The future is nearly here! - Xpeng starts testing a flying car!

Flying cars could become a reality in the near future, with Chinese company Xpeng pushing development before a 2024 launch.

XPeng appears to begin road testing a prototype of its flying car concept, employing a heavily modified P7 electric vehicle as a base, but a month after patent images surfaced online.

The camouflaged Xpeng P7 with an extended wheelbase, widened wheel track, and heavy-duty shock absorbers is shown in these spy photos, which first appeared on the Chinese microblogging website Weibo.

Its unusually shaped roof box, which appears to be fed by large cables from the main body, gives the car a strange but intriguing appearance!

Some local media speculate that the company is testing suspension systems to ensure that the roof-mounted flying apparatus is as vibration-free as possible.

It's been less than a year since the Chinese electric vehicle company unveiled the Xpeng Voyager X2, a 560kg carbon-fibre electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft capable of carrying two passengers at speeds of up to 130km/h and with a flight time of 35 minutes.

However, while companies have been displaying flying car concepts for decades, Xpeng appears to be serious about launching such a vehicle by 2024.

It revealed plans to bring the low-altitude flying car to market by 2024 at a cost of less than one million yuan at its annual 1024 Tech Day in October 2021.

Flying cars have long been thought to be a part of a 'fantasy world', but the head of the European Aviation Safety Agency predicts that low-altitude eVTOL aircraft will be flying in the skies within the next three to five years, most likely as taxis and ambulances to begin with.