BEIJING – China’s GAC Group has unveiled the Govy AirCab, its first mass-produced flying car. It’s an electric travel option that can charge at lightning speed and just might transform transportation as we know it.
According to Interesting Engineering, the two-seater electric vertical take-off and landing — or eVTOL — vehicle can travel nearly 19 miles on a single charge and is designed for short urban flights. GAC is currently conducting trial flights and expects to begin mass production and customer deliveries in 2026.
IE explained that the flying car targets what GAC is calling the “low-altitude economy,” referring to air taxis and small, private aircraft. While it comes at the hefty price tag of around 1.69 million yuan (about $233,000), it could be well worth it when you consider all the features.
5G, voice assistants, cloud-based smart features, and temperature, music, and scent controls are just some of the perks that can come with next-gen vehicles like the AirCab. Level 4 ground autonomy tech enables the vehicle to operate independently under specific conditions, according to IE, and can detect ranges of over 984 feet. In the event of a crash or emergency, the passenger cab can also apparently separate.
Because the main body of the auto-aircraft is constructed almost entirely of carbon fiber, the vehicle is extremely lightweight. High-density, large cylindrical batteries encourage fast charging, making it easy to take to the skies — perhaps even on a lunch break.
The low-altitude air transportation market is expected to experience significant growth and could be worth a whopping $9 trillion by 2050, according to Morgan Stanley, as reported by Yahoo Finance. Due to this promising outlook, other companies are also getting involved, including Virgin Atlantic, Joby Aviation, and Beta Technologies. Chinese automakers such as XPeng and EHang are also developing more of these vehicles in advance of the industry really taking off.
While you probably won’t want to replace your normal everyday vehicle with a futuristic air taxi — at least not yet — an investment could be worth it for those who can afford this kind of quick escape.
Meanwhile, it’s pretty exciting to imagine that some of the most innovative transport on the horizon could help to reduce the heat-trapping pollution that’s generated by gas-powered travel. If tech of this type can offset the use of private planes by those otherwise accustomed to the luxury experience, it could make modern life a much more environmentally-friendly, more efficient experience overall.
