XPeng AeroHT, an affiliate of XPeng and a China-based developer of flying cars, has unveiled the latest version of its eVTOL flying car on XPeng 1024 Tech Day. Designed for both air flight and road driving, the X3 flying car features a sleek rotor fold-away system for seamless conversion between driving and flying. Its flight control system has fault-tolerant control functions and a dual-engine backup system to ensure safety.

Optimised from last year's horizontal dual-rotor structure to a new distributed multi-rotor configuration, the overall system design complexity has also been reduced to further enhance flight safety and reliability. The test vehicle has successfully completed its maiden flight as well as multiple single-motor failure tests.

In driving mode, it is comparable with any conventional cars in terms of functionality and size. In flight mode, the X3 is piloted using the steering wheel and the right hand gear lever as controls to move forward and backward, make turns, ascend, hover and descend. Subject to laws and regulations for low altitude airspace, it can take off and land vertically, and fly over traffic congestion, obstacles and rivers to meet a new host of short distance mobility needs.