A number of car companies are vying to enter the game, and flying cars are really coming?

A number of car companies are vying to enter the game, and flying cars are really coming?

(Guangming.com)

A few days ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the Innovative Application of General Aviation Equipment (2024-2030)", proposing to encourage the research and development of flying car technology, product verification and exploration of commercial application scenarios; By 2030, general aviation equipment will be fully integrated into all fields of people's production and life, becoming a powerful driving force for low-altitude economic growth and forming a trillion-yuan market scale.

Flying cars are an important carrier of the low-altitude economy. While the policy is gradually advancing, related enterprises are also vying to lay out the production of flying cars. On March 8, Xpeng Huitian's "Voyager X2" flying car successfully completed the low-altitude flight in the "Tiande Plaza-Canton Tower" area of Guangzhou CBD; On the same day, GAC Group's flying car GOVE also carried out a flight demonstration over Guangzhou CBD. On March 25, Xpeng Huitian announced that the flying body (code: X3-F) of its "Land Aircraft Carrier" flying car will soon enter the airworthiness certification stage. According to the plan, the Xpeng Huitian split flying car will be available for pre-order in the fourth quarter of this year, and it is planned to start mass production and delivery in the fourth quarter of 2025. GAC Group's "GAC GOVE" multi-rotor configuration flying car successfully made its world first flight in June last year, and has completed more than 300 flight tests. The "GAC GOVE" composite wing configuration flying car under development can meet the needs of 150 kilometers of intercity travel in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in the future. According to the plan, GAC will start demonstration operation of flying cars in 2025, and realize three-dimensional travel scenarios based on "all-space unmanned systems" in two to three cities in the Bay Area in 2027.

In addition to Xiaopeng and GAC, in recent years, Geely, Volkswagen and other car companies have also rushed to enter the game, and a number of flying cars have been released one after another. EHang's two unmanned manned aircraft have even been launched on Taobao. Driven by policy and technology, the dream of flying cars is becoming a reality.

Since the invention of automobiles and airplanes, mankind has been exploring flying cars for 100 years. Today, the flying car industry, represented by eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft), is booming around the world. According to incomplete statistics, including aviation giants such as Boeing and Airbus, automobile companies such as Volkswagen and Toyota, as well as some start-up companies, there are more than 200 flying car projects under development around the world, and more than 160 companies are trying to build flying cars.

In the Chinese market, in the fourth quarter of 2023, EHang's EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft successively obtained the Type Certificate (TC) and Standard Airworthiness Certificate (AC) issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, becoming the world's first unmanned manned eVTOL to obtain the airworthiness certificate. With the acquisition of "double certificates", the market demand for EH216-S has surged. According to EHang's financial report, a total of 52 EH216 series products will be delivered in 2023, doubling from 21 in 2022.

Wang Tan, co-founder and vice president of Xpeng Huitian and general manager of Xpeng Motors Styling Center, said that the future of travel will be intelligently connected, electrified and sustainable energy, but more importantly, three-dimensional. At present, the global flying car industry is still in its infancy, and the future will be a blue ocean. In contrast, foreign flying cars started earlier, but Chinese companies rely on the leading advantages of smart electric vehicles to take the lead in many product research and development and technology, and the commercial application of flying cars in the future will also be ahead.

The relevant person in charge of GAC Group believes that the development of the automobile industry has brought a new technological revolution and industrial transformation to the commercial aviation field. The core components of flying cars, which account for 60% of the cost, are consistent with the technical direction of electric vehicles, and the automotive industry chain provides the possibility for the large-scale and low-cost development of aircraft, and ground transportation has a strong demand for the development of three-dimensional transportation.

Technological breakthroughs require policy support. In February 2021, the low-altitude economy was written into the "National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Planning Outline" for the first time; In December last year, the Central Economic Work Conference established the low-altitude economy as a national strategic emerging industry; At this year's National People's Congress and the National People's Congress, the low-altitude economy was written into the "Government Work Report" for the first time.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China predicts that the market size of the mainland's low-altitude economy will reach 1.5 trillion yuan by 2025 and 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035. Kaiyuan Securities believes that the policy industry resonance in 2024 is expected to become the first year of the low-altitude economy, and the opening of subsequent manned passenger market application scenarios is expected to speed up the eVTOL market.

As for the overall market size of flying cars, consulting firm Roland Berger expects the number of eVTOLs in commercial operation worldwide to reach 5,000 by 2030 and 160,000 by 2050. Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2050, the global market size accessible to urban passenger transport will reach US$9 trillion, and the potential market size of China will reach US$2.1 trillion.

Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Association, said that flying cars, as an important application field of low-altitude economy, will play an effective role in supplementing the overall travel. At present, the use of flying cars is still based on specific scenarios, and there are still breakthroughs to be made in product safety and cruising range in the future.

The relevant person in charge of GAC Group said that from the current development trend of flying cars and the predictions of all parties, the commercialization of flying cars will come faster than the public expects, and the commercialization boom will be set off in the next 5 to 10 years, but the operation of the product is still carried out in a restricted environment, and the safety has not yet been fully verified by the market and recognized by the public.

Some industry experts believe that the application scenarios of flying cars are mainly affected by two aspects: one is the technical boundary of the product, including power, safety, etc.; The second is policies and regulations, such as airspace management, flight standards, etc. The application scenarios of flying cars will change with the changes of both. In the early stage, flying car products had limited flight speed, distance and flyable airspace, and mainly flew in limited scenarios with fixed routes. With the increase of range and speed, and the further opening of airspace, some fixed flight grids will be formed in the city, which can realize short-distance travel within the city, and intercity transportation between some urban agglomerations will also become a high-frequency application scenario.

Wang Tan said that in the long run, as the products and air traffic management become more and more mature, door-to-door, end-to-end commuting within the city will be realized, and a complete three-dimensional transportation network will be established. (Economic Times)