China’s aviation regulator placed XPeng subsidiary Aridge on its inaugural fast-track list for manned electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, a move that shortens the path to commercial deployment for the company’s modular flying car.
The Airworthiness Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) published the First Batch of Civil Manned eVTOL Airworthiness Certification Compliance Enterprise List, selecting four companies for streamlined certification.
XPeng‘s founder and CEO He Xiaopeng confirmed the inclusion in a Weibo post on Wednesday.
“Let’s continue working hard, with safety and innovation as our priorities,” he wrote.
Aridge appears on the CAAC list under its legal name, ‘XPENG AEROHT Aviation Technology Co., Ltd.’
Aridge originated in 2013 and was formally established in 2020 as the majority-owned technology division of XPeng.
The unit has raised about $1 billion in equity financing and is actively preparing for an initial public offering in Hong Kong.
The unit rebranded to Aridge in October 2025 and was part of last week’s Brand event the company held in Munich, Germany, in front of 1,500 guests.
Joining Aridge on the list are EHang Intelligent Equipment, Volant Aviation Technology and CATL-backed AutoFlight Aviation Technology.
Regulatory Benefits
Companies on the compliance list will receive three forms of preferential treatment: simplified airworthiness certification procedures, priority processing of certification application materials and mutual recognition of phased test results across different certification batches.
The measures are designed to compress the airworthiness certification timeline and accelerate commercial rollout, the CAAC said.
The new framework marks a shift in China’s eVTOL airworthiness oversight from a uniform review system toward a tiered certification process.
Leading compliant companies are expected to see faster certification progress and could be the first to achieve commercial deployment.
Certification Progress
Aridge is advancing airworthiness certification for the air module of its Land Aircraft Carrier, a modular flying car consisting of a six-wheeled ground vehicle and a two-seat aircraft that can be stored inside it.
The CAAC accepted the Production Certificate application for the flying body in mid-May 2025, roughly a year after accepting the Type Certificate application.
Inclusion on the compliance list allows Aridge to benefit from simplified procedures and carry over phased test results rather than repeating them in subsequent certification rounds.
Production and Order Book
Aridge produced the first flying unit of the Land Aircraft Carrier at its Guangzhou factory in November 2025.
The facility spans roughly 120,000 square metres and is what the company calls the world’s first factory using modern assembly lines for mass-producing flying cars.
Initial annual production capacity stands at 5,000 units, expanding to 10,000 at full output — a rate Aridge says translates to one aircraft every 30 minutes.
The Land Aircraft Carrier will be priced at less than 2 million yuan ($295,600), Aridge‘s founder and president Zhao Deli announced at a press conference in September 2024 alongside a 2026 mass production timeline.
Last January, Aridge unveiled three exterior colours for the carrier vehicle — Stellar Silver, Moonrock Gray and Supernova White — in a marketing push that mirrored pre-launch campaigns typical of the automotive industry.
XPeng‘s founder He Xiaopeng said during the Beijing Auto Show in April that the product had received more than 7,000 pre-orders.
Product Lines
XPeng has developed two flying vehicle product lines under Aridge.
The Land Aircraft Carrier is designed for personal low-altitude flight experiences.
A second model, the A868 eVTOL, targets multi-passenger, long-range transportation across a range of low-altitude mobility scenarios.
Aridge conducted the world’s first public manned flight of the modular Land Aircraft Carrier at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai in November 2024.
The fully automated demonstration showcased the flying and carrier modules autonomously separating and reconnecting.
Overseas Push
Beyond domestic certification, Aridge has been building an international footprint.
Parent company XPeng secured 600 pre-orders for the Land Aircraft Carrier through a deal with the Almana Group in Qatar in late 2025.
Aridge also obtained a manned flight permit in the UAE in September 2025, marking the first overseas manned flight authorization for a Chinese flying car company.
Last week, the Land Aircraft Carrier made its European debut alongside XPeng‘s L03 launch event in Munich.
On the supplier side, Autoliv signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Aridge to develop safety solutions for eVTOL vehicles.
XPeng‘s mass-produced robotaxi shares the same VLA 2.0 large-model foundation as the Land Aircraft Carrier and the company’s IRON humanoid robot, with all three product categories drawing on common technical foundations in computer vision and large language models.
