Geely, the Chinese car manufacturer owning brands such as Volvo, Lotus and PROTON, is officially working on flying cars. The brand purchased Terrafugia in 2017 and invested in the German eVTOL manufacturer Volocopter in 2019. It now established a new subsidiary from merging Terrafugia with drone maker AOSSCI to form Aerofugia, that will work on research and development of flying cars. It immediately announced the X-Chimera25, an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.
The X-Chimera weighs 25kg and has a wing span of over five meters, but can be dismantled to fit inside a box. Geely demonstrated assembling it on stage in 65 seconds. The drone can carry a payload of 6kg over a distance of 300-400km or during 6 hours, making it well-suited for large-area surveying, mapping, and security applications. It first flew last week and is said to be used by the police of Yongcheng, China, to patrol highways and riverways.