Porsche And Boeing Team Up For Electric Flying Car Concept
Ready for takeoff.
Boeing and Porsche are joining forces on a sky-high project to “explore the premium urban air mobility market and the extension of urban traffic into airspace” with an all-electric “flying car.”
That’s what is being widely reported by outlets including CNN, TechCrunch and Engadget, though the official announcement from the American aircraft behemoth and the German sports car marque uses a somewhat blander description for the forthcoming EV concept, calling it a “vertical takeoff and landing vehicle.”
Provided art depicts something like a futuristic mini-jet that might be primarily suited to aerial travel. Engineers from Porsche, Boeing, and Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences will work together to build and test a prototype.
Boeing already has an autonomous flying car prototype called a passenger air vehicle (PAV) that completed a successful test flight earlier this year. Whether or not this new project will build off of the PAV or be started from scratch is unclear.
“Porsche is looking to enhance its scope as a sports car manufacturer by becoming a leading brand for premium mobility,” said Porsche marketing executive Detlev von Platen. “In the longer term, this could mean moving into the third dimension of travel.”
The use of the phrase “premium mobility” indicates that whatever vehicle the companies are working on will have a high-end feel, which is right in line with the Porsche brand image.
“Porsche and Boeing together bring precision engineering, style and innovation to accelerate urban air mobility worldwide,” added Steve Nordlund, Vice President and General Manager of Boeing’s NeXt division.
“Porsche and Boeing together bring precision engineering, style and innovation to accelerate urban air mobility worldwide.”
Porsche also cited an internal 2018 study that indicates an acceleration of the “urban air mobility market” beginning in 2025, so it could be a while before we see the first Boeing x Porsche vehicle.