- Japanese start-up ALI Technologies launched pre-sales for a $684,000
hoverbike on Tuesday. - The bike has four battery-powered motors and can reach speeds of 62 mph, Reuters reported.
A Japanese startup launched pre-sales for a $684,000 (77.7 million yen) hoverbike on Tuesday.
ALI Technologies said that its XTurismo Limited Edition hoverbike can reach speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph), Reuters reported.
The company said that the single-rider bike can fly between 30 and 40 minutes on a single charge. ALI said that the bikes weigh around 300 kilograms (660 pounds), and can carry a payload of up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds).
Reuters reported that the bike had a conventional engine and four battery-powered motors, and videos released by the ALI show that it has two landing skids.
The company debuted the product on Tuesday at the Fuji Speedway, a motorsports race track near Mount Fuji in Oyama,
ALI said that it was planning on making 200 units in a limited-edition run, which it said it hoped to deliver in the first half of 2022.
ALI CEO Daisuke Katano told Reuters that the vehicle would be limited to race tracks and not allowed to fly over roads for the time being because of Japanese legislation. But he said that in the future, the bike could be used by emergency-rescue teams to access remote locations.
"Until now the choice has been to move on the ground or at scale in the sky," Katano told the publication. "We hope to offer a new method of movement."
ALI started out as an AI-equipped drone development company, and has been working on its hoverbike since 2017. The company's backers include Mitsubishi Electric, Kyocera, and the Japanese soccer player Keisuke Honda, Reuters reported.