China’s GAC unveils flying car that can travel on road

Chi­nese state-owned automak­er Guangzhou Auto­mo­bile Group (GAC) unveiled a fly­ing car con­cept that can also be dri­ven on streets last week, one of many com­pa­nies boost­ing research and devel­op­ment to make the futur­is­tic mode of trans­port a present-day real­i­ty.

Dubbed GOVE, the one-seater com­bines a pas­sen­ger drone equipped with six sets of rotor blades with a four-wheeled chas­sis to trav­el on roads. The drone and chas­sis sep­a­rate before flight.

The com­pa­ny showed the vehi­cle fly­ing with a pas­sen­ger on Mon­day. The recharge­able chas­sis can be oper­at­ed remote­ly, with the com­pa­ny envi­sion­ing it being shared wide­ly among users. The car’s name is an acronym refer­ring to GAC’s on-the-go, ver­ti­cal-flight elec­tric vehi­cle.

Despite an increas­ing use of drones for pho­tog­ra­phy and agri­cul­ture in Chi­na, the coun­try does not yet have reg­u­la­tions in place for pas­sen­ger use. Air­bus and oth­ers have unveiled con­cepts in the past for fly­ing cars that sep­a­rate from a car chas­sis. In Chi­na, oth­er com­pa­nies devel­op­ing pas­sen­ger drones include Xpeng, an elec­tric vehi­cle start­up.

GAC appears to be antic­i­pat­ing demand for fly­ing cars in south­ern Chi­na, where major cities such as Guangzhou, Shen­zhen, Hong Kong and Macau clus­ter close to the sea and an expan­sive riv­er delta.

Besides fly­ing vehi­cles, the com­pa­ny is also aim­ing to accel­er­ate devel­op­ment of cut­ting-edge tech­nolo­gies to bat­tle inten­si­fy­ing com­pe­ti­tion with­in Chi­na’s reg­u­lar auto mar­ket. On Mon­day, the com­pa­ny unveiled a hybrid vehi­cle that uses a hydro­gen engine and elec­tric pow­er. It is also research­ing engines that run on ammo­nia.