Airbus Pop.Up flying electric car concept vehicle

Airbus Pop.Up flying electric car concept vehicle unveiled at the Geneva Auto Show in 2017, is the world’s first concept vehicle of its nature.The Pop.Up is a collaboration between Airbus and Italdesign, where aerospace and automotive industries unite to draw up a shared vision for seamless, multi-modal, fully electric urban mobility. Urban transportation is moving into the third dimension, exploring city skies to contribute to relieving congested roads and reducing emissions. The modular concept includes a capsule that connects to either a ground or air module and can be integrated into other means of transportation. An Artificial Intelligence platform will manage the trips offering passengers multiple optimized choices of transport combinations to match their travel preferences. Passengers will interact with the multimodal transportation system through a simple app. Passengers can relax and enjoy their journey thanks to a self-piloted system for both ground and air transportation.

At the heart of the concept is a capsule: designed to accommodate passengers. This high-tech, monocoque carbon-fibre cocoon measures 2.6 meters long, 1.4 meters high, and 1.5 meters wide. The capsule transforms itself into a city car by simply coupling to the ground module, which features a carbon-fibre chassis and is battery powered.

For megacity journeys with high congested traffic, the capsule disconnects from the ground module and is carried by a 5 by 4.4-meter air module propelled by eight counter-rotating rotors. In this configuration, Pop.Up becomes an urban self-piloted air vehicle, taking advantage of the third dimension to get from A to B efficiently while avoiding traffic congestion on the ground.