Several major Chinese automakers are entering the flying car arena with recent announcements of ambitious timelines, as China positions itself at the cutting edge of a promising industry that may help sustain its growth despite global economic fragilities.
State-owned Changan and FAW will complete the first test flights of their flying cars by the end of this year. Changan executives told the public of their plans at this year’s International Automotive and Supply Chain Expo (Hong Kong) on June 12, followed a day later by a similar announcement from FAW in Shenzhen.
Earlier this month, Chery, China’s biggest car exporter, unveiled a timeline to launch its first electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) in October, while GAC said it had secured nearly 1,000 reservations for its $234,000 air taxis, scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2026.
READ MORE: GAC reveals its prototype flying car for the first time
“The ‘low-altitude economy’ is one of the few business models created by China, which represents an opportunity for us to take a leadership role,” said Yang Jun, a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and director of Shenzhen-based Shensi Lab, a pioneer in the eVTOL field, at the recent BEYOND Expo 2025 tech event in Macao (our translation).
“There is a big hope for China creating a low-altitude economy that could contribute one trillion yuan ($139 billion) looking ahead,” Yang added. China’s southern Guangdong province, Hong Kong, and Macao are among the regions where some pilot services for passenger transport in low-altitude airspace are expected to take place as early as this year.
Yang’s bullish view comes as some of the early movers in the field, including Xpeng subsidiary AeroHT, CATL-backed Autoflight, and Geely-owned Aerofugia, continue to make promising progress, bringing them closer to the commercialization of eVTOLs. Below are some key facts about these major players’ aircraft and their schemes to turn flying cars from science fiction into reality.
Xpeng AeroHT
Asia’s biggest flying car startup with 1,400 employees, Xpeng AeroHT is aiming to deliver its “Land Aircraft Carrier” to customers in the second half of 2026, Wang Tan, co-founder and chief designer of Xpeng AeroHT, told the BEYOND Expo 2025 on May 23. Volume production is set to begin in the third quarter of this year.
Wang added that AeroHT hopes to receive an airworthiness “type certificate” from Chinese regulators in the fourth quarter, calling it “a milestone that must be met.” This would allow the company to fly passenger-carrying eVTOLs in China. The carrier is made according to a modular design in which the flight and automobile components can be separated.
at the BEYOND Expo 2025 in Macao during May 21-24, 2025. Credit: BEYOND Expo
AutoFlight
In contrast to AeroHT’s two-seater aircraft, which can be folded into the body of a land vehicle and targets affluent individual customers, AutoFlight’s alternative is much bigger and more for business scenarios. The five-seat air taxi, Prosperity, has a maximum take-off weight of 2,400 kilograms and a flight range of up to 250 kilometers (155 miles).
Shanghai-headquartered AutoFlight expects to secure the permission of Chinese authorities next year to operate Prosperity on certain fixed routes, initially for sightseeing, before it is further allowed to offer public transport services, according to senior vice president Xie Jia. Xie, who also spoke at BEYOND, said the company holds complete intellectual property rights on the core components.
Aerofugia
Aerofugia said on June 15 that its AE200 eVTOLs have reached the latter stages of their airworthiness review, with a certificate for commercial operations possible as early as next year, in the latest development for the subsidiary of Chinese automaker Geely.
Headquartered in Chengdu, Aerofugia had previously revealed plans to provide flying taxi pilot services to the public in 2026 in the capital city of China’s southwestern Sichuan province. Sino Jet, one of the largest business aviation companies in the Asia-Pacific region as well as a shareholder of Aeroguia, is expected to become the first client. The AE200 is a five- to six/seater tilt-rotor eVTOL aircraft with a range of 200 km.
READ MORE: What you need to know about China’s low-altitude economy | BEYOND EXPO 2024
