“It will be the same with the eVTOL and flying car industry." He cited drones, hoverboards and robot vacuums. “There are a few examples where American companies told us which sector is promising and can make money, and their Chinese counterparts just went and grabbed the market with lower prices," said Warren Zhou, an investor with Decent Capital and backer of TCab Tech. Many are counting on President Xi Jinping’s effort to displace American technology in fields from semiconductors to climate technology to galvanize funding and policy assistance. They nurtured a generation of entrepreneurs and investors trying to replicate the success China’s had with EVs, employing many of the same advantages: an extensive supply chain, vast pool of skilled labor, giant domestic market and - importantly - official support. and TCab Tech joined the race in about the past half-decade, drawing inspiration from American names such as Joby and Archer. Morgan Stanley analysts say the eVTOL or urban air mobility field could be worth $1 trillion by 2040.Ĭhinese firms including Aeroht, Ehang Holdings Ltd. In ensuing years, the field got increasingly crowded as investors dreamed of bringing a vision that existed only in comic books and sci-fi into reality. (Or, more prosaically, of soaring over what Elon Musk calls “soul-destroying" traffic.) The pursuit of eVTOLs dates back at least a decade, when entrepreneurs dreamed of democratizing the skies. That’s partly because Aeroht can tap Xpeng’s extensive chain of suppliers across China, he said. He envisions a price tag of about 1 million yuan ($140,000), a fraction of Joby’s vehicle ($1.3 million). Founder Zhao said in an interview the car - which sports four electric engines and eight propellers - may go into mass production in 2025. In fact, the model is designed to be driven on the road for more than 90% of the time and only flown when there are traffic jams or obstacles. It looks like a luxury automobile rather than a small plane with wheels, which is some contenders’ approach. While many eVTOLs - electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft - have no wheels and can’t be driven on the ground, the Chinese company’s sixth-generation model is an actual car that also works on the road. The prototype flown in Guangzhou makes Aeroht stand out. “Investing in the flying car industry is a tough marathon." But it could take 10 to 15 years for the market to bloom. Investors want to find “the Tesla of the flying car industry," said Zhang Junyi, a partner at consultancy Oliver Wyman who helped establish investment house Nio Capital. Most investors expect company closures and industry consolidation in the coming years, even as orders gradually increase, according to a study commissioned by Canada’s Horizon Aircraft Inc. Google co-founder Larry Page’s KittyHawk shut in September. wowed investors with multibillion-dollar listings but are now trading near historic lows. Companies including Lilium NV, Joby Aviation Inc. The hype belies the reality that rival startups have grappled with for years. People lined up to snap selfies with its prototype at its stand, the busiest on the floor. The prime minister of the United Arab Emirates stopped by the booth. Aeroht, founded in 2013 by 45-year-old high-school dropout Zhao Deli, was the star exhibitor at GITEX, one of Dubai’s biggest annual trade conferences. "While it sounds like science fiction, it might very well be our daily life in 50 years," he wrote.Some would say it’s far too early for that sort of chutzpah. The challenges might be worth surmounting: An "age of magnetism" could revolutionize the energy industry and help battle climate change, according to a 2018 LinkedIn post by George Sassine, a vice president at New York's State Energy Research and Development Authority. For instance, what happens if a car traveling at high speeds floats off its magnetic track, or is knocked off course by a non-magnetic vehicle? There's also the very difficult issue of infrastructure: Building a nationwide network of electromagnetic highways would likely take years and a massive public investment in any country, notes the AutomoBlog. Researchers have been exploring the potential for maglev cars for more than a decade, with Volkswagen designing a hover car concept in 2012.īut potential safety issues still need to be worked out. The technology has been proposed for hyperloop projects from Elon Musk's The Boring Company and Richard Branson's Virgin Hyperloop One. Theoretically, maglev technology allows for high-speed travel without using as much energy as traditional engine power due to a lack of friction.
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