"The flying car in our eyes is not a flying machine. Flying cars should be a smart electric car within the city, a low-altitude flying machine in the suburbs ... Flying cars will become a branch of cars in the future. ”
When the Civil Aviation Administration of China took the lead in accepting the airworthiness application for passenger aircraft and began to confirm the airworthiness requirements of flying cars, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, expressed the above views.
According to NASA's definition, UAM, UrbanAir Mobility, urban air traffic, refers to the safe and efficient transportation operation mode suitable for manned aerial vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicle systems within the city.
With the increasingly serious problem of global ground traffic congestion, the concept of UAM urban air traffic has become a "new outlet" valued by many technology companies. Among them, there is Xiaopeng Motors.
On January 19, 2022, Xiaopeng Huitian, a flying automobile sub-brand of Xiaopeng Motors, released a video of the opening year, showing some achievements in the past 8 years since its establishment. Combined with what He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Huitian, said at the 1024 Xiaopeng Automobile Technology Day, "In 2024, the sixth generation of flying cars that can run and fly will be mass-produced and listed." Flying cars, is it really not far from us? And why did Xiaopeng build flying cars?
Is the flying car a blue ocean or a bubble?
In 2018, Roland Berger released a past study titled "Urban Air Mobility – The Rise of a New Mode of Transportation," which predicts that from 2025 onwards, flying cars will be in service, followed by exponential growth.
Morgan Stanley, a financial firm, also predicted in 2018 that by 2040, the global urban air traffic market will reach $1.5 trillion. In contrast, the hottest live e-commerce in China in 2021 is only the scale of trillions of yuan.
At the beginning of last year, the "National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Planning Outline" also pointed out: By 2035, a modern and high-quality national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network will be basically built that is convenient and smooth, cost-effective, green and intensive, intelligent and advanced, safe and reliable. Smart, green, efficient, just happen to be the most important feature of UAM urban air traffic.
The sense of smell of capital is often the sharpest. In 2021, Fengfei Aviation Technology announced the completion of a $100 million A round of financing; Geely Technology's Wofei Long-Air established a subsidiary Ofolong Airtai; EHang Intelligent released a two-seater manned aerial vehicle; and Xiaopeng Huitian also announced the completion of more than $500 million in A round financing in October. By 2020, more than 200 companies around the world have been involved in the development of flying cars, and the industry has raised more than $2 billion.
However, before any new thing enters the consumer market, it must have supporting policies or laws and regulations promulgated and implemented. At present, the mainland's low-altitude airspace management is very strict, from rules, to standards, to supporting infrastructure, etc., there is no corresponding implementation policy.
To take a simple example, at present, the restrictions on the flight area, flight altitude and flight permit of civilian small unmanned aerial vehicles in China are gradually tightening.
At the same time, leaving aside the impact of the policy level, the technical maturity of the flying car itself also affects the landing of the flying car.
In recent years, the rapid development of three electric technology and automatic driving technology, these technologies have also promoted the development of flying cars. For example, the fifth generation of Xiaopeng Huitian's flying car has greatly improved in perception, obstacle avoidance, and decision-making planning, so it can use the automatic driving function during the flight. At the same time, this aircraft also uses the battery provided by the Ningde era as an energy reserve.
Even so, mass production of a flying car still faces a lot of experimentation, calibration, testing, and so on. Even in 2024, Xiaopeng's flying cars that can run and fly can be mass-produced and listed, it is still very far from our mature business model of "driving the car to the sky".
Why did Xiaopeng build a flying car?
Whether a new car company wants to focus on a certain field or start from the system to start a comprehensive layout depends on the cognition of the founding team on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is closely related to the capital market. Xiaopeng chose the latter between focus and comprehensiveness. Specifically, Xiaopeng makes flying cars, with the following three considerations:
First, there is a chance.
In 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered more than 98,000 units in the whole year, an increase of 263% year-on-year. Judging from the 2021 financial report, the entire income statement, whether it is total revenue, or cost of sales, research and development expenditure, has increased by multiples compared with 2020. In the second half of the year, Xiaopeng Motors' sales performance was even more prominent, reaching 41,761 units in the fourth quarter alone, accounting for about 40% of the whole year. This sales boom also ensures that Xiaopeng Motors has sufficient cash flow for research and development and investment.
To sum up, Xiaopeng Automobile can gain a firm foothold in a number of new car-making forces, and the important reason is "the independent research and development ability of full-stack self-research". This capability is built on the belief that "smart technology" can guide future information change, energy change and industrial landing. Such a way of thinking can also be seen from the financial report, for example, compared with Weilai and ideal, Xiaopeng Automobile is the most willing to invest in research and development, and the proportion of software and hardware research and development personnel has always remained at about 80%.
Xiaopeng Automobile's focus and emphasis on research and development is also presented in the team of Xiaopeng Huitian. At present, the Xiaopeng Huitian team has about 600 people, and the R & D personnel account for 80%, including experts in the field of fighter jets, helicopters and aerodynamic payload technology. Flying cars and electric vehicles have many commonalities, such as perceptual decision-making capabilities, data processing capabilities, battery management systems, electronic control systems and so on. Technical interoperability will allow the two to promote and integrate with each other, and play a multiplier effect.
Although the team's R&D strength does not depend entirely on the R&D personnel, at least for Xiaopeng, flying cars are an "opportunity" in line with the company's value system.
Second, there are stories.
Startups in the initial stage are inseparable from a beautiful story, translated, is a "pie" painted for investors. Flying cars are also a chapter in the story of Xiaopeng's commercial territory.
He Xiaopeng once said that Xiaopeng Automobile's exploration of future transportation methods is not limited to smart cars. New mobility and lifestyles that are more efficient, safer and carbon neutral are all things that Xiaopeng Motors needs to explore. The intelligent transportation ecology of "running, flying and walking" is the "beautiful story" of Xiaopeng Automobile.
Moreover, in the ecology of Xiaopeng Automobile, there is not only Xiaopeng Huitian, but also Pengxing Intelligence.
In September last year, Xiaopeng Automobile officially launched a new member of the ecology, Pengxing Intelligence, and also unveiled a cute robot horse. The current introduction page of the official website is positioned as "the first intelligent means of transportation of Xiao pengyou", and there is Boston Dynamics in the front, and then there are domestic foot robot companies to follow, in this case, the horse of Pengxing Intelligence is not just a means of transportation for children.
This team was established in 2016, in 2020 by He Xiaopeng investment, the team integrates robots, artificial intelligence, Internet, automotive design and manufacturing and other fields of technology and personnel, is Xiaopeng Automobile's attempt in the field of intelligent bionic robots. It is also another important part of exploring the "future transportation ecology".
A good enough story can often get more capital support, so Xiaopeng Motors will also get more resources, and then feed back to the most important and core track of Xiaopeng Motors - new energy vehicles.
Solidly doing the main business and putting the story to the capital market in the non-main business may be the main intention of Xiaopeng to build a flying car.
Third, there is affection.
Qualified entrepreneurs have dreams, ambitions, and feelings.
Human exploration of air travel is also all spontaneous and uninterrupted.
The human-taught version of the Chinese textbook includes the story of "Ten Thousand Flying Dreams", which is the earliest space dream recorded in China; the French papermaker Montgolfier Brothers raised mankind's first hot air balloon to a height of 450 meters; the "Flyer One" that the Wright Brothers personally tested became one of the greatest inventions in human history; the Trafgar Company in Massachusetts, USA, flew the first flying car "Leap Transition" in March 2009...
Even though flying cars may have a variety of business purposes at this stage, love and ideals should be the most essential driving force for the founding team to do this project well.
Write at the end
The future of mobility is becoming more and more interesting: more diverse, more convenient, more cool and new.
More and more consumer products are exciting: from electric roller skating installed on the heel, to skateboarding and scooters that solve the last kilometer; from two-wheeled electric motorcycles to four-wheeled household electric vehicles; from intercity long-distance motorhomes to vertical take-off and landing flying cars - there are so many beautiful travel experiences worth looking forward to. And the tech companies that are constantly seeking to explore uncharted territory are creating cooler and more interesting products for us while tapping into business opportunities.
When policy regulation really begins to consider revolutionary advances in technology, perhaps flying cars will arrive sooner than we expected.