General Motors may break into the burgeoning flying taxi space as it looks for new ways to expand its mobility business.
Speaking during an RBC conference this week, GM CEO Mary Barra said the automaker sees flying cars as a way for it to leverage its new Ultium battery technology.
Mary Barra in 2018
“We believe strongly in our EV future and not just for vehicles,” Barra said, as quoted by Reuters. “The strength and flexibility of our Ultium battery system opens the doors” for a variety of different uses and applications, she explained, “including aerial mobility.”
While GM spokesman Stuart Fowle declined to elaborate on Barra’s flying car statements, he confirmed the space is “an area we’re really excited about and looking at.”
A GM flying car likely wouldn’t be for sale to the general public. It would probably operate in a similar way to the upcoming Cruise Origin robotaxi, instead, picking up customers after they ordered the vehicle and dropping them off at their destination. Unlike an Uber or Lyft, the vehicle probably wouldn’t be operated by private parties, but rather a GM subsidiary like Cruise or some type of outside partner.
Hyundai flying car concept
GM sources close to the matter told Reuters the automaker is weighing up all options when its comes to flying vehicles, including whether to build the vehicles itself, act as a supplier only or to partner with another automaker or start-up on an existing flying car project. A number of other rival automakers have also expressed an interest in the flying vehicle space, including Hyundai, which unveiled a 180-mph flying taxi at CES 2019. The concept vehicle, which was developed in partnership with Uber, has a theoretical range of around 60 miles, can recharge its batteries in 5-7 minutes and is capable of cruising at speeds of 180 mph – though it’s still many years away from being a reality.
GM Ultium batteries
Leading GM’s investigation into the flying car and taxi business is Alan Wexler, who was named its vice president of innovation and growth earlier this year. Wexler is the former Chairman and CEO of digital business transformation firm Publicis Sapient and is tasked with “creating, executing and sustaining overall corporate strategies,” at GM, including “identifying future growth opportunities and driving innovation throughout the company.”
An announcement with regard to GM’s potential new flying car business could be made by as early as Q1 2021, Reuters‘ report indicated.
Comments
This would be an awesome breakthrough for GM overall, the UAE if I’m right, currently has a market for Flying Cars, most notably for Shuttle or Taxi related services, it would be nice to see GM pull this off for Personal and Service related needs at the same time, it would be nice to see a concept display a demonstration of it’s operation if it gets the “Green Light for production.
Sure looks like a helicopter.
GM needs to do a proper flying car, with the 4 wheel’s hubs as air blades for vertical lift and flight. They should also do a aircraft like the one pictured from Hyundai.
What’s the big deal, the Jetson’s had this back in the 1960’s.
CBS had a documentary about flying cars back in the 80s. It was called the Dukes of Hazzard.
As long as its RWD/ V8 and called Impala. 😉
Wow it’s a long time until April Fools Day! LOL
Lets call it a VTOL aircraft.
For a street legal car, all the VTOL and flying gear is just too much ballast to achieve a sensible driving experience.
Well of course they are silly people. After her all electric future is not looking so bright they need to fall back on the “next big GM thing” to trick Wall Street into driving their stock prices up. Nothing new here as this has been around for many years and they call them helicopters.
probably have a fairly high fatality rate due to GRAVITY.
James Bond once had a Lotus that turned into submarine, so why not have a car that can fly? “Meet George Jetson, his boy Elroy, daughter Judy, Jane, his wife…..!”