Does it travel like a car, or fly like an airplane? The flying cars of Alef can do both. After a video last year of an electric flying car surpassing Tesla Cybertruck became popular, Alef Aeronautics has made new moves again.

The flying car of Alef features a body that can form wings, a rotatable cockpit, and takes off using air rather than stored compressed gas. Alef indicates that this vehicle is lighter, hence it is equipped with a "full-vehicle ballistic parachute."

Flying cars are not equivalent to eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft. The main difference between the two is that flying cars can be driven, parked, and used just like ordinary cars.

Alef developed the first prototype of a flying car in 2019. In 2022, the company unveiled the first full-size prototype, Model A, which has a range of 220 miles on land and a flying range of 110 miles.

By 2023, the Alef flying car had obtained special airworthiness certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States, becoming the first truly flying car recognized by the U.S. government. Tesla's Roadster still needs to pass the certification for its FAA model, and this process may take several years.

Last year, Alef released the first public video of its Model Zero Ultralight driving and flying, which included flying over a Tesla Cybertruck.

Alef CEO Jim Dukhovny said, "Welcome Tesla to the race for flying cars; we've been waiting alone for 11 years."

He said that competition is a "good thing." "This proves that the market has established a separate category for flying cars, created an industry that demands specific regulations, attracted investors' attention, helped to compare technologies, and established a benchmark for measurement."

Alef has received over 3,600 reservations, worth a total of 1 billion US dollars. In December last year, the company began to manually manufacture the first batch of flying cars at its factory in Silicon Valley, California, in preparation for delivery to customers.

The first batch of vehicles is expected to be delivered to a small number of early buyers by the end of 2026. Alef indicates that these vehicles will be used for "testing flying cars in a real-world environment under very controlled conditions."

With the increase in production in 2027, the company plans to train and assist early users in using this flying car.

Although having a flying car sounds interesting, it might not be cheap at first. The first flying car from Alef is expected to have a starting price of $299,999. Users can reserve a spot on their website with a deposit of $150, or pay $1,500 to secure a priority place in the queue.

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