The M1 eVTOL aircraft at the 6th China International Import Expo in Shanghai. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By Staff Reporters

How long does it take to travel from the Shanghai Pudong International Airport to the Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport 50 kilometers apart? If the road is clear, about one hour by car,and 90 minutes by public transport.

But if you take the Maxtrix 1 (M1), it will take just 20 minutes and cost you about 200 yuan, according to Liu Xingyu, deputy general manager of Chinese startup Vertaxi.

The M1 is an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and Vertaxi, a company based in Zhuhai in south China, is the developer of the M1, which was unveiled at the 2024 China Brand Day event in Shanghai recently.

The aircraft has composite wings with 20 rotors, which give it a wingspan of 15 meters and a fuselage length of 10 meters. It is designed to accommodate five passengers and can fly efficiently for 250 kilometers at a speed at 200 kilometers per hour. Its main application scenarios are three-dimensional transportation within cities and short-distance travel between cities.

An eVTOL uses pure electric energy, does not require a runway for take-off and landing, and can achieve intelligent and fully autonomous flight without a pilot. It is widely regarded as the best transportation option for future urban low-altitude travel due to its low-carbon, environmentally friendly, low-noise, and high-safety characteristics. It is also known as the future "air taxi".