Meet the Six-Wheel Hybrid With an eVTOL in the Trunk – Video
Meet the six-wheel hybrid with eVTOL in the trunk
Xpeng Motors unveiled its modular flying car at CES. The six-wheeled “land aircraft carrier” can carry electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft cross-country while charging for flight.
This is no ordinary six-wheel hybrid behemoth, if such a thing exists. This one has a surprise in the trunk. Have you ever wished you could carry your own personal aircraft in the trunk of your car? This land-based aircraft carrier from X-Pan Aero might be the answer. Due to the small size of EVs and the weight of their batteries, most of the personal EVs we see have fairly low range and require some sort of separate tow vehicle. Transport them to the takeoff point. That’s where this six-wheeled mothership comes in. Not only is it designed to transport a two-seat personal aircraft cross-country to any scenic lookout you want to fly, it also doubles as a charger. So by the time you arrive at your destination, your electric car charging battery is fully charged and ready to fly. Wong Tan, co-founder and vice president of Expan Aero, told me the decision to make the mothership a hybrid was to extend the range to 1,000 kilometers, or 621 miles. With a full tank of fuel and a full charge on the mother ship, the electric car in the trunk can be recharged up to 6 times. As far as safety is concerned. X-Man Aero says this is a priority. Redundancy is built into everything from the flight systems to the controls. Some propellers have ducted fans underneath them to keep the aircraft stable in the event of propeller problems. The joystick is the primary control mechanism, with a set of buttons next to it performing most of the same functions as the backup controls. We weren’t able to sit inside the mothership this time, but Xant Aero did give us access to the EV charging module, which has already undergone a manned test flight. As you can see, it’s very comfortable here. I changed it in about 5 minutes and 11 seconds, so. I’m not banging my head on the roof. There is plenty of room for my feet. Well, it feels pretty good. If you’re a few inches taller than me, you might hit your head if I really stretched, I could hit the roof, but this thing has to be compact because it has to fit in your suitcase. I personally have never seen anything like this. I’d say the closest thing visually is the Cybertruck because of the light bar on the front and the overall shape and color. However, XPin Aero’s modular flying car serves a very different purpose. In fact, I think form follows function. Why we have a design like this, I think it’s not just who it’s for, I think it’s more for the capability of the car because of the extra weight and off-road capability. Secondly, we thought about how to make it futuristic, like we were bringing it from the future. Despite its sci-fi design, Xan Aero says this is not a concept car. They are planning to mass produce it. They are working hard to obtain approval from Chinese regulatory authorities and have already received more than 3,000 intended orders, with deliveries expected to begin in 2026. The company said this modular flying car. It will be available first in China for less than $300,000 and hopes to expand to other markets in the future. What do you think of the X-Pan Aero land carrier? Let us know in the comments. Thank you very much for watching. Subscribe to CNET to get the latest and greatest technology news. Now if you don’t mind, I’m leaving.
