California startup Alef Aeronautics has shown off a stunning new idea for a street-legal eVTOL flying car in its Model A, which is due to go on sale in 2025, according to New Atlas. This wild design debuts with a 2-axis tilt cabin and a horizontal cruise flight mode unlike anything we’ve seen before.
The Model A runs entirely on batteries, uses four in-wheel motors to drive on the street, and within an ultra-minimalist frame that’s barely solid from above. In the middle is a circular, glass-covered single- or two-seater carriage, completely isolated from the outer body. In fact, if you want to jump in, you need to open separate doors for the body and the compartment itself.
The upward-facing part of the body acts as a lightweight 3D mesh structure. As a drone-style body, the Model A runs an octa-rotor setup with eight propellers, each maybe two feet (61 centimeters) in diameter, with a mesh-like “skin” that allows air to flow smoothly through car.
This is presumably the idea that many designers would take, and they would end up with an acceptable multi-rotor flight platform, but its range would be severely limited due to its weight and the low energy density of today’s batteries. But Alef made this thing more interesting. After takeoff, the cabin rotates 90 degrees to the side, so you face sideways. Then, as you move forward, the cabin stays level as the fuselage tilts around you.
As airspeed increases, so does the inclination of the fuselage, and at one point the side panels of what was once a car became its own wing. As a result, pilots and passengers found they had unobstructed panoramic views from a “bubble” cockpit that was vertically sandwiched between the two wings formed by the biplane. Frankly, it’s starting to look like something you see in Star Wars.
This remarkable reuse of the body as a set of wings provides enough lift to allow the Model A to fly efficiently in cruise mode. While the design is still limited by how many batteries it can carry, Alef says the Model A should be able to Travel 200 miles (322 kilometers), or 110 miles (177 kilometers) in the air.
Alef claims it has been flying full-scale prototypes since 2019, and has shown its investors a full drive and flight of the machine — although it hasn’t yet attempted to fully transition to having a pilot, according to CNET Level cruise flight in the car.
One of the many difficulties involved in building a flying car is getting a chassis light enough to meet car crash safety standards. This challenge is doubled for the eVTOL design, as it requires lifting its full weight into the air without wing lift. Many simply opt for a tricycle platform because it can be registered as a motorcycle, eliminating most of the red tape.
Not so with Alef; this thing has to be a quad in order to maintain symmetry in cruising flight. But it’s impossible for this ultralight chassis to pass legal street certification as a car. So Alef took the unusual step of designating the Model A as a “low-speed car.” It requires minimal street gear: headlights, taillights, indicators, mirrors, windshield wipers, horns, whatever. There will be a weight limit, which shouldn’t be an issue.
It will also be limited to 20 to 25 mph (32-40 km/h) on the street. So while ex-Bugatti/Jaguar designer Hirash Razaghi gave the machine a rather sporty look, it’s going to be very slow. Alef doesn’t expect you’ll be driving it often, though; the road gear is only for the last mile, and the company expects you to be in the air for most of it.
Of course, to do this, you have to go to a designated area for takeoff and landing, so initially, more or less you have to go to the airport or the helipad on the street. Alef said it believed that in the long term the laws would change and you would be able to take off and land almost anywhere except restricted areas. On this and others, the company seems very optimistic.
Alef is opening up pre-orders for the Model A, priced at $300,000, with deliveries expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2025. It says you might be able to fly one with a Part 107 drone license, which only requires a written test, but it doesn’t rule out the possibility that you’ll need some kind of pilot’s license.
But the company says it’s focused on making the thing more accessible in the future, and its long-term plan is to build a 4-6-passenger version of the “Model Z” by 2035 capable of driving 300 miles (483 kilometers) on the street. , travel 220 miles (354 kilometers) in the air, or double it with a hydrogen powertrain.
The company, largely backed by venture capitalist Tim Draper, is working hard to realize its vision and get these things into the air. Now, the harsh reality is that making cars and planes alone is hard. Building a multi-modal vehicle like a street-legal flying car is incredibly difficult, and building an electric VTOL flying car adds a brutal layer of difficulty. Making them to sell is even harder, and mass-producing them is probably the hardest. So whatever progress Alef makes in stealth mode, it has to overcome a lot of challenges.
