XPeng car will be taking to the roads - and the skies - in 2024

BEIJING: Chinese electric car maker XPeng has unveiled its first prototype of a flying vehicle, intended to go to retail as early as 2024.

The manufacturer also promises a price set to defy all competitors: no more than US$157,000 (RM649,000).

XPeng has designed a flying car that can also drive quite normally on the road, which is, for now, still in the prototype stage.

Like something out of the movies, it resembles a car with two retractable wings.

But at the end of each of them is a propeller strong and powerful enough to get it to lift off and fly through the air. The design also invludes a futuristic interior, midway between car and plane, with a head-up display system.

As for the rest, we'll have to wait a while to know more.

Like a multicopter, the car takes off vertically and lands in the same way. The manufacturer claims that it has already been tested extensively and that more than 15,000 safe flights of the prototypes have taken place to date. A final version, which will obviously be more refined than this prototype, is set to be available in 2024.

At the same time, XPeng also presented its future intelligent driver assistance system, XPILOT 4.0, which will offer a near-autonomous driving mode by 2023, as well as its work on high-voltage charging technologies to accelerate charging times for its electric vehicles.