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Today (August 5), Xiaopeng Huitian announced that it has received US$150 million in B1 round financing to ensure the smooth development and large-scale mass production of Xiaopeng Huitian's flying cars.

Recently, a number of low-altitude economy companies, including Fengfei Aviation and Volant Aviation, have announced the completion of a new round of financing, and the industry's investment and financing enthusiasm has clearly increased. Institutional sources believe that the low-altitude economy industry is in a period of "policy + accelerated commercialization of new products", and industrialization and commercialization are gradually approaching.

Promote mass production and commercialization

Today, Xpeng Huitian announced that it had received US$150 million in B1 round financing and also launched B2 round financing.

Xiaopeng Huitian responded to the media that the company currently has sufficient funds and this round of financing will mainly be used for the research and development, mass production and commercialization of flying cars. Xiaopeng Huitian did not disclose the financing valuation and investors as usual.

"Our flying car mass production factory with an annual output of 10,000 units is about to start construction, the land-based aircraft carrier is about to be released, and reservations will be accepted in the fourth quarter. The research and development of the next generation of ultra-long-range products is in full swing. Xiaopeng Huitian is helping China's low-altitude economy." Xiaopeng Huitian CEO Zhao Deli introduced.

It has been nearly three years since Xpeng Huitian's Series A financing. On October 19, 2021, on the eve of Xpeng Motors' 1024 Technology Day, Xpeng Huitian announced that it had completed a round A financing of over US$500 million, with a pre-investment valuation of over US$1 billion, setting a record for the largest single financing amount for a company in the field of low-altitude manned aircraft in Asia at that time.

IDG Capital, 5Y Capital, and Xpeng Motors led the investment, with Sequoia Capital, Eastern Bell Ventures, GGV, Hillhouse Capital, Yunfeng Capital and other funds following suit.

After completing a new round of financing, Xiaopeng Huitian updated its mass production and commercialization schedule today.

In terms of commercialization, the flying car "land aircraft carrier" is planned to start pre-sales in the fourth quarter of this year. This timetable is consistent with the statement made by Wang Tan, vice president of Xiaopeng Huitian, at CES in North America in January this year.

Xiaopeng Huitian's "Land Aircraft Carrier" adopts a split design, which divides the flying car into two parts: the land body and the flying body, which can be automatically separated and combined. The land body can completely store the flying body inside the car and drive on the ground. It is understood that the Guangzhou Auto Show to be held in the fourth quarter may be the time to start pre-sale of the "Land Aircraft Carrier".

In terms of large-scale mass production, Xiaopeng Huitian is about to build a flying car factory in the Guangzhou Development Zone, which will first be used to produce the flying body of the split flying car "land aircraft carrier". Xiaopeng Huitian will position the factory as "the world's first flying car factory using modern assembly lines for large-scale mass production."

In addition, Xiaopeng Huitian is also promoting the layout of the national flying car application network. So far, it has successfully signed contracts with nearly 60 flight camps, including general aviation airports, scenic spots, cultural and tourism towns, urban suburbs and other types, with the goal of providing users with safe and compliant flying space.

CATL enters the market

Prior to this round of financing by Xiaopeng Huitian, the latest investment and financing event in the eVTOL track occurred the day before yesterday. This is also the largest investment and financing in the eVTOL track this year, with an amount of "hundreds of millions of dollars" and the party involved is CATL, which is in the spotlight of A-shares.

On August 3, CATL and Fengfei Aviation signed a strategic investment and cooperation agreement. CATL invested hundreds of millions of dollars to become the exclusive strategic investor of Fengfei Aviation. CATL will cooperate with Fengfei Aviation to focus on the research and development of eVTOL aviation batteries.

Fengfei Aviation was established in 2017. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has accepted the application for the company's manned aircraft Shengshilong TC and has officially started the type certification work. The company is promoting product research and development and commercialization.

Li Lujing, an analyst at Founder Securities, said that CATL had previously made progress in civilian electric manned aircraft. The cooperation between the two parties is expected to solve the battery problems such as insufficient battery life that are common in eVTOLs, lead the overall technical capabilities of eVTOL aircraft to new heights, and significantly accelerate the development of the low-altitude economy.

Volant Aviation, which completed its latest round of "A+++ round of financing" in July, is the eVTOL company that has completed the most financing rounds this year. On July 5, Volant Aviation announced the successful completion of a 100 million yuan financing exclusively invested by Legend Capital. This is the fourth round of 100 million yuan financing completed by Volant Aviation since 2024. Founded in June 2021, Volant Aviation is also currently committed to promoting airworthiness certification and achieving commercialization as soon as possible.

Since the beginning of this year, the investment and financing activities in the low-altitude economy have clearly heated up. Taking the core eVTOL track as an example, according to incomplete statistics from reporters, there have been more than 10 financing events in the domestic eVTOL field this year, and the invested companies include mainstream domestic eVTOL companies such as Fengfei Aviation, Wofei Changkong, Volant, and Shi Technology. In comparison, IT Orange data shows that there have been 21 investment and financing events in the domestic eVTOL field from 2021 to 2023.

While financing for the eVTOL track continues to heat up, industrial policies have emerged in an endless stream since the low-altitude economy was first written into the government work report this year and defined as a "new growth engine."

The "Opinions of the State Council on Promoting High-Quality Development of Service Consumption" issued on August 3 is the latest central document mentioning the low-altitude economy. The opinions propose to encourage the development of new business forms such as cruise ships, yachts, RV camping, and low-altitude flights.

The implementation of local policies is more intensive. The conference on high-quality development of low-altitude economy held in Shenzhen on August 2 revealed that by the end of 2025, Shenzhen will have built more than 1,000 low-altitude aircraft take-off and landing platforms and more than 1,000 routes, achieving internationally advanced low-altitude flight service guarantees.

With active investment and financing and intensive supporting policies, many institutions believe that the low-altitude economic industry is currently in a new round of multiple policy catalysis period.

Deng Wei, an analyst at Huafu Securities, believes that with the introduction of more short-term, quantitative-oriented policy plans, bidding and order implementation, the industrialization and commercialization of the low-altitude economy is gradually approaching. Wang Fenghua, an analyst at Northeast Securities, believes that the low-altitude economy industry is in a period of dual resonance of "policy + accelerated commercialization of new products", and the industry is ready to go and deserves attention.

Editor: Chen Lixiang

Proofreader: Yang Lilin