Meet the flying cars, taxis, electric motorcycles, and scooters of CES 2019

Move over, self-driving cars.
By Sasha Lekach  on 
Meet the flying cars, taxis, electric motorcycles, and scooters of CES 2019
Harley-Davidson goes electric at CES 2019. Credit: bridget bennett / mashable

Everyone talks about how CES has become the main auto show of the year, pushing the Detroit Auto Show from its long-running time in January to June starting in 2020. But it's not just cars or what goes in them on display at the tech show in Las Vegas.

Hold on tight for some of the funkier, over-the-top concepts, prototypes, and even real production vehicles that vie for the spotlight at the massive tech trade show. Here's a collection of electric flying vehicles, electric motorcycles, three-wheeled scooters, and much more. And, as always, we can't forget the e-scooters.

Harley-Davidson electric motorcycle

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Riding clean with an electric motorcycle. Credit: bridget bennett / mashable

The LiveWire -- Harley-Davidson's first all-electric motorcycle -- was on display after the motorcycle-riding community learned this week that pre-orders are now open. The bike is expected to arrive in August and will cost about $30,000.

This is not a concept vehicle -- it's actually coming, and soon.

Personal flying vehicle

The ElectraFly from Deseret UAS is a hybrid-electric one-person flying vehicle. But getting someone to willingly strap into the device might be a hard sell. It's still a prototype, but the company envisions this as a tool for military or emergency services. Eventually the flying machine wants to become an air taxi. That'll be quite the ride to hail.

Bell air taxi

The monstrous Nexus from helicopter company Bell couldn't be avoided -- it was so huge on the show floor everyone noticed.

It's just a concept of what on-demand air travel could one day look like. But it's intense.

Pal-V flying car

Pal-V didn't bring their Liberty flying car to CES, but they were showing VR demos of the hybrid vehicle experience.

Drive mode. Credit: pal-v
Flight mode. Credit: pal-v

The Dutch company plans to take off this year. Pal-V showed off the car/plane combo that seats two people and can fly or drive on the road. It's been taking reservations to buy the vehicle and is expected to debut sometime this year.

Yamaha's three-wheeled vehicles

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Ready to roll! Credit: Sasha lekach/mashable

A three-wheeled motorcycle sounds like a tricycle with a powerful engine, but Yamaha put its Niken on display to show that this is a beast of a machine.

Next to it was the smaller, less intimidating Tritown concept vehicle -- especially a three-wheeled electric scooter. Yamaha calls it a "compact electric stand-up riding" vehicle. The way you stand controls its balance.

E-scooters

Segway-Ninebot provides the scooter hardware for a lot of e-scooter companies like Bird, Lyft, Spin, and others. This year at CES, they showed off a new model.

Meet the Shared Scooter Model Max, intended for repeated use and tough conditions on city streets.

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Model Max is made for scooter fleets. Credit: segway-ninebot

Other battery-powered scooters were all over the show as well, like the AppScooter from Etergo, which claims to have 150 miles of range.

And you can't forget the creature-like AT-AT-lookalike Elevate, a four-legged rescue vehicle from Hyundai.

It's way more than cars at CES.

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Sasha Lekach

Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.


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