Geely to acquire flying car start-up Terrafugia
July 3, 2017 Category Automotive, Weekly
China’s Zhejiang Geely, which owns the Volvo and Lotus car brands, has agreed to buy Terrafugia, a U.S. startup that designed the world’s first practical flying cars. The acquisition of the 11-year-old U.S. flying car designer is the first attempt by a Chinese company to capitalize on a fancy yet exotic concept of a passenger vehicle that flies like an airplane in the air and drives like a car on the ground. “Flying cars can be seen as an ‘ultimate solution’ to traffic problems and this concept can sound particularly appealing to urban Chinese who are often struggling with serious traffic congestions during peak hours,”said Yale Zhang, Managing Director with consultancy Automotive Foresight. “Although it will take many years for makers of flying cars to achieve commercial success, it makes good sense for Geely to first go in and acquire the know-how for their long-term agenda.” Unlike in the field of driverless cars, only a handful of startups worldwide are chasing a flying car dream, with proposed designs spanning from full-bodied aircraft to helicopter-like models. It is over the recent years that larger firms like Uber have stepped in with own programs dedicated to research on vertical take-off and landing of aerial vehicles. Larry Page, Chief Executive of Alphabet, has also secretly spent more than USD100 million on developing flying cars. Terrafugia, founded by a group of MIT graduates in 2006, is the designer of the world’s first practical flying car, called the Transition. It is currently accepting USD10,000 deposits for prospective buyers to reserve a spot in line to purchase the vehicle, with the first deliveries expected in three years’ time and at an estimated price tag of USD279,000. Terrafugia so far raised a total of USD5.82 million in five funding rounds from Boston-based angel investor Semyon Dukach and venture capital firm Transcendent Holdings, the South China Morning Post reports.
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