Suzuki has announced it has partnered up with air mobility startup SkyDrive in a bid to put flying cars in the sky by 2025.
The partnership will see the manufacturer and flying car developers team up in the fields of business and tech, with both companies sharing R&D data, planning of manufacturing and mass-production systems, development of overseas markets and promotion of efforts to attain carbon neutrality.
SkyDrive was created in 2018, with the Japanese company turning heads with its electrical vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The SD-03 eVTOL’s maiden voyage in 2020 was just the beginning, with the air mobility specialists currently designing a two-seat electrically powered flying car. The car is expected to fly off the production line in 2025, just in time for the World Expo in Osaka when it is hoped it can be utilised as an air taxi.
“The company aims to remain indispensable to people by staying closely attuned to lives and providing mobility,” a statement released by Suzuki reads. The plan to begin developing flying cars adds a fourth mobility form for the manufacturer, with Suzuki already producing cars, motorcycles and outboard motors.
Japan has been looking at airspace transportation as a way of mitigating road traffic for sometime. The Japanese Government formed a Council for Air Mobility Revolution in 2018, with the public-private entity looking to provide new forms of transportation in urban and remote areas, as well as new emergency transport.
The country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has created a roadmap for air mobility vehicles to begin business in 2023, with the full scale deployment of flying cars slated for 2030.
Image: Suzuki
