Premium Mobility: Boeing Teams up with Porsche to Create an Electric Flying Car

The partnership is aimed at developing 'premium' urban mobility.

Boeing, Porsche, and Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of Boeing, are currently developing "a concept for a fully electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle."

In plain English: we might soon see an electric flying taxi!

The U.S. aircraft giant Boeing and iconic German sports car company Porsche announced the partnership yesterday, which is aimed at exploring "the premium urban air mobility market and the extension of urban traffic into airspace." 



Premium urban mobility

“Porsche and Boeing together bring precision engineering, style, and innovation to accelerate urban air mobility worldwide,” said Steve Nordlund, Vice President and General Manager Boeing NeXt in a press statement

According to a 2018 study by Porsche Consulting, the urban air mobility market will likely boom after 2025. Companies including Larry Page-backed Kitty Hawk and Skai, who are creating a safe, electric drone-like passenger vehicle, make it a competitive space.

The study also suggests that urban air taxi solutions will be a quicker, more efficient, and affordable method of public transport.

In their announcement, Boeing and Porsche do highlight their focus is on "premium mobility," which suggests that they will release a high-cost option before scaling the technology and lowering manufacturing costs.

An electric future

Porsche's parent company, Volkswagen AG, recently announced a major investment in the production of electric vehicles.

It is putting $40 billion into the development of cleaner technologies and has set a target of manufacturing 22 million electric cars across its brands over the next ten years.

Boeing unveiled a prototype of an autonomous fully-electric flying car earlier this year.

As CNN reports, Boeing's revenue topped $100 billion for the first time in 2018. However, its sales this year will be vastly lower due to the grounding of its best selling commercial jet, the 737 Max. Sales of the aircraft have been stagnant since two fatal accidents killed 346 people.

Several allegations have come out about mismanagement by the aircraft company, leading up to the accidents.