People’s Daily: Flying cars are “flying” toward us.

In early January, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, China’s Xpeng Huitian unveiled its modular flying car—the “Land Airship”—making its international debut and immediately drawing widespread attention. The vehicle is slated to begin deliveries next year.

Flying cars, brimming with limitless possibilities for the future of transportation, are gradually transitioning from dreams to reality. Perhaps in a decade, they will cut commuting times from one to two hours down to just 10 to 20 minutes, freeing urban dwellers from the frustration of traffic congestion. And in years to come, “city fly” may well replace today’s “city walk”: passengers simply input their destination, and highly intelligent flying vehicles will weave through towering skyscrapers to deliver them swiftly to their intended spot. Flying cars represent not only technological advancement but also a bold reimagining of humanity’s future way of life.

Guo Pu, a commentator on the “Classic of Mountains and Seas,” once noted regarding the Kingdom of Qibeng: “They can construct flying carriages that travel great distances on the wind.” In the Qing dynasty, Li Ruizhen depicted scenes of such “flying carriages” in his novel “The Flower-Reflection Pavilion”: “One saw those bronze wheels—some like millstones, others like winches, all resembling windmills—each spinning rapidly. In the blink of an eye, they rose several feet above the ground, ascending straight upward to a height of more than ten zhang, then sped off toward the west.”

The ancients’ dream of “flying cars” was decidedly fantastical. Today, the definition of a flying car is far more concrete. In the narrow sense, a flying car refers to an amphibious vehicle capable of both ground travel and aerial flight; in the broader sense, it encompasses electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft designed for mass‑market transportation.

In fact, since the advent of powered flight in the 20th century, researchers have been exploring the design of land‑air amphibious vehicles capable of both ground travel and aerial flight. In 1917, Glenn Curtiss, often regarded as the “father of the flying car,” attempted to develop humanity’s first flying car. At the time, these early flying cars relied primarily on runway‑based takeoff and landing, with limited operational scenarios, serving mostly as small‑scale experiments for aviation enthusiasts—marking the nascent beginnings of the narrowly defined concept of the flying car.

With the advent of the new century’s electric‑intelligent era, flying cars have begun to flourish. In 2016, Uber released its Urban Air Mobility White Paper, proposing that eVTOLs would become the primary form of “air taxis,” sparking a global wave of eVTOL research and development. China’s EHang 184 eVTOL made the cover of the U.S. industry‑leading magazine Popular Mechanics under the headline “Flying Car,” and since then, the term “flying car” has largely come to refer to this type of eVTOL.

In 2024, the China Society of Automotive Engineers released China’s first research report on flying cars, the “Flying Car Development White Paper 1.0,” which argues that, The development of electric, intelligent vehicles in the 21st century has laid a solid industrial foundation for the advancement of electric, intelligent aviation. As a broad category of flying cars, eVTOLs—by integrating electric and intelligent technologies from both the aviation and automotive sectors—hold the promise of becoming mainstream modes of transportation, much like their ground-based counterparts. The broad concept of flying cars has officially become an industry consensus.

Looking ahead, flying cars are rapidly approaching. According to the “Flying Car Development White Paper 1.0,” their evolution will unfold in three distinct phases: Starting in 2025, flying cars will enter Phase 1.0, marking the commercial launch of cargo‑carrying eVTOLs and the initiation of demonstration operations for passenger‑carrying eVTOLs in select settings. By around 2035, we can expect Phase 2.0, characterized by accelerated intelligence—when large‑scale deployment of smart eVTOLs gains momentum, establishing them as the primary mode of low‑altitude mobility. By approximately 2050, the industry will reach Phase 3.0, featuring widespread adoption of amphibious flying cars that seamlessly integrate into everyday life, with low‑altitude and ground transportation deeply interwoven to create a three‑dimensional, intelligent transport ecosystem.

Despite a promising outlook, flying cars still face significant practical challenges—such as ensuring high levels of safety, achieving widespread usability, and making them accessible to the general public—before they can truly take to the skies.

First, as electric, intelligent flying vehicles, flying cars must meet the stringent aviation‑technology and product standards renowned for their high safety, high reliability, and high stability. Airworthiness is the cornerstone of high safety and the lifeblood of flying cars. The issues it encompasses—electrical safety, thermal safety, intelligent‑driving safety, and airframe configuration—are all entirely new domains for aviation airworthiness.

Second, to assume the critical role of low‑altitude transportation, flying cars must meet fundamental practicality criteria: a payload capacity of at least 100 kilograms and a range of at least 100 kilometers. Currently, eVTOLs—under comparable power and takeoff weight—offer significantly lower payload capacity and shorter range than conventional fixed-wing aircraft. For instance, the same electric battery that can deliver over 500 kilometers of range in an electric vehicle provides only about 20 minutes of flight time for an eVTOL carrying one or two passengers. Overcoming the limitations of small payloads and short ranges represents a major technical hurdle on the path to the practical deployment of flying cars.

Third, flying cars must possess advanced autonomous driving capabilities to meet mass-market demand. The safety challenges posed by complex low-altitude weather conditions and high‑density air traffic place extremely demanding requirements on highly intelligent, autonomous driving technologies for flying cars. While in flight, flying cars cannot pull over to avoid hazards as ground vehicles can; therefore, they must be equipped with a short‑term recovery mode to ensure safe landing and docking. In addition, it is essential to upgrade low‑altitude infrastructure and regulatory frameworks and to establish a closed‑loop, sustainable business model. Recently, two pioneering German companies in the flying‑car sector filed for bankruptcy one after another, with the root cause being an imperfect business model.

From a technical standpoint, the development of flying cars hinges on addressing three core technological challenges. First and foremost, propulsion technology is at the heart of flying car development. The propulsion system of flying cars relies on advanced aerospace‑grade new‑energy powertrains, which pose significant technical challenges and require the development of high‑power‑density, high‑efficiency, and high‑energy‑density systems to substantially enhance both payload capacity and flight range. Secondly, platform technology ensures the performance and safety of flying cars. Currently, flying car platforms are predominantly multirotor‑propelled vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) systems. In the future, it will be necessary to develop VTOL platforms featuring multi‑ducted propulsion, lightweight structures, and land‑air compatibility, enabling them to better meet the demands of diverse application scenarios. Finally, transportation technology is the key to enabling the intelligent operation of flying cars. Highly intelligent, autonomous driving, integrated land–air mobility, and cloud–network convergence—these advanced, three-dimensional smart transportation technologies place even higher demands on the aerial control capabilities of flying cars.

Globally, many countries are accelerating the innovation and deployment of flying cars, with three main development pathways. First, the shift from mechanical and aerospace aviation to electric and intelligent aviation. U.S.-based Joby Aviation, Europe’s Airbus, and Chinese companies such as EHang, Volantex, and Dream Aero are all leveraging the design expertise and technological strengths of conventional aircraft to develop flying cars. Second, expanding from electric smart vehicles to electric smart aviation. Approximately 85% of the supply chain for flying cars is linked to electric and intelligent vehicles, and the development of the latter has laid a solid industrial foundation for the former. For instance, XPeng Huitian and GAC are leveraging their strengths in the EV‑AI vehicle supply chain to accelerate the R&D of flying cars. Third, multi-rotor drones are making inroads into the electric intelligent aviation sector. The development of multirotor drones has laid a solid foundation in flight control technology for electric, intelligent aviation. Companies such as China’s EHang and Israel’s AeroVironment, leveraging their early expertise in multirotor drone development, are now moving toward the creation of flying cars.

U.S.-based Joby Aviation plans to launch commercial operations of eVTOLs for urban air mobility by 2025. Leveraging its deep expertise in conventional aviation and a global market presence, Airbus has launched the “Next‑Generation Urban Air Mobility” initiative, unveiling an all‑electric prototype in 2024 and completing its maiden flight—an important step in the transition from traditional aviation to electric, intelligent air transport. China boasts world‑leading technologies and industrial-chain advantages in electric, intelligent vehicles and multirotor drones, providing a solid foundation for the research, development, and production of flying cars. For example, Changan Automobile and EHang have embarked on a cross‑industry collaboration, seamlessly integrating automotive and multirotor drone technologies, bringing fresh perspectives and renewed momentum to the advancement of flying cars.

Low‑altitude transportation serves as the primary platform and application domain for emerging technologies such as new energy, artificial intelligence, big data, and 5G communications. It represents a strategic direction for the development of the low‑altitude economy and is poised to reshape the global economic landscape and growth dynamics. At present, the main vehicles driving low‑altitude economic activity are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and flying cars. Among these, consumer‑grade drones, industrial‑grade drones, and transport‑class flying cars contribute to the low‑altitude economy in ways analogous to how bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles have propelled the ground‑based economy. Currently, UAVs dominate the low‑altitude economy, having evolved from recreational tools for consumers into industrial‑grade platforms for tasks such as power‑line inspection, agricultural spraying, and forestry management. Looking ahead, the widespread adoption of flying cars will usher in a new era of three‑dimensional urban mobility, opening up a vast, trillion‑dollar market opportunity in the low‑altitude economy.

Source: People’s Daily, Flying Car Power