Credit: www.aerofugia.com

BEIJING, July 3 (TMTPost) —— Aerofugia Technology Company, the aviation arm of Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group focusing on the development of flying cars, has completed a Series A financing of over 100 million yuan.

The financing was led by TH Capital, followed by Oriza Holdings, Honghua Airlines, and other investment institutions, which was also the first market-based financing for Aerofugia, according to an annoucement made last Friday. 

The funds will be used for the continued research and development of the AE200 flying car, a five- to six-seat flying car being developed by Aerofugia.

The leading investor, TH Capital’s Hualong Airlines, is one of the largest business aviation companies in the Asia-Pacific region. According to Aerofugia, Hualong Airlines has experience in business aircraft operations and can provide support for the continued airworthiness of the AE200. Meanwhile, Hualong Airlines' market scale and strengths in end users can accelerate the applications of the AE200 flying car in more commercial scenarios. "In the future, we will introduce more upstream and downstream resources in the industry chain," said Guo Liang, the CEO of Aerofugia.

The flying car, also known as the electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL), is expected to build urban air transportation networks to solve the problem of traffic congestion in large cities.

Tencent invested an additional $100 million in German flying car company Lilium through its subsidiary Aceville Pte on May 1. Chinese startup flying car company Zero Gravity Aircraft Industry (Hefei) Co., Ltd. announced on June 20 the recent completion of an angel round of funding of nearly 100 million yuan, jointly led by Lenovo Capital and QF Capital, with follow-on investment from Hefang Capital.

Geely is the earliest Chinese car company to bring flying cars into China. In November 2017, Geely acquired 100% of U.S. company Terrafugia to turn it into its wholly-owned subsidiary. In September 2020, Geely set up Aerofugia based on the Terrafugia project and started to develop a pure electric flying car capable of vertical takeoff and landing.

Aerofugia's AE200 flying car completed its first flight test in January 2023 and is currently undergoing airworthiness certification, with the commercial application remaining to be realized. Airworthiness certification is a technical review of aircraft safety by civil aviation regulators and a prerequisite for the commercial application of flying cars.

Flying cars are new to the aviation industry, and civil aviation regulators around the world are exploring airworthiness certification standards for flying cars.

Airworthiness certification for the AE200 flying car began in April 2023. Aerofugia is expected to obtain airworthiness certification and the launch of the product between 2025 and 2026. In addition to the AE200 flying car which is under development, Aerofugia has also established a joint venture with Volocopeter, a German flying car company, to introduce Volocopeter's flying cars to the Chinese market.

Car companies are keen on flying car research and development. Like electric cars, flying cars also have motors, batteries, and electric controls as core components and car companies have supply chain advantages.

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