![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bf483501-389c-4b34-b3f7-882cba88d22a.jpg\")
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The flying car, which can also drive on roads, was inspired by the ‘Back to the Future’ films<\/p>\n
Two flying cars had a mid-air collision in China on Tuesday, causing one to catch fire when it hit the ground.<\/p>\n
The incident, which reportedly left one person injured, took place during a rehearsal for the Changchun Air Show in the north-eastern Jilin Province.<\/p>\n
The Xpeng Aeroht flying cars, or electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, crashed into each other due to \u201cinsufficient spacing\u201d in the sky, according to a company statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll personnel at the scene are safe, and local authorities have completed on-site emergency measurers in an orderly manner,\u201d the statement read, however CNN reported that an unnamed company employee had revealed that one of the pilots sustained minor injuries.<\/p>\n
Videos on social media show appear to show one of the flying cars in flames with smoke billowing from it after crashing to the ground at the airfield.<\/p>\n
Xpeng Aeroht, which is a subsidiary of the Chinese automaker Xpeng, said that an investigation is underway.<\/p>\n
The company said in January that it plans to produce 10,000 flying cars annually from 2026, having already received 3,000 pre-orders.<\/p>\n
Measuring 5.5 metres by 2 metres, the vehicle can fit in a standard parking space, while also being capable of folding up to fit in the boot of a specially designed car called a \u201cLand Aircraft Carrier\u201d.<\/p>\n
The eVTOL industry in China has seen rapid growth in recent years, having received the backing of the country\u2019s Communist Party.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s so-called \u201clow-altitude economy\u201d is forecast to reach a market size of $206 billion this year, according to the country\u2019s civil aviation regulator.<\/p>\n
Other countries are also hoping to launch eVTOL services in 2025, with US-based Archer Aviation recently conducting the first test flights for a flying taxi service in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n
A company spokesperson told The UK Independent last year that its Midnight craft has similar levels of safety to commercial airliners, while also being 100-times quieter than a helicopter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The flying car, which can also drive on roads, was inspired by the ‘Back to the Future’ films…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,898],"class_list":{"0":"post-30636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-latest-news-ticker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}