China's mature automotive industry could provide a powerful foundation for the country's emerging low-altitude economy, according to a senior official from the China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC). Speaking at the 2026 Taida Forum on September 18, Ren ShuoJin, head of the new project promotion department at CATARC's Tianjin testing center, outlined how automakers and regulators can accelerate the development of flying cars and other low-altitude aircraft.
Ren noted that the low-altitude economy product lineup is expanding, with flying cars and consumer drones gradually moving toward real-world deployment. As competition intensifies in the auto sector, mainstream carmakers including Changan, GAC, Chery and FAW have all entered the field of land-air amphibious flying vehicles, seeking a second growth curve. This trend, he said, confirms that the auto and low-altitude aircraft industries have the basis and potential for deep integration, according to the report from Gasgoo, a Chinese automotive news outlet.
Regulatory and technical gaps
Ren highlighted key differences in oversight between the two sectors. The auto industry is managed by multiple ministries with a mature market-access system and rapid product iteration cycles. In contrast, airworthiness certification for low-altitude aircraft is concentrated under the civil aviation system, with regulators involved throughout a longer process that follows a design-approval-then-production model—fundamentally different from the auto industry's approval-before-production logic.
Testing standards also diverge. Cars are assessed mainly at the whole-vehicle safety level, while low-altitude aircraft require safety verification across every level, from materials and components to the complete aircraft. They also face additional checks for high-altitude, low-temperature, icing, sand-dust and mold conditions, making their test standards considerably stricter.
Shared components and infrastructure
Despite these differences, Ren stressed that the two industries are highly interconnected. The component overlap rate between cars and low-altitude aircraft reaches 70%, he said. Technologies in electrification, intelligence and lightweight construction can be reused across both sectors, and the industries can share charging, communication and regulatory infrastructure to build a three-dimensional transport system through ground-air coordination.
To speed up commercial deployment, Ren proposed four collaborative measures: establishing a low-altitude equipment testing alliance, bringing mature automotive testing systems into the low-altitude field, building public service and pilot-scale platforms for the low-altitude industry, and leveraging automakers' large-scale manufacturing capabilities to accelerate aircraft production.
CATARC has already built low-altitude testing capabilities, using its own proving grounds, dedicated airspace and complete test equipment to cover more than 90% of national standard test items. The center has provided technical testing services to several low-altitude companies, helping to standardize and scale the industry.
