Airspeeder, the performance electric flying car racing series backed by Australian company Alauda, has signed the United Nations’ Sports for Climate Action pledge, joining the futuristic racing competition to other sporting bodies including The International Olympic Committee, The FIA, Formula E, Extreme E, and The New York Yankees.
Billed as the world’s first racing series for manned flying electric cars, Airspeeder is a planned international racing league using manned electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOL).
Earlier this year, Airspeeder unveiled their Mk3 full-sized remotely operated eVTOL, an unmanned version of its Speeder eVTOL which will operate as a technical testbed laster this year and act as a feeder series to the manned series expected to begin in 2022.
Airspeeder, and its parent company Alauda, is currently manufacturing a full grid of Mk3 electric flying cars at its headquarters in Adelaide, South Australia, with 10 identical racing vehicles being produced before being supplied to teams.
Final pre-season tests will take place behind closed doors before the start of an international racing calendar.
Capable of achieving 120-kilometres-per-hour, the Mk3 utilises LiDAR and Radar collision avoidance systems that create a “virtual forcefield” around the craft – as was reported last year.
“This is a landmark moment in the dawn of a new mobility revolution,” said Matt Pearson, founder of Airspeeder and Alauda Aeronautics. “Competition drives progress, and our racing series is hastening the arrival of technology that’ll transform clean-air passenger transport, logistics and even advanced air mobility for medical applications.”
Airspeeder and Alauda have signed the Sports for Climate Action framework designed at supporting and guiding sports actors in achieving global climate change goals.
Signatories of the framework united behind a set of five principals – Undertaking systematic efforts to promote greater environmental responsibility, reducing overall climate impact, educating for climate action, promoting sustainable and responsible consumption, and advocating for climate action through communication.
“Airspeeder exists at the confluence of next-generation sport and cutting-edge technology,” said Pearson on Wednesday. “By racing we hasten the arrival of a clean-air mobility revolution that will transform urban passenger transport, global logistics and even remote medical applications.
“We are a sport conceived amidst the urgent global need to dramatically reduce impact.
Airspeeder claims its racing league would require no resource-intensive infrastructure. Tracks are built digitally utilising the latest LiDAR, Radar, and Augmented Reality Technology, which means there is no requirement to build impactful infrastructure.
As a result, Airspeeder believes that the league “will take racing to places it has never been before, offering fans watching via global streaming services the opportunity to witness racing in a more diverse range of landscapes than is possible in any other form of motorsport.”
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.