{"id":11519,"date":"2017-07-06T17:33:05","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T00:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=11519"},"modified":"2017-07-06T17:33:05","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T00:33:05","slug":"geely-looks-skyward-buys-terrafugia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/geely-looks-skyward-buys-terrafugia\/","title":{"rendered":"Geely Looks Skyward, Buys Terrafugia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Geely is a huge enterprise, and while not the largest maker of electric cars in China, sold 766,000 gas and electric vehicles in 2016, growing 50 percent over the previous year.\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/fortune.com\/2017\/03\/22\/geely-volvo-china-earnings\/\">Its profits grew 126 percent last year<\/a>, primarily due to sports utility vehicle (SUV) sales.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/evobsession.com\/china-electric-car-sales-byd-wins-2016-geely-emgrand-ev-wins-december\/\">\u00a0As EV Obsession reports<\/a>: \u201cThe 351,861 electric car sales\u00a0registered in China during 2016 represent approximately 46% of ALL plug-ins sold worldwide this year, with Chinese carmakers responsible for 43% of all EV production in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Geely, surprisingly, owns Lotus, Malaysia\u2019s Proton Motors, the firm that makes London\u2019s iconic taxis, and Volvo.\u00a0 Volvo just announced that all its cars will be electric or hybrid starting in 2019.\u00a0 Fortune reports that the company has become highly profitable, with 2016 net returns doubling to 5.1 billion yuan ($741 million), and possibly rising to 7 billion yuan in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>What is a successful company to do with all that money?\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scmp.com\/business\/companies\/article\/2100239\/will-us-flying-car-designer-take-chinas-geely-skies\"><em>The South China Morning Post<\/em>\u00a0reports on one option<\/a>. \u00a0Geely announced the purchase of Terrafugia, makers of a flying car (or more properly, a roadable aircraft) called the Transition.\u00a0 Terrafugia is currently accepting US$10,000 deposits for prospective buyers to reserve a spot in line to purchase the vehicle, with the first deliveries expected in three years\u2019 time and at an estimated price tag of US$279,000.\u201d \u00a0This might be in response to a monster\u00a0Geely and other Chinese auto manufacturers have created.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=O3kL6nMap2s<\/p>\n<p>Terrafugia has flown at Oshkosh\u2019s AirVenture in 2013 and 2015, showing off the plane\u2019s folding wings that help transform it into a roadable vehicle.\u00a0 On its Rotax engine, the airplane has a claimed cruising range of 400 miles and a top speed of 100 mph.\u00a0 In\u00a0roadable\u00a0form, it can reputedly maintain highway speeds.\u00a0 It is equipped with a full-vehicle parachute and \u201cadvanced autonomous flight technologies such as automatic terrain avoidance,\u201d according to the Post.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"First Public Demonstrations: Terrafugia Transition Flying Car, EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, WI 2013\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KSpvw5PbMj8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Even though it had raised $5.82 million in five funding rounds, deliveries were tentative and \u201cExperts cautioned that it could take an additional 10 to 20 years for flying cars to hit the roads in Asia, sparing commuters of traffic jam woes.\u201d\u00a0 Terrafugia pilots will find the same issues that faced Molt Taylor\u2019s customers in the early 1950\u2019s when they tried to buy an Aerocar.\u00a0 Your editor interviewed Molt several times and he explained that one deterrent to flying car ownership was the nine licenses required to drive and fly his machine.\u00a0 Terrafugia may have reduced that to\u00a0eight,\u00a0since the wings fold.\u00a0 Molt\u2019s wings took about 20 to 30 minutes to detach and needed a trailer for towing.\u00a0 The trailer required a separate license.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Introducing TF-X\u2122: Terrafugia&#039;s Vision for the Future of Personal Transportation\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bp2TWNpTA7s?start=1&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Terrafugia is certainly not without detractors, though.\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/jalopnik.com\/volvo-s-geely-bafflingly-buys-flying-car-company-terraf-1796644259\"><em>Jalopnik\u00a0<\/em>notes a long history of promised deliveries, extended timelines, and expanded prices<\/a>.\u00a0 The infusion of cash from Geely should allow honoring deposits on the $25 million of reserved backlog and\u00a0moving\u00a0forward with development of the VTOL TFX.\u00a0 The company\u2019s 2013 video shows the premise and the promise of the machine.<\/p>\n<p>The TFX might be a heavy lift, needing a megawatt of battery power to achieve VTOL flight.\u00a0 That\u2019s about 10 Tesla P100 energy storage units.\u00a0 At currently reported costs to Tesla, each pack might be as low as $14,500, or $145,000 for the total Terrafugia.\u00a0 Of course, MSRP sticker prices will be higher to consumers.\u00a0 The fiscal weight is significant, but the physical load is even more so for a vertical takeoff machine.\u00a0 Depending on the source, a single Tesla 100kWh battery pack weighs 1,177 to 1,382 pounds. \u00a0Since Terrafugia mentions hybrid power as part of the specification, a smaller battery pack will probably be carried.<\/p>\n<p>It will be interesting to see if generous backing can rescue the roadable aircraft.\u00a0 Geely\u2019s purchase of Volvo saved that struggling car\u00a0maker,\u00a0and has put some attractive models on the road.\u00a0 Note that Volvo just announced that it will build only electric or hybrid vehicles from 2019 on.\u00a0 It\u2019s good to have a far-sighted backer in your corner.<\/p>\n<div id=\"facebook_like\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fcafe.foundation%2Fblog%2Fgeely-looks-skyward-buys-terrafugia%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=500&amp;action=like&amp;font=segoe+ui&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:500px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Geely is a huge enterprise, and while not the largest maker of electric cars in China, sold 766,000 gas and electric vehicles in 2016, growing 50 percent over the previous year.\u00a0\u00a0Its profits grew 126 percent last year, primarily due to sports utility vehicle (SUV) sales.\u00a0\u00a0As EV Obsession reports: \u201cThe 351,861 electric car sales\u00a0registered in China [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6862,15,6894,14],"tags":[3150,45,8021,8022,3151,8023,1390,8024,4529,8025,900,2378],"class_list":["post-11519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-batteries","category-electric_powerplants","category-hybrid-aircraft","category-sustainable_ga","tag-aerocar","tag-airventure","tag-geely","tag-lotus","tag-molt-taylor","tag-proton","tag-rotax-engine","tag-south-china-morning-post","tag-terrafugia","tag-terrafugia-tfx","tag-terrafugia-transition","tag-volvo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Geely Looks Skyward, 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