XPENG Creates A Land Aircraft Carrier For The Coolest Vehicle At CES 2025

There were many wild things at CES this year, ranging from robots that looked more human than ever before to a $20K massage chair that could also do physical therapy to a wide variety of autonomous vehicles. But perhaps the wildest vehicle at the show was the electric Land Aircraft Carrier from XPENG of China, which blended a custom 6-wheel electric van with a spare flying car.

While this looks like something they might have used in a James Bond movie, the company plans to bring this combination vehicle to the market for around $280K, or about the price of a mid-range supercar. While it isn’t very practical, neither are supercars. This would be for the person who wants to impress people at a car show or a desert location where you can fly personal flying vehicles.

Due to customers next in 2026, it begins full-scale testing this fall, and it is one of the most incredibly amazing and impractical vehicles I’ve ever seen. This doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want one; I can’t figure out what argument I could use for my wife to let me buy one.

The Van (Aircraft Carrier)

The Van-like aircraft carrier is impressive in and of itself, as it has 3-axles, six wheels, and a hybrid range of around 620 miles. It is designed to work predominantly with the flying module, which can capture or release with one button pushed on the Van’s dash. The Van will also recharge the aircraft component from 30% to 80% in just 18 minutes, which can extend dramatically the time you can fly the aircraft component. It measures 18’ long, 6’ wide, and 6’ high to fit in most parking garages and garages.

Being predominantly electric with 6-wheel drive means this vehicle should be reasonably good offroad allowing you to go to remote places to fly the aircraft component.

Human Carrying Drone

The drone part of this vehicle solution carries two passengers and uses a six-rotor dual duct design and a panoramic view cabin; it can be recharged up to 6 times from the Van if the Van stars with a full tank and battery. It has a redundant flying system, so the aircraft won’t fall out of the sky if the primary system fails. 

This is a human-carrying drone, so flying it is exceedingly simple and uses a single stick to control the aircraft. The aircraft can also fly autonomously. The expected flight time is around 15 minutes, so short scenic flights would be the goal.

Uses

I can see several interesting uses for this. It would be the ultimate vacation fun vehicle because it can fly over things to get to unique remote destinations. You could use it as a limited rescue vehicle where you could drive into an area with poor access, deploy the drone, and have it fly with a first responder to the person being rescued or if we were talking about a lost couple in a remote area, it could be flown to them autonomously and then used to fly them out together. 

It could also be used for short hops to locate a person or pet lost in a remote area and retrieve them from that location. And finally, it could ferry people up mountains so they can sky down them in areas with decent runs but no ski lifts. Two people could ride it up, send it autonomously back to the aircraft carrier van, ski down, and then, after recharging the aircraft, ride it back to the top again for up to 6 runs before you’d need to fill up the Van’t tank.

Wrapping Up:

While I struggle with the practicality of this Aircraft Carrier + Human Carrying Done vehicle, it is incredibly innovative, and the fact they’ve made it so one person could operate both vehicles is brilliant because I can see people buying these and then going places solo to explore them or to impress people at the destination. (Imagine this at a high school or family reunion; you’d certainly stand out).

This is just the beginning of a wave of new innovative vehicles being enabled by advancements in EV technology, and I’m looking forward to seeing what other amazing vehicles XPENG comes up with.

Rob Enderle is a technology analyst covering automotive technology and battery developments at Torque News. You can learn more about Rob on Wikipedia and follow his articles on Forbes, X, and LinkedIn.