In the slipstream of Tesla’s recent Roadster flight show, California-based startup Alef Aeronautics sees an opportunity to grab attention. The company released a video of its flying car almost simultaneously with the Roadster presentation.

A short clip shows a prototype from Alef Aeronautics flying over four vehicles before landing again. Among these four vehicles is an older Tesla Roadster. The startup commented: “Welcome, Tesla, to the flying car race; we’ve been here alone for eleven years.” The company claimed this flight marked the 1,000th recorded flight of its flying car, cheekily adding: “Tesla Roadster today became the second flying car in history, following Alef”.

Since mid-2023, it’s been known that Alef Aeronautics is developing a fully electric flying car. The two-seater Model A, announced at the time by the company founded in 2015, is designed to drive on public roads and take off and land vertically. According to the manufacturer’s specifications at the time, the road range is 200 miles, while the flight range is 110 miles – equivalent to 320 and 177 kilometres, respectively. In 2023, Alef Aeronautics also stated that it had already received a Special Airworthiness Certificate from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the Model A, allowing limited flight operations. However, few details about the flying car itself have been disclosed so far.

This is something it shares with the newly unveiled Tesla Roadster. Nine years after the first prototype, little remains of the original Tesla concept – neither in design nor in technology. Moreover, during last Thursday’s presentation, technical specifications were completely overshadowed by the car’s flight demonstration.

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