Asia Tech Wire (Aug 5) -- Chinese battery giant CATL has agreed to invest in a flying car startup as the low-altitude economy takes off in China.

CATL signed a strategic investment and partnership agreement with Chinese flying car startup AutoFlight on Saturday.

The battery maker exclusively invested hundreds of millions of dollars to become a strategic investor in AutoFlight.

Founded in 2017, AutoFlight was one of the first Chinese companies to venture into the field of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

The eVTOL aircraft, also known as a flying car, mainly targets the demand for short-haul flights within and between cities.

For this cooperation, AutoFlight said it will work with CATL on the long-term development of eVTOL batteries.

CATL has said that battery performance is one of the key factors restricting the development of flying cars at present, requiring high safety and high energy density batteries, which is what the company's battery technology and products are best at.

(Reporting by Jacky Ling; Editing by Christina Zheng)