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FLYING CARS ARE APPARENTLY ON THE WAY…TO CHANGE LOGISTICS

flying cars

FLYING CARS ARE APPARENTLY ON THE WAY…TO CHANGE LOGISTICS

“A 3D transport swarm is coming to your city soon.”

That is not the rambling of a geek pretending to be a nerd who is hiding his dorkiness in his mother’s basement behind a big screen permanently fixed on Syfy.

It comes from none other than Morgan Stanley, which continues, “Over the past day, we’ve seen a number of interesting developments around the UAM (Urban Air Mobility) and eVTOL domain that comprise just a small part of what is clearly becoming a profound development. GM unveiled the latest rendering of its Cadillac branded eVTOL at CES. And the previous day, Tom Enders (former head of Airbus) joined the board of Lilium. Many of our clients may, understandably, chalk the excitement around flying cars to free money and a frothy market environment. Oh sure, that helps… but we believe there are bigger forces at work and worth investor attention today.”

The multinational bank and financial services company’s frequent flyers go on to lay some implications flying cars will have, including a post-COVID, final-mile role in logistics and e-commerce.

And while no less than Tesla CEO Elon Musk has historically dismissed UAM transport modality—due to noise, privacy and general annoyance concerns—Morgan Stanley says, “[W]e would not bet against Tesla unveiling a concept in the UAM arena in the near future.”

AMAZON AIR ENCROACHING ON UPS & FDX AIR SPACE

“We think the market is missing the risk Amazon Air poses to UPS/FDX growth,” say researchers at Morgan Stanley. “Our work with AlphaWise shapes our analysis of AMZN Air’s impact to date and plots a potential expansion course. Lowering PTs for UPS and FDX and quantifying AMZN savings.”

Morgan Stanley notes that, for now, investors are focusing on Amazon’s last-mile efforts, but the Manhattan-based multinational bank and financial services concern believes the Amazon Air challenge is just as relevant.

“We’ve written extensively on Amazon’s build-out of its internal logistics network, but given Amazon’s plans to take delivery of 40 planes and build an air hub that could potentially handle 100 planes, we’ve taken a closer look at the impact of Amazon Air (its in-house Express Air network) on UPS/FedEx Air volumes,” state the researchers, who point to their own interactive online map.

Learn more at morganstanley.com.