Akihabara News (Tokyo) — In a press conference for the foreign media held this week in Tokyo, SkyDrive CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa explained that his firm is aiming to build the world’s smallest eVTOLs (flying cars).
“As our product is very small, it can land on almost any building in the Tokyo area, or gasoline stations or convenience store parking lots,” Fukuzawa asserted. “Especially in Japan and Asian countries, the SkyDrive type will be more affordable.”
Fukuzawa later suggested a comparison to the automotive industry in the past century. Before the 1973 oil shock, large gas-guzzling American cars dominated the global market, but when gas prices rose sharply, Japanese automakers with their smaller sizes gained global popularity.
In a similar fashion, Fukuzawa believes that a SkyDrive two-seater, launched in 2025, will be able to carve out its own niche in the global market, perhaps especially in Asia and developing nations where public spaces are constrained.
Fukuzawa cited Southeast Asia in particular as a global region where his Japanese startup might begin its overseas expansion.
The current SD-03 model which is undergoing testing is a single-seat eVTOL, but the firm’s plans call for the development of the SD-XX which can carry either two people or one person and a considerable amount of baggage.
Fukuzawa says that in the early days of industry, there will be a human pilot conducting taxi services between fixed vertiports in Japan, but later, perhaps after a decade or so, the eVTOL will become autonomous and the vehicles will be sold directly to private individuals.
Fukuzawa himself and many core engineering members of SkyDrive’s one hundred member team previously worked for Toyota Motor. When SkyDrive launched in 2018, it had backing from the famous Japanese automaker, though the precise relationship at the moment is unclear.
Overall, SkyDrive has received about US$48 million in three rounds of funding from various sources, including the Development Bank of Japan.
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