Alef Flying Car Update as CEO Teases Video of Vehicle in Action

A California-based startup hoping to bring the first commercial flying car to market has said it will show the first glimpse of its prototype vehicle in action at the first of two trade shows next week.

Alef Automotive, which said in late July it had already seen 2,500 preorders of its $300,000 Model A, will display a video of one of its cars in flight. The company's CEO, Jim Dukhovny, previously told Newsweek he hoped to be able to give a live demonstration by the end of the year.

The footage of the potentially groundbreaking design is set to be displayed at the Detroit Auto Show on September 13 before it is teased again at the technology expo GITEX in Dubai in mid-October.

A company spokesperson told Newsweek that safety rules prevented Alef from showing the car lifting off from the ground, but a live demonstration of its propulsion system would be given.

"We are allowed, though, to turn propellers on and show the configuration of the propulsion system inside the car," the spokesperson said. Instead of a live demonstration, Dukhovny "plans to show, for the first time, a video of one of our older models flying."

The Model A doesn't rely on large wings for flight like a conventional plane, but eight rotating blades underneath its permeable bodywork elevate the car, allowing for vertical takeoff and landing.

Computer-generated demonstrations of the concept show that the car's aerodynamic bodywork allows the entire vehicle to act as a giant wing, with the car tilting horizontally during flight. The car's passenger pod, which can seat two people, is designed to rotate after it takes off so the driver is always facing the direction of travel.

Alef has said the Model A will have an aerial range of 110 miles and will be entirely electric, but the company faces a series of developmental and regulatory hurdles before it can bring the vehicle to market, which Alef hopes to do by 2025.

The number of customers looking to buy the car has surged since the start of the year. Alef announced in January that it had received 440 preorders in the final quarter of 2022, but it said in July that this had risen to 2,500—a more than quintupling of interest.

The company estimated at the time that those orders alone would amount to $750 million in revenue once the cars were delivered—a tripling of its expected income in half a year. Some 2,100 individuals had placed deposits, while the sale of a further 400 has been brokered through commercial agreements with businesses, including one Californian car dealership.

The San Mateo-based company announced in late June that it had received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for a special airworthiness certificate, which would allow it to carry out research and development activities within the U.S.

The company said this was "the first time a vehicle of this nature has received legal approval to fly from the U.S. government." However, the FAA disagreed without identifying another vehicle it counted as being of the same kind.

An FAA spokesperson previously told Newsweek the certification was "for limited purposes, including exhibition, research and development." At the time, Dukhovny described it as "one small step for planes, one giant step for cars."