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Flying cars could be nearer than anybody expects, and electric vehicle corporations may make them occur.
Tuesday morning, Chinese language EV maker
XPeng
(ticker: XPEV) — as a part of a consortium — announced a $500 million monetary funding in Chinese language city air mobility firm HT Aero.
HT Aero was established in 2013 and designs flying automobiles. And the corporate is already exhibiting off prototypes. Aero’s two seat “X2” car was on the 2021 Airshow China, which befell on the finish of September in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.
An EV maker and a vertical take off and touchdown plane maker won’t appear to be a pure match. However the X2 is electrical and might make the most of XPeng’s charging know-how. There may be additionally overlap with autonomous driving applied sciences. Shoppers flying their autos will want, at minimal, some assist working an plane with out superior pilot coaching.
There may be some management overlap as nicely. Aero HT is partly managed by XPeng founder He Xiaopeng.
“Our mission has all the time been to discover environment friendly, safer, and carbon-neutral mobility options that transcend good EVs,” mentioned the corporate’s information launch. “What we’re seeing is the combination of the three driving forces of good mobility–disruptive know-how, new sources of vitality, and mass manufacturing. We’ll embrace this chance, which is unprecedented within the historical past of contemporary transportation.”
XPeng’s thought won’t be as wild because it appears.
Tesla
(TSLA) CEO Elon Musk was requested about electrical planes at his firm’s 2021 annual shareholder assembly held in Austin, Texas on October 7.
“Electrical planes, sure, I’ve been dying to do this for a decade, actually,” mentioned Musk responding to a shareholder query. “However we bought fairly just a few fish to fry right here. So perhaps in the future an electrical aircraft.”
Musk’s fish are issues like opening up two new crops and delivering the brand new Cybertruck — all of that are slated to occur within the subsequent few months.
The funding most likely received’t have a big effect on XPeng inventory within the brief run. There aren’t plenty of particulars about when or how a flying automobile will probably be commercialized. XPeng inventory is up 0.5% in early buying and selling Tuesday. The
S&P 500
and
Dow Jones Industrial Average
are up 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively.
XPeng inventory is not any up about 1% 12 months to this point, trailing behind the 20% comparable return of the S&P.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com