Terrafugia Partners with CEVT to Bring Flying Car to Market

author: Eric Walz   

WOBURN, Mass., — Terrafugia Inc. announced its partnership with automotive engineering company China Euro Vehicle Technology AB (CEVT) to collaborate on a variety of developments to bring the first flying car to market. Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding) acquired Terrafugia in Fall 2017, extending access to collaborate with its subsidiary companies.

"The combination of CEVT's advanced engineering capabilities and automotive experience with Terrafugia's expertise in innovative air mobility will take Geely to the sky providing vehicles for both ground and air transportation," said Chris Jaran, CEO of Terrafugia.

CEVT is supporting Terrafugia's first vehicle, the Transition, with the development of a clutch-box, advanced CAE analysis and high-tech safety systems. With this relationship, Terrafugia will benefit from the long automotive engineering experience and expertise in Gothenburg and Sweden.

The Transition is the world's first practical flying car. A folding-wing, two-seat, roadable aircraft, the Transition is designed to fly like a typical Light Sport Aircraft in the air and drive like a typical car on the ground. The flying car runs on premium unleaded automotive gasoline, fits in a standard construction single-car garage, and convert between flight and drive modes in under a minute.

The Transition will have a cruise range of 400 miles with top speeds up to 100 miles per hour. On the road, the Transition will drive like a regular car— at highway speeds.

For safety the flying car will be equipped with a full suite of automotive safety features, including airbags, seatbelts, a crumple zone, safety cage, as well as a full vehicle parachute. In addition, the Transition will incorporate advanced autonomous flight technologies such as automatic terrain avoidance, which will make it one of the safest light sport aircraft airplanes in the sky.

CEVT was established by Geely Holding in 2013 as an engineering and development center for future C-segment cars addressing the needs of both Volvo Cars and Geely Auto Group. Today, CEVT is Geely's leading innovation and development center in Sweden.

"At CEVT we have some of the best skilled resources in the mobility engineering disciplines. We have until now mainly been focusing on developing amazing new cars. With this new collaboration we see a huge advantage and opportunity taking our experience into new fields of mobility transportation. Terrafugia is a very exciting project for CEVT and we feel proud to be given the opportunity to support this collaboration," says Mats Fägerhag, CEO of CEVT in Sweden.

Terrafugia was founded in 2006 by five MIT graduates, with the mission of creating practical flying cars that provide personal freedom. The company created 75 new US-based jobs within the past 12 months and is on track to add at least another 50 more by the end of the year. The company also opened a new R&D division in Petaluma, California where engineering designs and concepts are being developed.

Eric Walz

Originally hailing from New Jersey, Eric is a automotive & technology reporter covering the high-tech industry here in Silicon Valley. He has over 15 years of automotive experience and a bachelors degree in computer science. These skills, combined with technical writing and news reporting, allows him to fully understand and identify new and innovative technologies in the auto industry and beyond. He has worked at Uber on self-driving cars and as a technical writer, helping people to understand and work with technology.