The start-up launches the £ 495,000 hoverbike in Japan

A Japanese start-up hopes to persuade motorists to trade their cars for a $ 680,000 (£ 495,000) hoverbike.

ALI Technologies’ limited edition XTurismo went on sale in Japan on Wednesday.

Electronics giant Mitsubishi and footballer Keisuke Honda are two supporters of the Tokyo-based company.

ALI Technologies claims that the hoverbike can fly for 40 minutes at up to 100km / h (62mph) on a single charge.

The company aims to produce 200 single-rider 300kg (47 stones) hoverbikes by mid-2022.

Each is equipped with a conventional motor and four battery-powered motors.

“So far, the choice has been to move on land or on a large scale in the sky,” said ALI Technologies CEO Daisuke Katano.

“We hope to offer a new method of movement.”

Overcrowding is a major problem for Tokyo’s 13.5 million residents.

The high-tech city is the most populous metropolitan area in the world.

But current laws will ban hoverbikes from flying over the busy roads of Japan.

However, Katano hopes rescue teams will use them to reach inaccessible areas.

Ben Gardner, of Pinsent Masons, told BBC News that vehicles that once looked like the distant future were becoming more tangible every year.

“Ultimately, we have room to see the vehicle deployed in the UK,” he said.

The hoverbike would not be considered roadworthy under current UK law.

But Gardner said attention to new technologies in recent years could signal a change.

“Current experimentation with emerging technologies such as driverless cars, autonomous robots and drones shows that there is a blueprint for new forms of transportation to get out of the realms of science fiction and into the real world,” he said.

Venture capitalists, aviation companies and even rideshare company Uber, with its ambitious Uber Elevate, are claiming the burgeoning flying auto industry, which analysts say could be worth as much as $ 1.5 trillion by 2040.