Porsche’s recent announcement of a collaboration with Boeing is part of a wider Boeing push for upbeat PR. In the aftermath of the tragic 737 Max air crashes that led to the death of more than 300 people, Boeing’s share price needs good-news stories to reverse recent losses and to remind its investors that the company is focused on the future.

Porsche investors also like a good news story. Stuttgart’s push towards defining electric vehicle mobility for the 1%, and the constant reminders that innovation is at the heart of ‘new Porsche’ made this year’s first flight of the electric aircraft under development by Boeing subsidiary, Aurora Flight Sciences, an ideal PR platform for both organisations.

Having signed a (non-binding) Memorandum of Understanding to develop a concept for a fully electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, the artist’s impressions of what a Porsche-Boeing flying car might look like is guaranteed to grab a few headlines, but there is a long way to go before we see flying cars. Both organisations have serious issues to resolve before high-flying Porsche buyers can reach for the skies.

Several hundred deceased 737 passengers and the row over Boeing engineers carrying out the US Federal Aviation Authority’s (FAA) safety approvals of the 737 MAX are not going to go away quickly.

Across the pond in Germany, the emissions cheating scandal continues to dog Volkswagen AG, with Brunswick public prosecutors recently bringing charges against Hans Dieter Pötsch (Porsche SE exec board chair), Dr. Herbert Diess (VW’s board of management chair) and the former Chairman of the VW Management Board, Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn.

With headlines like these dominating recent business pages, some flying car artwork will come as a blessed relief for the press departments. It will also lead to some people describing the idea as Porsche’s latest bid to keep tabs on Tesla’s challenge to become the high-end personal mobility brand of the future, but that is a whole other story.

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