation companies that are expected to sell both ground and air vehicles. Xpeng does not suffer from old-school thinking.

There is only one “car company” with a flying car that is nearing production, and funnily enough, it is located in Ganghzou.

GAC (Ganghzou Auto Company), which sold 2.5 million cars last year, also exports a lot and currently has a different modular flying car concept under development.

When GAC began experiencing difficulties in developing its GOVE modular eVTOL, it turned to eHang, another Ganghzou-based eVTOL company and the world’s most likely contender for leadership in the production of Low Altitude Economy aircraft.

Having major players in close physical proximity in a single location appears to create synergy, with eHang and GAC beginning to collaborate on the development of GOVE, with GAC offering smart manufacturing expertise and a range of other benefits to eHang in return.

This new market space features three global players (XPeng AeroHT, eHang and GAC), all located in Ganghzou.

This does not happen by chance.

The huge sunrise industry known as the “Low Altitude Economy”

The Chinese government has chosen Guangzhou as the center of its newly developed low-altitude (up to 3,000 meters) industry, with 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) earmarked for investment by the end of 2026.

China is currently in the process of defining and embracing its “Low Altitude Economy,” and with an all-powerful governing body actively promoting its growth, the world’s hottest nascent industry is now unfolding in real time at lightning speed… and the global ramifications are likely to be immense.

The United States presents a very different regulatory climate than China. Instead of a single vast country where politics is irrelevant to the interests of the greater good and regulations can be easily standardized across regions, the United States has an equally vast territory where laws change every hundred miles and the Aeronautics Administration has a standard response to any deviation from the norm – NO!

With the Chinese government now paving the way, China will have a tremendous leading advantage in the global “Low Altitude Economy” and the financial resources to make it happen.

Sunrise industries have been rising and falling for thousands of years, but most people associate the term with newer information technology sectors such as social media, cloud computing, blockchain, and AI. A century ago, the automotive and aerospace industries were sunrise industries.

The world's “Low Altitude Economy” promises to be larger in size than the automotive industry and at the same time stimulates development in many existing market sectors.

It aims to commercialise both piloted and autonomous civil aircraft, and $1.4 billion will be spent on creating an infrastructure for flying vehicles across the city in Guangzhou, with more than 100 take-off and landing points, a large general aviation airport and a fleet of air taxis.

As the world's first city to make its transportation system three-dimensional, it will also develop rules and standards for low-altitude transportation.

The aim is to bring together all relevant industries and expertise across multiple hubs in China, while also creating a testing ground for new services – think of it as a low-rise economy of Silicon Valley, or a 3D version of the Thames Valley motorsport manufacturing hub in the UK.

Chinese companies looking to be part of the Low Altitude Economy are preparing for widespread commercial use of low-altitude aircraft. The grand plan promotes helicopters and eVTOLs for air travel, business travel, air shuttles, cross-border flights and opening a low-altitude air route between Guangdong and Hainan provinces.

China’s tremendous determination to create a Low Altitude Economy demonstrates a vision found nowhere else in the world. By redesigning itself with a three-dimensional transportation infrastructure, Guangzhou will become the showcase and hub of a new way of life in cities.

It will also become a global hub of production and expertise that is expected to reap significant rewards as it provides the blueprints for other cities and countries to transition to the third dimension.

If you need further convincing of the seriousness of this venture, let us tell you that AeroHT comes with a generous touch of the XPeng entrepreneurial spirit that gave birth to an automobile company a decade ago, and somehow continues the contagious “go big or go home” mentality.

From Wikipedia: XPeng was co-founded in 2014 by Xia Heng (Henry Xia) and He Tao, former senior executives of GAC Group, which specializes in automotive technology and research and development. Early backers included: UCWeb founder and former Alibaba executive He Xiaopeng, namesake and current XPeng Chairman, and Xiaomi founder Lei Jun. Leading Chinese and international investors included Alibaba, Foxconn, and IDG Capital. In another round of funding in 2018, Alibaba’s vice chairman Joseph Tsai joined XPeng’s corporate board.

XPeng sold its first car in late 2018 and has sold 16,000 cars in 2019, 27,000 in 2020, 100,000 in 2021, 121,000 in 2022 and 141,000 in 2023. This number will continue to grow as XPeng combines all its expertise to create a new generation of ambitious products.

As XPeng's global automobile sales begin to appear in showrooms, products manufactured by XPeng subsidiaries will also have a ready showcase.

There’s also a company called XPeng Robotics that’s working on some pretty remarkable projects, like this four-legged ride-on vehicle for kids.

Just as Jobs, Woz, Gates, Moore, and others have become the faces of a new industry, He Xiaopeng is a name you’ll see again and again as that industry emerges. He was one of the founders of the company that has already spawned two large and promising subsidiaries with very relevant expertise and the support of all relevant authorities to plan, finance, and deliver macro-scale visions.

XPeng AeroHT signed a “strategic cooperation partnership agreement” with four leading Chinese banks (Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China CITIC Bank, and Pudong Development Bank) in late 2022, which provided the company with a bank loan of RMB 6 billion to facilitate flying car R&D and production.

In a world where time is the one commodity you can’t buy more of, the key selling point of this new industry will be to reduce wasted time. If you currently spend an hour or more commuting to work, a flying car will cut your travel time by 80%.

Pre-orders for the Modular Flying Car will open at the Guangzhou Motor Show (November 15-24, 2024), with deliveries to customers expected in the fourth quarter of 2025.