Suzuki SkyDrive Flying Car: The flying car that Suzuki is making in collaboration with SkyDrive will be fully automatic. It will have many automatic functions so that it will do many tasks on its own. The company will manufacture 100 electric flying cars (eVOTL), also known as Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), every year.
Work on making flying cars is going on all over the world. Flying cars are close to becoming a reality in India too. Suzuki Motor Corporation has started the production of flying car in collaboration with Skydrive Inc. It is being produced at Suzuki’s manufacturing plant in Iwata city of Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. This plant can make 100 electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) flying cars in a year. Flying cars are completely electric and automatic.
Flying car is also known as Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) or Urban Air Mobility (UAM). In June 2023, Suzuki and Skydrive signed a manufacturing cooperation contract for the production of the Skydrive (SD-05 type) through Skydrive’s subsidiary Sky Works Inc.
Suzuki-Skydrive flying car
eVTOL flying car is an electric powered drone with automatic features like autopilot. The Skydrive e-VTOL is a compact, three-seat drone that generally operates like a helicopter. It is capable of landing and taking off straight.
The range of this flying car will be 15 minutes, that is, it will cover a distance of about 15 km in 15 minutes. At the same time, its top speed is 100 km per hour. The company is trying to increase its range to 40 km.
The demand for personal transport has been at its peak in recent years. Due to this, heavy traffic has increased in urban areas. However, air taxis could be the future of public transport to make it easier to move between cities without bypassing traffic.
These companies are in the queue
Apart from Suzuki and Skydrive, other auto makers are also trying to make flying cars or air taxis. The first company is PAL-V Liberty, which sold the first commercial flying car in 2017 for 4,25,000 pounds (about Rs 3.52 crore).
After this comes the number of Korean car company Hyundai. Hyundai is preparing to launch air taxi in 2028. Like SkyDrive, Hyundai’s flying car is also based on the e-VTOL concept. But five people can sit in this mini aircraft.
Another flying car prototype is Aircar, which was designed by Nitra-based Klein Vision in 2022. Two passengers can sit in it. It can fly at an air speed of about 190 km per hour and at a height of more than 8,000 feet. This flying car gives a range of 1,000 km with a 300hp, 1.6 liter BMW engine.
flying car in india
Skydrive will also launch flying car in India. The company had introduced the flying car at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024. Apart from this, Skydrive Inc. also announced an agreement with the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to test flying cars in Gujarat by 2027.
As per the cooperation agreement with DST, apart from tests, Skydrive is also planning to create business opportunities. Japanese aircraft company has signed an MoU with Cyient for Skydrive flying car in India. Cyient is a Hyderabad based Indian company which will provide technology support to SkyDrive.