Auto shows aren’t only about automobiles these days, they’re about all kinds of personal transportation solutions, and one of the weirdest of those contraptions at the 2022 Detroit Auto Show was the Xturismo Limited Edition hoverbike by Japan’s ALI Technologies.
Looking like a cross between a Glamis dunes ATV, a snowmobile and Luke Skywalker’s Land Speeder, the Xturismo was designed to fly just a few meters above the earth’s surface, rather than mixing with aeroplanes and helicopters. The model presented at Detroit was claimed to weight 661 lbs (299 kg), and could fly for 40 minutes at speeds of up to 62 mph (100 km/h) using its petrol-electric Kawasaki hybrid engine.
Related: The AERWINS XTurismo Is A Flying Bike That Costs A Shocking $777,000
But while ALI Technologies did manage to produced a working prototype, the high cost of development and the slower than expected takeup in futuristic transport solutions have forced it into bankruptcy, Bloomberg reports. Considering ALI was talking about $770,000 per unit at one stage, and that many countries would have required riders to posses a pilot’s license (Japan was one exception), it’s not hard to see why demand might have been sluggish.
Bloomberg previously wrote that when funds started running out last year the company switched its focus to the Middle East, pinning its hopes on a deal to supply 20 hoverbikes to a state-run company in the UAE. But that appears not to have come through.
We’ve seen dozens of flying machines presented over the last couple of years, and several big names from the auto industry, including Mercedes and Hyundai, think short-range aerial transport is about to explode and are funnelling huge sums of cash into development. And maybe 30 years from now the world will be ready for what the boss of ALI’s parent company described as a “Land Speeder for the Dark Side.” But we’re not there yet.
