While most flying car projects remain in the testing phase, Chinese GAC has announced the start of serial production of its Govy AirCab air taxi. Production is organized at a new plant in Guangzhou, designed to produce up to 100 units per year.
AirCab belongs to the eVTOL class — aircraft with vertical take-off and landing. The machine received a two-seater carbon fiber cabin, and more than 90% of the structure is made of composite materials. This allowed to reduce the weight by approximately 30% compared to traditional solutions.
One of the main features of the novelty is high-density batteries, providing a full charge in just 25 minutes. The declared flight range is about 30 km, which makes AirCab more a transport for tourist routes and short urban flights than a car replacement.
The cost of the apparatus will not exceed 1.68 million yuan, or approximately 20 million rubles. At the first stage, GAC expects to attract operators of tourist and transport services.
The very fact of launching production looks more important than the characteristics. Many companies showed concepts of flying machines, but only a few reached a full-fledged factory and industrial production. GAC is actually moving the industry from the stage of demonstration flights to the phase of commercial operation.
If the project is successful, competition may unfold not only between automakers, but also between developers of urban air mobility. And then the usual idea of what personal transport is will begin to change much faster than expected a few years ago.
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