Hyundai is very optimistic about the future of urban air mobility and has suggested the industry will really take off towards the end of the decade.
There are already a couple of flying cars already on the market but no major automaker has introduced one so far. Among the car manufacturers venturing into the market is Hyundai, although it is developing a vertical take-off and landing flying vehicle, rather than a flying car that can also be driven on the street.
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The South Korean automaker first introduced its S-A1 flying vehicle concept co-developed with Uber back in early 2020. Work on the vehicle is progressing well and Hyundai plans to launch its first commercial flight in 2028.
“There’s some time before we can really get this off the ground,” the chief executive of Hyundai’s European operating, Michael Cole, told The Guardian. “We think that by the latter part of this decade certainly, urban air mobility will offer great opportunity to free up congestion in cities, to help with emissions, whether that’s intra-city mobility in the air or whether it’s even between cities.”
Hyundai is so serious about the future of flying mobility that in November, it formed a new company dubbed Supernal that serves as an evolution of its Urban Air Mobility Division and will be responsible for bringing the S-A1 concept to the market. The VTOL aircraft has been designed for cruising speeds of up to 180 mph (290 km/h) with a cruising altitude of 1,000-2,000 feet (300-600 meters) and will be powered exclusively by electricity.
