Have you ever been stuck in traffic and wished your car grew wings so that you could just fly away from the gridlock? That dream might be closer to reality than you think.
Enter the XPeng X2. To jog your memory, it is an electric two-seater car, built out of carbon fiber. Manufactured by the Chinese-company XPeng, it also has the ability to take flight. Yup, you heard that right.
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After making its aerial debut in Dubai in 2022 and then going on a world tour of auto shows, the X2 appeared at the Syndey International EV Auto Show earlier this week, with XPeng announcing plans to launch it to the Australian market.
TrueEV (the official distributor of XPeng in Australia) CEO Jason Clarke also announced that the X2 would cost around AUD200,000 (P7.6 million) and they’re now accepting orders. Although he did not mention exactly how TrueEV will take orders, or when units will arrive.
It all seems to be up in the air for Australia’s flying car market, but another question must be asked: Would the XPeng X2 work as a daily driver in the Philippines?
Usually when we hear about flying cars, sequences of wheels retracting and wings expanding from underneath a sedan or SUV come to mind. The XPeng X2, however, is grounded in reality as it does not have any wheels and its eight rotors are fixed. With the X2, it’s not so much about flying out of traffic, but avoiding clogged roads altogether.
Being a low-altitude flying machine, the X2 would be cruising in between or just above the skylines of Makati, Ortigas, and other central business districts. It is hard to imagine the X2 being used outside the city, given its 75km (or 30 minutes) flying range. Range anxiety on the road is one thing, and probably a totally different horror when up in the air. The X2 does come standard with parachutes, though.
During its showcase in Dubai, the X2 was able to run a fully autonomous flight around the city and safely land after. As sketchy as self-driving features and fully autonomous driving modes seem within the context of Philippine roads and traffic, having a quick automated flight on your way to work does sound better than spending hours stuck in a bumper-to–bumper standstill.
Presently, there may be more important applications for flying cars rather than commutes between home and the office—emergency evacuation and medical transport, for example. As the Philippines is still developing an ecosystem to make EV driving as accessible as it can be, while continuously figuring out ways to decongest highways and roads, perhaps now is not the right time to order a XPeng X2.
But hey, we can still dream, right?
