Related videos:
The Land Aircraft Carrier from Aridge, the urban aviation subsidiary of XPeng, surpassed 7,000 total pre-orders and accumulated more than 90 orders in a single day during the 2026 Beijing Auto Show, establishing itself as one of the most anticipated products in the global automotive sector.
The CEO of XPeng, He Xiaopeng, confirmed the figure of 7,000 pre-orders during a press conference on April 24, the opening day of the exhibition, and shared the information of 90 daily orders on his Weibo account last Sunday, the third day of the event.
The enthusiasm at the XPeng booth was remarkable: visitors experienced virtual reality flights and witnessed live demonstrations of the aerial module detaching from the mother vehicle.
However, the product is not yet on the market: mass production has not started, the airborne module lacks full airworthiness certification, and deliveries depend on the company meeting its ambitious roadmap before the end of 2026.
The price is set at less than two million yuan, equivalent to approximately $300,000 dollars, according to on April 23.
The Land Aircraft Carrier is not a car with wings; it is a system in two modules.
The mother vehicle is an electric platform with a range-extending capability of 800 volts, featuring six wheels, a combined range of over 1,000 kilometers, and capacity for four passengers.
Housed in its trunk is the two-seat eVTOL air module, featuring six ducted rotors, a 270-degree panoramic cockpit, and single-stick control.
The mother vehicle can recharge the aerial module while in motion or parked, allowing for five to six flights per charge.
In China, driving a land vehicle only requires a standard Class C driver's license.
The Aridge factory in Guangzhou completed its first pilot production batch in November 2025 and, at full capacity, can assemble a vehicle every 30 minutes, with an initial goal of 5,000 units annually scalable to 10,000.
The project has been in development for 13 years, with over 500 engineers and more than 1,000 registered patents.
In March 2026, Aridge closed a financing round of nearly $200 million, raising the total amount raised to approximately $750 million, and in January, it confidentially submitted a initial public offering application on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley as advising banks.
The most relevant strategic angle is XPeng's transformation: the company is transitioning from being exclusively an electric car manufacturer to becoming a mobility, robotics, and urban aviation enterprise.
He Xiaopeng confirmed that the company is negotiating its entry into international markets such as the Middle East, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and that there are already pre-orders from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Additionally, the company is working on a second generation of the vehicle aimed at meeting the standards of Europe and the United States.
The obstacles, however, are real: international regulations for hybrid ground-air vehicles are still under development in most markets outside of China, which limits global expansion in the short term.
China has set a national goal of 100,000 flying vehicles by 2030 as part of its low-altitude economy strategy, a context that benefits Aridge but does not ensure that the rest of the world is ready to embrace it.
Filed under: