Geely moves to flying cars

If you think China’s Geely is doing well since it took over Volvo, Lotus and Proton, it’s doing better than that. Now it’s flying. Literally.

Geely has announced it has taken over US-based Terrafugia Inc, which has made headlines for developing and displaying flying cars for many years but not yet selling any.

It comes on the back of a record October for Zhejiang Geely Holding Group’s home brand Geely Auto, selling 128,118 cars in China, including more than 30,000 of its new Boyue SUVs.

Terrafugia had aimed to bring a flying car to market in 2019, which is a fantastically long gestation period for a company founded in 2006.

It’s also planning to bring a vertical-take-off-and-landing car (VTOL) to market by 2021. With a 320km/h top speed and a total rage of 800km, the TF-X3 is expected to cost $400,000.

The Geely/Terragugia will rival a host of similar VTOL vehicles coming soon, including Germany’s Daimler-backed Volocopter, Toyota, Airbus, Uber, Google and Neva Aerospace.

Terrafugia has several working prototypes and Geely Holding said it insisted the company’s innovation, engineering and production were worth joining onto.

Terrafugia remains in the US, but will team up with Geely Holding’s own engineering resources. The takeover deal has already been cleared by the US committee on foreign investment (CIFIUS).

Geely Holding brings in seven new directors, including Terrafugia’s new chairman Nathan Yu Ning (Geely’s Vice-President of International Business) and three other Geely Holding executives, including its vice-chairman Yang Jian.

To help bring the ‘flying’ side of flying car to fruition, it has also brought on board Bell Helicopter China’s former managing director, while Terrafugia’s founder Carl Dietrich will become its Chief Technology Officer.

“The team at Terrafugia have been at the forefront of believing in and realising the vision for a flying car and creating the ultimate mobility solution,” Geely Holding founder and chairman, Li Shufu, said.

“This is a tremendously exciting sector and we believe that Terrafugia is ideally positioned to change mobility as we currently understand it and herald the development of a new industry in doing so.

“Our investment in the company reflects our shared belief in their vision and we are committed to extending our full support to Terrafugia, leveraging the synergies provided by our international operations and track record of innovation, to make the flying car a reality.”