The Xpeng AeroHT eVTOL Flying Car CES display was a vehicle with moving propeller arms that could be fully folded into the body of an apparently drivable electric car.
CES 2024 attendees this week couldn't help but notice a spectacular flying car concept screaming for attention on the convention floor: the Xpeng AeroHT eVTOL Flying Car.
Is this mean machine created by Guangzhou Xiaopeng Motors Technology Co., Ltd. (also known as Xpeng) about to whiz around the skies of American cities? That's not at all clear, but it was there, and boy was it cool.
Xpeng's secret weapon for commanding attention seems to have been a sort of attainable narrative about how this thing could fit into the life of an actual (probably very rich) human being. Let's not abuse the term "practical" here, but it makes more sense than your average flying car concept or personal eVTOL. With the propeller arms folded in, someone can drive it around in the normal manner, or at least as "normal" as driving a Lamborghini-style supercar EV gets. And when the driver hits traffic, they can open up the flying apparatus and take to the skies — local aviation regulations permitting.
Plus, the drone-style eVTOL propeller orientation suggests that piloting this flying car would be relatively simple, unlike other car-aircraft transformer concepts from the recent past, like the Klein Vision Air Car, which starts out as a car, and essentially turns into a plane. That seems like a blast for fully instrument-rated pilots, but not so much for average slobs like me.
Did CES play host to this beast's first public flight? Not so much — it remained on terra firma for the duration. What's more, it's not immediately clear that Xpeng has even finished the "concept" part of this project. "Xpeng AeroHT" is the name of the company division, and "eVTOL" is an industry term that means "electric vertical takeoff and landing." That means this thing's name is ultimately just "Flying Car."
But that doesn't mean the exhibit wasn't an impressive display of tech imagination and engineering bravado. It's certainly not for nothing that attendees witnessed those propellers folding up and disappearing into the roof of the car right there on the convention floor:
What might something like this cost? How could it ever be legal? When will it be available? These are questions for another time. The more important question this week in Vegas was, gee whiz, did you just see that?
