FLYING CAR AND FLYING TAXI MARKET IN US AND EUROPE

INTRODUCTION

The worldwide loss of productive man-hours due to increased road congestion has become a major cause of concern for employees, enterprises, government bodies and environment protection bodies alike.

Although,improved digitization courtesy of smartphones has strengthened the cause of ride-hailing and car sharing services. But,it is still a long time away from what we call an effective long-term sustainable mobility solution. This has made innovative brains around the world to look to the sky to fight this growing and long-standing menace of what we call traffic. Whether it will bear any fruit or not, we will see further in the report.

AUTOMOTIVE OEMS INTERESTED IN FLYING CAR MARKET

The flying cars will not create a market of their own rather it will be derived from the market of supercars, hyper cars and general aviation. The cumulative annual volume of super cars and hyper cars is ~20,000 units per year,whereas general aviation volume is roughly 2,500 units per year. The minimum initial cost of flying cars will be in excess of $200,000, which can also exceed $1,000,000 as in the case of Aeromobil.

Post Porsche's partnership with Boeing to develop an electric flying taxi, Audi has held back the idea of flying cars.

FLYING CAR & FLYING TAXI PROJECTS UNDER DEVELOPMENT

The higher initial cost could be attributed to the manufacturer recovering cost for R&D, certification ,production tooling and raw materials. The higher price will have a negative impact on sales, limiting the initial market to individuals or organizations with deep pockets.

REGULATIONS FOR OPERATIONS OF A FLYING CAR

As the vehicle will be airborne, they demand new policies and regulations which will differ with the locations. The vehicle manufacturers should consider the regulations of each of these locations when developing the model.

Some of the critical regulations and policies that the flying car might have to adhere to are

1. Need for appropriate tracking system
2. Ensure mandatory collision avoidance systems
3. Establishment of no-fly zones and Border security
4. Appropriate search and rescue operations, and alarm systems

FLYING TAXI MARKET TRENDS

Archer Aviation unveiled its first electric flying taxi "Maker" in June 2021. Archer is planning for Maker's commercial launch in 2024 in the Los Angeles and Miami regions.Virgin Atlantic, British airline, is exploring the flying taxi market in partnership with Bristol-based Vertical Aerospace. The airline suggests e-VTOL could fly from towns to major airports.

In March 2021, Air Asia announced that they are planning to launch a flying taxi business in 18 months or so. It is a 4-seater vehicle, powered by a quadcopter.Uber made headlines in Aug `18, when it announced that it will be launching flying taxi services in 5 countries. The shortlist, also included a surprise name, “India” where annual per capita income is less than $2,000.

It has collaborated with NASA and plans to launch its flying taxi services in Los Angeles by 2020.Even in flying taxi market, it will not own any aircrafts, and rather it will be just an aggregator and provide its network to support the same.In December 2020, Uber sold its flying taxi business to Joby Aviation. Uber has agreed to invest $75 million in Joby Aviation. The move will allow Joby to use Uber’s app to offer air taxi rides by 2023.

In Asia and Oceania region, Volocopter, is working with Singapore` civil aviation authority to facilitate air rides by Q3 2019. In New Zealand, Cora- a Larry page owned company is working with Air New Zealand to launch world's first flying taxi service as soon as possible.The flying taxi operators are yet to decide the actual cost per trip. But we have put an estimated cost as per inputs gathered from our discussion with industry participants in the report.

FLYING TAXI MARKETDYNAMICS

With the growth in technology and disposable income, cars were thought of as the ultimate mobility solution. The automotive industry boomed for many years in the 20^th century, resulting in clogged urban streets across the globe.

The higher the car population in a country, the more time their average commuters spend in traffic.This ultimately leads to loss of productive man hours, fuel and increased emissions. The traffic problem remains the same for a person whether travelling in an entry level car or the most luxurious car. This is where flying car and flying taxi have something more to offer. They can provide door to door transportation without worrying about the traffic problem.

This increased interest in autonomous vehicles is fueling interest in autonomous flying car and flying taxi. The rationale is - once the autonomous technologies are proven to be safe and reliable in the real world, it will enter mass production, bringing down the cost of major components.

But, here lies the biggest challenge.The new regulations from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) asserting that a 2/4 seater flying taxi has to be as safe as a commercial aircraft carrying >100 passengers, will be further increase development and certifcation costs for more than 100 startups active in the flying taxi market.

Dubai is embracing the idea of autonomous vehicles faster than the even the US and Europe. It has plans to make 25% of its public transport autonomous by 2030 and is following its target very keenly. In both the cases,US or Europe will provide the requisite technology and manpower.

FLYING CAR AND FLYING TAXI MARKET SIZE AND FORECAST

Widespread adoption of flying cars will be predominantly shaped by public perception. Safety being the prime challenge for the flying cars which would hinder the broad range adoption.

Even small diversion of road traffic to the skies in the busiest region of major cities will bring about significant impact on the traffic congestion and the fuel consumption.

It is estimated that if Flying Taxis become more accessible and if 20% of traffic moved to the skies, it could reduce fuel use by as much as 74%. The key is the number of travellers a single taxi can take which will decide the impact of these vehicles.

Flying Car & Flying Taxi Market will be a substantial market only by 2030-2035 period.

Helicopters have long been the favorite mode of air transportation of HNWIs and military due to their versatility in operation. Therefore, if the concept of flying car has to be successful, then its acceptance has to go beyond that of a helicopter and lighter compact aircraft.

If we compare flying taxi market to other on demand mobility solutions like bike and scooter sharing market. The scale was easily achieved because of the lower cost of bikes and scooters. For instance, to buy 1,000 pedal bicycles in US it would cost ~$0.5 M and it will serve at least 5,000 people per day with minimal operating costs. Compare this with minimum $0.4M-$0.6M per electric aircraft price, which can seat just two. Add $200-$300 per hour pilot`s cost and high cost of vertiport development, we are looking at a very expensive new mobility concept.

Latest Trends in the Flying Car & Flying Taxi Market

• In CES 2021, GM launched its first efforts in the direction of Flying Car, single seater e-VTOL. 
  • Cadillac e-VTOL aircraft will use a 90kWh electric motor to power four rotors to enable vertical take-off and landing.

• AeroMobil’s flying car model is expected to be commercially available by 2023. The vehicle would have cleared the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) stringent CS23 requirements

•  In February 2021, PAL-V Liberty model became the first flying car prototype to complete the full certification basis with EASA. The vehicle is expected to be commercially available by 2022. 

• In June 2020, Kitty Hawk abandoned its further work on ‘Flyer’ e-VTOL vehicle and will only focus on electric personal aircraft, “Heaviside”.

• In Jan 2020, Hyundai and Uber announced a new partnership to develop Uber Air Taxis. Hyundai is the first automotive company to join the Uber Elevate initiative

• Nearly after 4 years of developing Airbus’ Vahana took its final test flight in November 2019

• In October 2019, Boeing, Porsche and Aurora Flight Sciences, announced development of a concept for a fully electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle (VTOL).

Cost of Flying Car Models

The minimum initial cost of flying cars will be in excess of $200,000, which can also exceed $1,000,000 as in the case of Aeromobil.

The higher initial cost could be attributed to the manufacturer recovering cost for R&D, certification, production tooling and raw materials. The higher price will have a negative impact on sales, limiting the initial market to individuals or organizations with deep pockets. 

PAL-V’s model Liberty ‘Pioneer Edition’ is priced at $ 599,000 (North America region) and its 2ndmodel Sport Edition’ is priced at $ 399,000. This price varies with the location of the buyer as the prices for customers based in Europe are slightly lesser when compared to customers based in Asia or America regions.

Funding raised by Flying car and Flying taxi startups till June 2021