Autocar notebook: Audi’s microplastic mission Car News

This week, our notebook is filled with stories of incredible flying cars and the slightly less glamorous (but still more important) task of cleaning up microplastics.

Sky is the limit

The old dream of flying cars could still come true, after Suzuki announced a tie-up with Skydrive, described as “one of the leading manufacturers of flying cars in Japan”.

They are collaborating on a compact two-seat flying electric car, with plans for full production. An air taxi service should even start in 2025 in Japan. Please note that the term “car” is used quite loosely here. Until now, Skydrive’s creations would best be classified as small planes, with legs rather than wheels and propellers on each side.

Suzuki said it wants to “develop superior value products with a focus on the customer” and add a fourth leg of mobility to its automobile, motorcycle and marine outboard motor offering.

clean the streets

In addition to being a pioneer in the development of electric vehicles, Audi tries to prevent harmful materials from entering our ecosystems and “filter microplastics where they are created”.

Together with the University of Berlin, the automaker is developing filters for streets, drains and sewers to prevent tire and road particles from entering the ground, rivers and the ocean. It says that around 110,000 metric tons of this product ends up on the streets of Germany every year.

“Our aim is to take preventive measures as far as possible,” said environmental foundation director Rüdiger Recknagel. The filters also capture cleaning waste, cigarette filters, wrappers and other plastic pellets up to 3mm.