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The Aridge X3-F eVTOL module developed by XPENG's subsidiary, Aridge, is seen during a demo flight in Dubai on Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. China has been investing heavily in developing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for what it calls its Low-Altitude Economy (LAE). According to reports by the non-profit Vertical Flight Society (VFS), more than 100 Chinese eVTOL designs have been built over the past several years. Like a Cambrian explosion, eVTOL designs for small cargo delivery or carrying one or two passengers, as well larger eVTOL aircraft with up to six seats, are being designed by companies and universities in all manner of configurations. Most are supported by funding from China’s central, regional or municipal governments (with expectations to transcend the country’s notorious road congestion) as well as a strong desire to export Chinese eVTOL aircraft technology to the world, as it has with automotive electric vehicles (EVs). The Aridge "Land Aircraft Carrier" disgorges the X3-F "air module" for its first public flight demonstration in Dubai, on Oct. 12. (Photo by Waleed Zein/Anadolu via Getty Images) Anadolu via Getty Images The eVTOL arm of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) company XPeng, Aridge, made several announcements in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Oct. 12, including the first public flight outside China of the X3-F eVTOL aircraft module of its Land Aircraft Carrier (LAC) automobile in Dubai. The LAC resembles a minivan version of the Tesla Cybertruck, with twin rear wheel designed to carry the load of the detachable two-seat X3-F, which has two-bladed propellers on six arms that fold out after extraction from the “mothership” EV. XPeng’s teaser video shows Emiratis driving the plug-in hybrid LAC to a remote destination, then taking a short sightseeing flights in the X3-F. Aridge (alluding to “air” and “bridge”) expects its first exports to the Middle East in 2027. Its new Guangzhou factory will produce up to 10,000 vehicle pairs annually, and XPeng is considering a production or assembly site in the UAE. The company has received 7,000 orders for its LAC, including about 600 in the Middle East. Priced around US$270,000 in China, it costs less than a typical private airplane or helicopter (and comes with a car included!). XPeng is a rapidly growing Chinese EV company, having delivered nearly 900,000 electric cars since 2018, including 40,000 EVs in September alone. In 2020, XPeng bought a small eVTOL company, Guangdong Huitian Aerospace Technology, that had built a series of 1–2-seat eVTOL demonstrators, calling the subsidiary HT Aero and, later, AeroHT. Over the past decade, AeroHT/Aridge has flown at least 16 different models, according to the VFS World eVTOL Aircraft Directory. MORE FOR YOU At the Dubai event, Aridge announced it was also developing a much larger aircraft, the A868, a high-speed, long-range eVTOL with six tilting propellers (not unlike Joby Aviation’s S4 eVTOL) with a hybrid-electric powertrain. The A868 seats six, can fly more than 500 km (310 miles) and has a top speed of more than 360 km/h (225 mph). An EH 216-S on display in a showroom at EHang headquarters in Guangzhou, China, on Monday, July 29, 2024. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg © 2024 Bloomberg Finance LP The most well-known Chinese eVTOL company is Guangzhou-based EHang. It earned its type certificate (TC) for design approval, production certificate (PC) for manufacturing authorization and airworthiness certificate (AC) for individual aircraft from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for its EH216-S Autonomous Air Vehicle (AAV), which has two seats and 16 lifting propellers (hence the name) on eight arms. The TC was awarded on Oct. 12, 2023, which made it the first type-certificated eVTOL aircraft in the world — and the first passenger-carrying autonomous aircraft — and two years later, it remains the world’s only passenger-carrying eVTOL with a TC. EHang’s diminutive aircraft models have already made more than 40,000 flights, including demonstrations in 19 countries across the globe. In March, CAAC awarded air operator certificates (AOCs) to two companies to begin limited revenue-generating flights for sightseeing flights, eventually expanding into urban commuting. Like the rival Aridge X3-F “air module,” the flight time and range of the wingless EH216 multicopter are limited. The EHang VT35 Pilotless Passenger Aircraft before a demonstration flight on Oct. 14, 2025 in Hefei, China. (Photo by Zhang Dagang/VCG via Getty Images) VCG via Getty Images On Oct. 13, EHang unveiled its long awaited, more advanced eVTOL aircraft at its “VT35 Global Debut" launch event in Hefei, China. The VT35 is also a two-seater, but with tandem wings and eight lifting propellers, plus a pusher propeller. Compared to the 30-km (19-mile) range of the EH216, the VT35 is expected to fly 200 km (125 miles) at nearly twice the speed. The AutoFlight V2000CG CarryAll eVTOL aircraft is the world's first large eVTOL aircraft certified with all three key airworthiness approvals, shown here on July 22, 2025 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Yin Liqin/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images) China News Service via Getty Images A third Chinese eVTOL company to highlight is AutoFlight, based in Shanghai. Its five-seat V2000EM Prosperity eVTOL is still undergoing certification, but the cargo version, the V2000CG CarryAll, has are completed it. The CAAC granted AutoFlight the TC and PC for the unmanned CarryAll last year, and received its AC in July 2025. These were the world’s first certifications for a large eVTOL. The V2000CG has a maximum takeoff weight of 2,000 kg (4,400 lb), a maximum payload of 400 kg (880 lb), and can fly up to 250 km (155 miles) at 200 km/h (125 mph). AutoFlight recently made a 1-hour flight to a Chinese oil platform 150 km (93 miles) offshore — a 10-hour journey by boat. Numerous other companies have also begun the process of certification through CAAC for their eVTOL aircraft. China may not have as rigorous flight safety standards as Western civil aviation authorities, but the CAAC certifications allow AutoFlight and EHang to begin operations and further refine their products. Although CAAC certifications generally aren’t accepted outside of the China-aligned countries, future products could be developed that meet US or European standards. The Great eVTOL Leap Forward The Aerofugia AE200 — shown at the groundbreaking ceremony for Aerofugia's Global Headquarters Base in December 2024 in Chengdu, China — is just one of scores of new Chinese eVTOL aircraft in development. (Photo by Liu Zhongjun/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images) China News Service via Getty Images eVTOL developments in the US and Germany began more than 15 years ago with leaders like Joby, Volocopter and Wisk, with hundreds of additional companies jumping on the eVTOL bandwagon by 2020. The VFS eVTOL Directory now tallies over 1,150 different concepts by more than 400 companies and organizations, though most are long gone. After years of technology and regulatory development in Europe and North America, only a handful of serious eVTOL companies remain, most having run out of funding. With support from many levels of the Chinese government — as well as corporate investments, private fundraising and universities — scores of new startups and established aviation and drone companies are tackling the eVTOL challenge. This provides a strong basis for experimentation and demonstrations of various configurations, although getting a low cost testbed off the ground is only a first — and sometimes misleading — step towards the incredibly high levels of safety required for carrying paying members of the public. However, Chinese consumer and commercial drones dominate the world market due to their high capabilities at low cost — aerospace labor in China typically costs only one-sixth that of Western workers. This could enable Chinese eVTOL developments to leap ahead in future generations of electric aircraft. The enthusiasm and creativity exhibited to date, combined with the impressive strides by the three Chinese companies highlighted here, show that China has the capacity to excel locally in the next few years, followed by possible expansion to Western markets in the years to follow — just as Chinese EVs, after a slow start, now outsell the rest of the world combined. In the coming decades, this may become the case for Chinese eVTOL aircraft as well. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions
