Suzuki teams up with a Japanese start-up to build flying cars

Thursday, 24 March 2022

SkyDrive’s prototype vertical take off and landing (VTOL) aircraft.

Suzuki has signed a deal with Japanese startup SkyDrive to research, develop and market electric flying cars.

The announcement from Suzuki said that the two companies will initially focus on India for sales, before expanding to other markets, although it didn’t give a date for the start of sales. Suzuki will invest US$1.37 billion (NZ$1.96 billion) in its India factory to produce electric vehicles and batteries.

Flying cars are real. Watch the AirCar in action.

SkyDrive has committed to beginning air taxi service during the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, Japan, as well as to initiate service in other regions of Japan. It is unclear if this will be before or after Indian sales begin.

A two-seater electric VTOL aircraft is currently under development at SkyDrive, with plans for full-scale production. The statement did not say if Suzuki would contribute to this model.

**READ MORE:

Suzuki wants to market in India first, where it holds the lion’s share of the car market.

* An ultra-lightweight EV and a flying car?

* A flying car has completed an inter-city journey for the first time

Chinese manufacturer Xpeng also has flying car aspirations.

* Five Suzuki milestone moments

While all the details of the partnership weren’t revealed, Suzuki said it would allow “opportunities to explore and potentially add flying cars as a fourth mobility business.”

The two Japanese manufacturers aren’t the only ones working on flying cars. In July last year, the ‘AirCar’ completed 141 successful landings prior to an inter-city journey between Nitra and Bratislavia in Slovakia.

AirCar Prototype 1 uses a 120kW BMW-sourced engine paired with a fixed propeller and a ballistic parachute. Under the supervision of the Civil Aviation Authority, the AirCar has completed over 40 hours of test flights, including steep 45 degree turns and stability and manoeuvrability testing.

The prototype flew at heights of 2.5km and reached a maximum cruising speed of 190kmh.

Meanwhile, over in China, EV maker Xpeng has unveiled a design for a new flying car that will begin mass production by 2024 and cost around $200,000. Well, so they say. It is currently still just a rendering.

It will work by simply bolting two propeller-wielding foldable arms to a car. When extended, they offer a wingspan of about 12 metres. By the looks of the images, the flying car manoeuvres a bit like a helicopter.

The design comes from HT Aero, an “urban air mobility” company with ties to Xpeng that pulled US$500 million in funding last week. To date, it has penned six generations of flying passenger vehicles and sold precisely zero.