XPeng has worked on the project for about 10 years, including trials of flying motorbikes at its base in Guangzhou. China's civil aviation authorities have approved the craft for limited use.
People in China could begin taking trips in so-called flying cars as soon as next summer, XPeng has said, after civil aviation authorities cleared a two-seat model with autopilot for limited use.
The cockpit is about the size of a Fiat 500. Six battery-powered propellers, similar to those on a drone, lift the vehicle, and the pilot steers it with a simple joystick.
It can cruise as high as 1 kilometre above the ground, well below the height of an unpressurised light aircraft such as a Cessna.
Flights will be allowed only in approved park areas in China, and for emergency crews that need to reach places that are otherwise inaccessible.
Zhao, who said his firm was one of about 20 in China working on flying vehicles, said no one had yet been injured using the craft. Although it is described as a car, it has no wheels and is better understood as a helicopter-style drone, he said.
The vehicle can also fly on its own to a programmed destination. Zhao, a trained pilot, said he could teach someone to fly it in five minutes.
XPeng's craft has a narrow role for now, confined to those approved sites and to emergency work rather than ordinary city travel.