01/12/2025

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | DEC 1, 2025

/thesuntelegram FOLLOW / Malaysian Paper

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China’s flying car sector takes off

o Companies building on EV prowess and govt support GUANGZHOU: A worker in white gloves inspects the propellers of a boxy two-seater aircraft fresh off the assembly line at a Chinese factory trialling the mass production of flying cars. Globally, technical and regulatory challenges have prevented the much-hyped flying car sector from getting off the ground. But Chinese companies are building on rapid development of drones and electric vehicles (EVs) in the world’s second-largest economy, while harnessing government support for the futuristic inventions. “China has the potential to establish a competitive edge” for flying cars, said Zhang Yangjun, a professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Vehicle and Mobility. “Future competition will increasingly hinge upon cost control and supply-chain efficiency, and these are areas where China holds clear advantages,” he told AFP. At the brightly lit factory in the southern industrial heartland of Guangzhou, logistics robots zip around ferrying unfinished parts. The lightweight six-propeller aircraft under construction take off vertically and fit into a large car, to create the “Land Aircraft Carrier” – a modular flying vehicle made by Aridge, an arm of Chinese EV maker XPeng. The flying part is stored and charged in a wheeled on-land vehicle dubbed “the mothership”. At full capacity, the Aridge factory can churn out one every 30 minutes. It began its trial production phase early last month and the company plans to start deliveries next year, saying it has had more than 7,000 pre-orders. But there is a long way to go before flying cars are whizzing through the air every day. “Regulations, the consumer’s comfort with this product, and also how you manage airspaces, your supply chains, all need to catch up gradually,” Aridge vice-president Michael Du told reporters at a recent event. Competition is heating up among global tech giants over the future of aerial mobility, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk teasing the debut of a flying car prototype within weeks. “If you took all the James Bond cars and combined them, it’s crazier than that,” Musk told the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. American aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss debuted the first flying car prototype in 1917. SEOUL: South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang said personal information from 33.7 million of its customer accounts was exposed via unauthorised data access. Coupang, dubbed the Amazon.com of South Korea, is the country’s top online retailer with its services ubiquitous for many Koreans using its “Rocket” fast deliveries. “Subsequent investigation has revealed that the extent of customer account exposure is about 33.7 million accounts, all in Korea,” the company said in a statement on Saturday, adding that it became aware of the data breach on Nov 18 and reported the case to authorities. Its product commerce active customers reached 24.7 million in the third quarter, the company announced earlier. The case is the latest in a series of data leaks at major South Korean companies such as SK Telecom.

Employees work on the Land Aircraft Carrier assembly line at an Aridge factory in Guangzhou. – AFPPIC

But successful designs have only become possible in recent years as electric motors and high-performance batteries have advanced. Major players in the sector have conducted manned test flights, including California-based companies Joby and Archer, as well as Aridge, EHang and Volant in China. This year EHang became the world’s first flying car company to be fully approved for commercial operation, something Aridge has yet to achieve. EHang plans to introduce an air taxi service, priced similarly to a premium road taxi, within three years. “Flying cars remain at an early developmental stage,” said Zhang, who edited a white paper on China’s flying car industry. A former Chinese employee at Coupang is suspected to be behind the breach but that ex-worker has left the country, Yonhap News Agency reported yesterday, without citing sources. Coupang sent a complaint to police this month, so police are conducting an investigation, Yonhap said. Coupang was not immediately reachable for comment on the report outside business hours. The exposed data is limited to names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses, and certain order histories, but does not include payment details or login credentials, the firm said. The unauthorised access to personal information was believed to have started on June 24 through overseas servers, Coupang said. The investigation is still under way and the company continues to work with law enforcement and regulatory authorities, the company added. – Reuters

He still sees the sector as worthy of long-term endeavour, and authorities agree. Beijing has named the “low-altitude economy” – flying cars, drones and air taxis – as a strategic field for the next five years, seeking to accelerate their development. Provincial governments from Guangdong to Sichuan have pledged to loosen restrictions. A Boston Consulting Group report said China’s flying car market is approaching “a critical inflection point”, and predicted it will be worth US$41 billion (RM169 billion) by 2040. However, the sector has struggled to find viable business models elsewhere, with several high-profile insolvencies in Europe,

and leading US players burning through cash with plans for mass production yet to materialise. Direct comparisons between the sector in China and other international markets is tricky. But “in terms of the EV supply chain, China is far in the lead”, said Brandon Wang, a Beijing-based investor whose portfolio includes AI, robotics and flying cars. Flying cars can use EV parts once they are certified for aviation use, which may help Chinese companies scale up. China also has an “engineer dividend” that allows its companies to quickly solve technical issues in the production process, Wang added. – AFP certain export restrictions on the key rare-earth sector for one year. China would also resume purchases of US soybeans after orders came to a halt this harvest season, according to Trump. Meanwhile, the non-manufacturing PMI, which measures activity in sectors including services and construction, was 49.5 in November, marking the first contraction in nearly three years. That was partly attributable the “fading holiday effect” after the end of China’s “Golden Week” National Day holiday in October, NBS statistician Huo Lihui said in a statement. Weakness in the real estate and residential services sectors also helped drag the figure down 0.6 percentage points from October. Despite signs of weakness, the Chinese economy remains on course to hit its annual growth target of around 5% this year.– AFP

South Korea’s Coupang says 33.7m customer accounts breached

Chinese factory activity extends months-long slump BEIJING: China’s factory activity shrank for an eighth straight month in November, official data showed yesterday, suggesting the world’s second-largest economy remains subdued despite a trade truce with the US.

The manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) – a key measure of industrial health – was 49.2 in November, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). That marked an improvement from 49 recorded in October but remained below the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction. The reading missed a median forecast of 49.4 from a Bloomberg survey of economists. The figure comes after Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump met in South Korea in October and agreed on a temporary truce in their bruising trade war. Trump said he would halve a 20% tariff on Chinese goods and Xi agreed to suspend