Taxi in the “flying car” industry is heading for takeoff

“We wanted a flying car. Instead, we got 140 characters,” venture capitalist Peter Thiel, an early Facebook investor and a key financial operator in the first social media era, was ruled out in 2013.

Character restrictions on Twitter posts since his remarks – Rechristened X under Thiel’s Fellow Paypal Mafia Barone Elon Musk – rose to 280 (or 25,000 if paid subscriber). As for cars, they haven’t flew yet. Japan’s Toyota-backed US-based startup and a newly capitalized initiative in China could change that soon next year.

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“Flying car” is a colloquial term related to futures imagined by science fiction filmmakers. But outside the dystopian streets Blade Runner or The fifth elementHere they go by electric vertical takeoff and landing (EVTOL) ships, which is a much more amazing industry term.

Also, there is no future hovering technology. The current Evtol, based in Santa Cruz, is currently under development by Toyota-backed Joby Aviation and Chinese automaker Xpeng, is off the ground with traditional propeller and rotor technology. In both cases, it was more than enough to send their stock to the lift-off.

• Last week, Joby, which is already testing by a small fleet of air taxis, announced plans to expand its California facility, which will build 24 EVTOL crafts a year. It also pursues commercialization in pursuit of certification from the Federal Aviation Administration, and plans to expand production to facilities in Ohio. Supporting this effort is 22% of shareholders, Toyota, who invested around $900 million in publicly available startups (subsidiaries are up 122% this year).

• And then, earlier this month, Xpeng aeroht, the flying car division of Xpeng I said It secured $250 million in Series B funding to promote mass production of land aircraft. It features a cybertruck all-terrain vehicle with removable helicopter-like air modules. It’s xpeng aeroht plan Mass production of vehicles will begin in Guangzhou next year. It features a price tag of around $280,000 and a facility with an annual capacity of 10,000 units. The parent company’s shares have increased by 59% this year.

Meanwhile, Toyota has expanded its segment exposure as another startup supporting Japan-based SkyDrive. Get Early certification of EVTOL could ultimately lead to commercialization. Adoption barriers vary by market. For example, XPENG AEROHT produces smaller EVTOL, X2, which is technically sold in Australia, but also regulatory uncertainty. means Using one legally may be at least a year apart (pilot license required).