The official groundbreaking for a manufacturing facility for Xpeng Aeroht's flying car takes place in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province on October 27, 2024. Photo: VCG

The official groundbreaking for a manufacturing facility for Xpeng Aeroht's flying car took place on Sunday in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province. The site will produce the "Land Aircraft Carrier," a land-air split-type flying car, with a planned annual capacity of 10,000 vehicles. It is the world's first modern assembly line dedicated to the mass production of flying cars, the company said on its website on Sunday.

The first phase of the plant will cover 180,000 square meters, and it will have four workshops covering materials, joint, paint and the general assembly process.

Xpeng Aeroht said on its website that the manufacturing base will have better quality consistency, lower costs and shorter delivery cycles compared with traditional aviation manufacturing, contributing to the integrated development of the new-energy vehicle industry and the low-altitude industry.

The move comes as provinces across China ramp up efforts to develop the low-altitude economy, an emerging business.

About 70 companies listed in China's A-share market are engaged in business related to flying cars, and industry observers put the market size for flying cars in China at $22 billion in 2023, with annual growth of 29.41 percent, according to a report by the Securities Daily on October 23.

China's low-altitude economy, which encompasses industries operating in airspace below 1,000 meters, is undergoing rapid development. As of end-September, China had 2.05 million registered drones and more than 17,000 certified companies operating drones. Drones are increasingly used in new applications such as express parcel delivery, tourism and air sports, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday.