The subsidiary of the German group, which will continue the test phases throughout 2022, hopes to optimize this machine by the summer of 2023.
Soon the end of traffic jams? While taxis and VTCs are engaged in fierce competition on the ground, new machines could soon see the light of day. It is the ambition of Volkswagen which presented via its subsidiary in China its first prototype of flying car. A kind of giant drone that can be summed up in a very technical term: “V.MO.” The German company did not hesitate to call this new technology “Flying Tiger”, which takes off and lands vertically like a helicopter. Volkswagen also promises, in a press release, autonomous driving and an emission-free mode of transport.
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“Our long-term objective is to industrialize this concept and innovate on this new market (…). evolving”, indicates the automotive group. With one objective: to carry out tests throughout 2022 until the summer of 2023 in order to put these cars into service in the months that follow. Functionally, these electric vehicles should, according to Volkswagen, be able to transport four people and travel a maximum of 200 km. These cars are “called to play an important role in the future of urban and interurban transport”notably “in congested megacities”. Whether in Asia or even in the United States.
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Even if these machines see the light of day in a few months, they will not be democratized for all that. Volkswagen wants a product “high-end for tech-savvy affluent Chinese customers”. The automotive subsidiary in China will now have to work with the country’s authorities to obtain validation as soon as possible. In recent months, several car brands, such as Hondo, Audi or Suzuki, have positioned themselves in the flying transport sector. Airbus and Boeing have also entered the race. In France, it was the French engineer Franky Zapata, who inaugurated the “Jet Racer”a “flying car” with vertical takeoff and which could travel up to 250 km/h.
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