Manufacturing Finally Kicks Off On World's First Flying Car

Many of us are still grappling with the idea of self-driving cars, and even those are still hit or miss. Witness, for example, recent reports of Waymo vehicles in San Francisco driving erratically and the company recalling more than 3,000 vehicles due to a software issue. If we're still having difficulty controlling cars on the ground, should we really be taking them into the air? An aeronautics company based in San Mateo says "yes."

Alef Aeronautics was founded in 2015 with one goal: build an actual flying car. The four founders thought it could be done in six months. The reality was much more complicated than they originally conceived. Despite that, Alef committed itself to building a car capable of driving on the road and parking in regular parking spaces, but which could also take off vertically, like a helicopter, and was affordable to those of us who aren't in the 1%. By 2019, Alef had a full-size prototype. In early December 2025, it finally started building its flying car.

The all-electric Alef Model A may look a bit like something out of a Batman movie, but Alef has already received 3,500 pre-orders for it, with the vehicle expected to cost $299,000. However, the company is confident that the price point will fall to compact car levels once it's able to scale up to mass production. Here's what we know, and how you can order your very own taste of the future.

The Model A is 100% driveable on the ground, but only at speeds up to 25 mph. The company assumes that you'll take to the air if you want to go any faster. The fully electric car is, according to Alef, the first road-legal passenger vehicle that can take off and land vertically. This separates it from an earlier flying car like the Samson Switchblade, which requires a runway.

Each Alef Model A takes months to build and involves both robotic and hand manufacturing. Individual parts are tested, and each car undergoes several test flights during production. The Alef Model A has eight propellers planted in a mesh shell around the driver's seat. Once it takes off, the whole vehicle rotates: the left and right sides turn into wings, and the driver's seat changes position to more resemble a cockpit.

Only a few customers will be receiving their Model As in the immediate future. These customers are reportedly early backers and are considered beta testers, with the company intending to use this process to help it transition to manufacturing and delivering pre-orders. If you're interested, you can pre-order your own flying car on Alef's website with $150 down to join the general queue or $1,500 to join the priority queue. Perhaps the biggest roadblock to mass production? A complete lack of regulations for this type of vehicle, which leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Will drivers need a pilot's license, for one? Also, will the Model A be considered an aircraft, a drone, or something else entirely? Only time will tell.