Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The price is 2.1 million and the car will be delivered in two years.

Author | Truman

Editor | in the state

The world's first flying car that can fly and run is about to explode.

Not long ago, Alef Aeronautics's electric flying car, Model A, officially obtained a legal flight license in the United States.

This makes the Model A the first pure electric car that can fly both in the sky and on the ground, and although it will not be officially mass-produced until 2025, it has not stopped the enthusiasm of the rich.

The company has just announced that its current order has reached 2500! At the end of the year, the number was only 400.

Once these orders are delivered, Alef will receive $750 million in revenue.

Model A sells for $300000, or 2.14 million yuan. Judging from the name of the model, it is obvious that Tesla is suspected of touching the porcelain, but they do have the strength, because Musk's rocket company, Space X, also invested in this start-up.

In 2015, Alef was founded in California. Its founder, Jim Dukhovny, is a science fiction enthusiast.

Jim credits his father for setting up the company. "he taught me to bring positive things to the world, despite the risks."

Jim is an immigrant from Kiev, Ukraine. Jim's family emigrated to the Bay area in 1992, when Jim was a child, and his father organized a gathering of folk singers for thousands of immigrants.

Under the influence of his father, Jim also began to do "things that can affect the travel industry."

The name of the company is specially chosen, and according to the company's website, it is named Alef because many letters, including Hebrew, begin with this letter. Jim hopes the name reflects that "Alef will eventually take the lead in people's hearts, minds and garages."

In 2015, Jim and several friends Constantine Kisly, Pavel Markin and Oleg Petrov set a common goal to set up Alef as a company, all of them technical geniuses.

In order to build aircraft like the one seen in the movie back to the Future, Alef Aeronautics aimed at flying cars with vertical take-off (eVTOL) capability from the beginning, and finally built the first small prototype in 2016.

In 2018, Alef successfully completed the initial automated test flight of the car skeleton version, and began full-scale flying vehicle prototype testing the following year.

Until October 19, 2022, Alef officially launched its first electric flying car called Model A.

In the process, Alef nearly went bankrupt and could not launch its first product without a key figure: Tim Draper, known as the godfather of Silicon Valley venture capital, a billionaire and one of the earliest investors in Tesla and SpaceX.

After seeing the scaled flying car prototype and electric technology demonstrated by Alef, Tim Draper provided $3 million in seed funding for Alef.

Eight years after the establishment of the company, Alef's Model A finally became the first electric flying car to receive a special airworthiness certificate issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Alef is scheduled to begin pre-sale in October, with production in the fourth quarter of 2025, followed by delivery. Although there are still two years to go before mass production, prospective buyers are already lining up to pay a deposit of $150,150 and $1500.

Customers who pay $150 will join the regular queue, while customers who pay $1500 will be given priority to pick up the car when delivery is started.

Who would spend $300000 on a flying car?

Alef revealed that the 2500 orders included 2100 personal deposits and 400 car sales agreements with companies, including an agreement with a car dealer in California, so Alef became the first company in history to pre-sell flying cars through car dealerships.

"We are glad that there is such a strong demand for Alef flying cars," Jim said. "We still have a long way to go before we start delivery, but we don't need a road where we are going."

What does Model A look like? Alef Model A can not only take off and land vertically like a helicopter, but also drive on the road like a traditional car.

When running on the ground, Model An is classified as a "low-speed vehicle" because Model A can only travel at speeds of less than 25 miles (40 kilometers) per hour. Of course, this also meets the legal speed limits of most states in the United States and meets the requirements of laws and regulations.

The appearance of the new car is handled by Hirash Razaghi, a famous car designer from Sweden, who has been responsible for the interior and exterior design of Bugatti and Jaguar.

In order to optimize the aerodynamic design during takeoff, a large number of 3D printed mesh structures are used in the upper part of the car body. It has an ultra-simple frame shell that looks similar to an ordinary car. In the middle is a spherical car with a two-seat layout with an all-glass shell and independent of the external body.

So it takes a total of three steps for you to get into this car, first open the outer door of the car, then open the independent door of the cockpit, and then sit down and fasten your seat belt.

The flying car carries multiple propellers in a principle similar to that of a small drone, with an eight-rotor setting and eight electric propellers about the diameter of 61cm, while the mesh above the hull allows air to pass through the entire body.

When the driver drives the flying car in the air, the cockpit will rotate 90 degrees to one side, and the driver will meet to fly to the side of the car after take-off. When flying forward, the entire cockpit is balanced by a universal ball, which is not affected by the tilt of the body.

To put it simply, when Model An is in flight, the front and rear parts of the car will become the wings of the flying car, and as it accelerates in the air, the tilt angle of the whole shell will gradually increase until it remains perpendicular to the ground.

At this time, pilots and passengers sitting in the cockpit can enjoy the view through the 360-degree unobstructed view provided by the transparent spherical cabin.

The Alef website has not released any more details about the interior of the flying car, except that the Model A can carry one or two passengers.

In terms of power, the Alef Model A uses pure electric drive, the maximum mileage of driving on the ground can reach 322km, and the flight mileage is 177km.

Although Model A has been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, Model A needs to meet National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration safety standards before taking off.

In addition, if the FAA thinks it is an aircraft, then the pilot needs to have a pilot's license, and Model An is still in its infancy, so even if it can be delivered, it can only take off or land from a registered airport and helipad.

Finally, there is the issue of follow-up maintenance price. it is reported that the cost of maintenance and annual inspection of flying vehicles may exceed US $10,000 a year, which may be close to US $40,000 on average, and all repairs and services need to be completed by certified aircraft mechanics.

Although Alef's website claims that they want to use technology to make it faster and easier to commute, flying cars are still toys for the rich, not transportation solutions for ordinary people.

So after the Model A, Alef also plans to launch a four-person electric flying car called the Model Z, which will be launched in 2035. Officials say it will fly more than 300 miles and be able to travel 220 miles, starting at $35000 (250000 yuan).

03. The new blue sea? Flying cars are not a new concept, and this track has flooded a large number of players.

According to a research report by Roland Berger, a consultancy, 3000 flying cars will be used as air taxis, airport buses and intercity flights worldwide by 2025, and the number will reach 98000 by 2050.

Morgan Stanley predicts that the flying car industry will form a global market of $300 billion in 2030 and $1.5 trillion by 2040.

And Alef has to face a lot of opponents. Not long ago, the flying taxi company Joby Aviation obtained a special airworthiness certificate issued by FAA of the United States, and Doroni Aerospace of the United States also became one of the first two-seater eVTOL companies to successfully test flight in the United States.

Back in China, Xiaopeng Huitian Voyager X2, which is owned by Xiaopeng, made the world's first public flight in Dubai and was the first successful test flight of an electric vertical take-off and landing flying car.

Not long ago, GAC GROUP's flying car project was also officially unveiled, and a flying car called "GOVE" completed its first flight in the world. The GOVE uses a two-layer assemble structure, with rotors and cockpits on the upper layer, which can take off directly, and the base is a mobile vehicle.

Just recently, China's first commercial eVTOL route announced that it would be opened in October this year, and it takes only 15 minutes to drive from Shenzhen to Zhuhai.

Therefore, both investors and consumers have great expectations for flying cars. We believe that one day it will be the era of flying cars, but now it is much easier to combine the functions of flying and cars than to build cars or airplanes alone.

For example, the planning of flight routes, the construction of supporting facilities, as well as the corresponding regulations and policies are inevitable problems.

And how to sell flying cars is also a problem, it is difficult to form a scale in the early stage, it is impossible to reduce costs, and popularity is a long way off.

The question is, how much does a flying car cost? will you buy one?

This article is from the official account of Wechat: Super Electric Lab (ID:SuperEV-Lab). Author: Truman.

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