So far, in the short but frantic history of the urban air mobility sector, it seems to have been the IT crowd and existing aerospace players who have led the investment charge in electric vertical takeoff and landing technology. There are obvious synergies between these established industries and the precocious newcomers, not least because both can contribute significant expertise on top of cold, hard cash.
This article in Forbes rightly makes the case for why the automotive industry now seems set to grab a piece of the action. Again, there are synergies in terms of expertise for the development of vehicles that are destined to interact with highways and other transportation infrastructure one way or another.
Hyundai Motor Group is the latest car maker to declare its intention to move in on what it refers to as "flying cars" (a term that rather undersells the concept, in my view). Toyota already has skin in the game with a significant investment in maddeningly secretive eVTOL start-up Joby Aviation through its Toyota AI Ventures division. This begs the question as to whether U.S. giants like GM have the wherewithal and vision to reach for the skies. Companies like ASX certainly hope so. It has purposely based its entrepreneurial venture in Motor City (Detroit) in the hope of tapping automotive expertise in time- and money-saving production techniques.
Boeing and sports car icon Porsche recently joined forces in a partnership that the U.S. aircraft manufacturer hopes will sprinkle some luxury magic dust on its complicated plans to bring an eVTOL aircraft to market through the Passenger Air Vehicle program being pursued by the Boeing NeXt subsidiary Aurora. However, Porsche's fellow German car maker Audi has quietly scrapped its plans to enter the urban air mobility sector after quietly pulling its Italdesign subsidiary out of the Pop.Up collaboration with Airbus.
Both Germany's Daimler group and China's Geely (which owns Volvo and has a stake in Daimler) have made substantial investments in eVTOL start-up Volocopter. Geely also has a stake in the Terrafugia TF-2 eVTOL program.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Cranfield University is partnered with Aston Martin and engine maker Rolls-Royce to develop a flying car concept called Volante Vision.
Clearly electrical power is well on the way to being the next big thing in an automotive industry under pressure to cut the umbilical cord with fossil fuels. Getting behind the eVTOL/UAM pioneers holds the real promise of quite literally adding a new dimension to its business model. Maybe we're about to find out what might have been if Henry Ford had been closer to the Wright Brothers.