(Yicai) June 17 -- The electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft of Xpeng AeroHT, the flying car subsidiary of Chinese new energy vehicle startup Xpeng Motors, has completed its maiden flight in Beijing.

The Xpeng X2 successfully completed its first flight near the Beijing Daxing International Airport yesterday, China Securities Journal reported on the same day. It was also the first flying car trip ever made in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region.

Xpeng and its Chairman He Xiaopeng invested in the developer of eVTOL aircraft in 2020, so it became a subsidiary of the carmaker. In October 2021, Xpeng AeroHT secured over USD500 million from IDG Capital, Xpeng, and others in the largest financing round in the global flying car industry.

The Xpeng X2, which can carry two people for up to 20 kilometers, completed its first public display flight in Dubai in October 2022 and received a special flight permit from the Central and Southern Regional Administration of the Civil Aviation Administration of China in January last year. It conducted its first flight in China's southern Guangzhou two months later.

Products developed by Xpeng AeroHT will achieve mass production in the fourth quarter of next year, with their market price exceeding CNY1 million (USD137,830), Guangzhou-based Xpeng announced earlier this year.

Last month, Beijing issued a policy draft proposing to nourish the low-altitude economy as a driver for the development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region.

The draft included a plan to build commercial air routes between the Daxing Airport in Beijing and the Xiong'an New Area in Hebei province and between the Beijing Capital International Airport and Tianjin and advance the development of low-altitude tourism and flight experiences in Beijing suburban areas.

According to the draft, Beijing alone will have more than 5,000 companies engaged in the low-altitude economy in the next three years, driving the city's economic growth by over CNY100 billion (USD13.8 billion).

Editor: Futura Costaglione