Deli Zhao

Deli Zhao is the founder and CEO of Xpeng AeroHT (小鹏汇天), the flying-car unit of Xpeng Motors. He first succeeded in test-flying a self-built flying motorbike in June 2018 after more than 1,500 trials, a period during which his team had shrunk to just himself and one engineer . In October 2021, 5Y Capital led a Series A round of over $500 million into Xpeng AeroHT, with Zhao stating the capital would accelerate R&D, talent recruitment, and airworthiness certification . By late 2024, he had launched a "5,000 km executive test flight" program and was preparing for a public debut of the "Land Aircraft Carrier" modular flying car at that November's China Airshow . As of August 2025, Zhao announced that Xpeng AeroHT had entered "large-scale test flight" phase, with its first mass-production factory structurally completed and targeting production launch in Q4 2025 .