Alauda Aeronautics to set up first eVTOL flying racing car factory in Australia ahead of upcoming Airspeeder racing series
Alauda Aeronautics is set to establish the world’s first eVTOL flying racing car factory in Australia, which will be the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and produce the vehicles taking part in the company’s forthcoming Airspeeder racing series.
The state-of-the-art facility is earmarked to potentially be located within the Australian Space Park, with the South Australian Government announcing a $20 million (AUS) contribution towards the development. It is in discussions with Adelaide Airport as the ideal location identified by industry, due to its proximity to traditional aerospace companies and the central business district.
Matt Pearson, Founder of Airspeeder and Alauda Aeronautics, said: “As our first electric flying car Grand Prix races draw nearer, we are proud to establish the world’s first purpose built facility for the production of these pioneering racing vehicles.
“South Australia is rapidly becoming a global centre of excellence in the development of advanced space and advanced aerospace technologies, placement at this facility will create world-class opportunities for collaboration with companies at the cutting-edge of their respective fields. This in turn will rapidly accelerate a mobility revolution and place Adelaide on the map as a world-class centre of innovation.”
The Australian Space Park will boost space manufacturing capability and capacity by initially co-locating four space manufacturing companies. As well as Alauda, they include Fleet Space Technologies which was also co-founded by Pearson, Q‑CTRL and ATSpace. The focus will be on collaboration and production of small satellites and their payloads, rockets, eVTOL vehicles and supporting componentry and technical systems.
Fleet Space Technologies will also establish its manufacturing and R&D hub and help pave the way for knowledge and facilities sharing with tech entities at the cutting edge of their respective fields.
Announcing the development, Premier Stephen Marshall said: “The creation of the Australian Space Park signals our commitment to the South Australian and Australian space sector by bridging the gap between research and development and prototyping to production at scale.
“The Park aligns with Australia’s space strategy that aims to triple the space sector’s contribution to GDP to over $12 billion per annum and create up to an additional 20,000 jobs by 2030. It is the next step in positioning Australia’s space community to deliver the entire space value chain — enabling the design, manufacture, launch and mission control of NewSpace capabilities.”
Alauda has already proven its technological and commercial approach through the creation of the world’s full-scale first electric flying racing cars. These took part in historic first test flights in the deserts that surround the firm’s current HQ in Adelaide. South Australia has proven the perfect testing ground for a sport that is developing the fundamental digital infrastructure that will underpin the electric flying car mobility revolution.
These endeavours have attracted a global pool of top tier motorsport sponsors and technical partners. This includes Australia’s leading telecommunications company, Telstra and Telstra Purple, Australia’s largest owned technology services business.
Together Alauda and Telstra are pioneering the development of 5G technologies to augment the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications that will be vital to both flying car racing as a sport but also wider passenger and autonomous delivery applications.
And since joining forces in the summer of 2021 IWC Schaffhausen and Alauda have engaged in an engineering and manufacturing knowledge-share informed by a shared philosophy to realise bold and world-changing vision with the world’s most advanced materials, design philosophies and manufacturing techniques.
Alauda has moved rapidly from design through prototype to full-scale functioning development vehicles. The company is now entering full production ahead of first races in 2022, with teams from around the world taking delivery of vehicles that represent the very first of their kind in the world.


