Brazil’s Embraer, the world’s third largest aircraft manufacturer, announced on Thursday that it will assemble its first factory of electric horizontal take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL), the so-called “flying cars”, in Taubaté, a city in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo.

The drone-like passenger vehicles, which resemble small helicopters, will initially be used in taxi fleets, with initial flights costing between $50 and $100 per person per trip, company sources told AFP. The first flights will have a pilot, but a later deployment of automatically guided vehicles is also planned.

It will be the first physical factory of Eve Air Mobility, a company controlled by Embraer, with shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, which plans to launch an all-electric horizontal take-off aircraft for urban flight in 2026, with zero pollutant emissions and noise levels 90% lower than a helicopter.

The plant will be an extension of the industrial plant Embraer already has in Taubaté, a city a few kilometers from Sao Paulo, a megalopolis of 11.5 million people with monstrous traffic jams, it has the largest helicopter fleet in the world.

Embraer made the announcement of its factory to commemorate the birth of aviation pioneer Alberto Santos Dumont, patron of Brazilian aviation and considered the father of aviation.

“The place benefits from strategic logistics as it is easily accessible by highways and proximity to a railway line,” Embraer, the world leader in the production of regional flight aircraft, said in a statement to the market.

According to the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, the new factory also has the advantage of being close to Embraer’s headquarters in the neighboring city of Sao José dos Campos, where Eve’s technical and human resources team already works.

“When we started looking for a place to manufacture our eVTOL, we thought about how the aircraft could be produced using the latest technologies and manufacturing processes, combined with other aspects such as supply chain and logistics,” Eve CEO André Stein said in the statement.

Embraer CEO Francisco Gomes Neto, also quoted in the note, stated that the decision reinforces the company’s commitment to the “potential of the global urban air mobility market” and its commitment to making Eve one of the leading companies in that industry.

According to the statement, Eve is not only developing its “electric car” but also assembling a “broad portfolio of agnostic solutions, including unique Urban Air Traffic Management software, to optimize urban air mobility operations around the world.”

While the company predicts the aircraft will launch in 2026, Eve is expected to conduct the first test flights of the flying vehicle in 2024.

The planned aircraft will be 100% electric, battery-powered and initially capable of carrying four passengers, in addition to the pilot, over a distance of up to 100 kilometers.

Eve already offers its flying cars commercially despite the fact that they are still in development and has contracts to supply nearly 2,000 to about 20 customers.