SkyDrive and Suzuki partner on Flying Car production
SkyDrive and Suzuki have jointly announced a partnership for the commercialization of flying cars.
SkyDrive is a leading manufacturer of flying cars in Japan and is currently engaged in the development of a compact, two-seating electric-powered flying car with plans for full-scale production.
Suzuki is one of Japan’s leading automakers with expertise that includes manufacturing and selling compact cars in international markets.
SkyDrive and Suzuki will start consideration to collaborate in areas of business and technology that include technology R&D, planning of manufacturing and mass-production systems, development of overseas markets with an initial focus on India, and promotion of efforts to attain carbon neutrality.
SkyDrive aims to begin air taxi service during the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, Japan, as well as to initiate service in other regions of Japan.
Suzuki, which has the company motto “Develop products of superior value by focusing on the customer,” currently offers products in three mobility categories — automobiles, motorcycles, and outboard motors. The company aims to remain indispensable to people by staying closely attuned to lives and providing mobility. The partnership with SkyDrive will provide Suzuki with opportunities to explore and potentially add flying cars as a fourth mobility business, it claims.
While SkyDrive has flown small single-seat multicopter concepts, it’s still unclear exactly what kind of aircraft it’s working on with Suzuki. The image used here is of SkyDrive’s SD-XX concept model, a tandem two-seat design that would appear to fit this project’s description.
This is an 8-prop coaxial multicopter airframe, with a glass-covered cabin. It’s designed to lift a maximum takeoff weight of 500 kg (1,100 lb) to a max altitude of 500 m (1,640 ft), flying at a max speed of 100 km/h (62 mph) for somewhere between 20-30 minutes.
