Dubai: Will residents, tourists travel in flying cars by 2025?

We have been watching flying cars in the movies for decades and reading about them for quite a few years.

If industry executives are to be believed, come 2025, flying cars could be a reality and see people travelling in them around various cities — including in Dubai, one of the smartest, most innovative cities in the world.

Since flying cars will be very costly, most of the customers will likely be high-net-worth individuals or millionaires, experts say.

There are more than 400 flying cars or eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles) companies in the world that are working to make their products safer and more reliable. And most of them are betting on 2025 to be the year of flying cars.

“Many countries are pushing towards the 2025 launch of flying cars. We are also planning the commercial production of our two-seater model from 2025,” said Tomohiro Fukuzawa, chief executive officer of SkyDrive Inc.

The Japanese flying car manufacturer is showcasing a single-seater flying car at Gitex Global 2022. “We are here at Gitex Global 2022 to look for partners or potential customers.”

Fukuzawa said SkyDrive, which has priced its two-seater commercial model at $1 million, is in the process of introducing regulations with the Japanese government.

Chinese vehicle manufacturer XPeng on Monday made the first successful global public flight of its X2 flying car in Dubai. In addition, the company is also developing a six-generation flying vehicle that people can drive on the road as well.

Dr Brian Gu, vice-chairman and president of XPeng, said three parallel developments need to come together to make flying cars realistic. “First is technology such as testing flying capability, and safety, second is the approval of regulations and third is consumer acceptance. All of these needs to be in place to be a reality.”

He added that the price of flying cars has not yet been decided but will most likely be in line with luxury cars such as Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

“We want to start the process and make consumer products available that have the ability to drive and fly in 2025. It will take time to penetrate because people will slowly get confident,” he said during the media briefing on the sidelines of Gitex.

Dr Gu expects flying cars to be flying around 100-metre – or even lower altitude.

The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been instrumental to bring Xpeng to Dubai for the global public test flight.

Omar Abdulaziz AlKhan, executive director for international offices at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said there will be more tests happening of X2 flying cars in Dubai and then it will be commercialised.

AlKhan also expects the flying car to be commercialised in 2025.

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