Today's recommended read goes back to 2019, when after years as China's top-selling automaker, Volkswagen hoped to own a piece of the sky.

The German automaker’s goal was to move fast with an in-house startup team in Beijing to produce a flying car — a moonshot challenge that had stumped its Porsche and Audi divisions. In China, for China, VW would deliver what it described internally as a “luxury futuristic” drone that would convey four wealthy passengers in style. 

But now, while local upstarts prepare for flying-car liftoff in China, Volkswagen remains grounded.

Volkswagen's flying-car effort couldn’t match the speed of China’s emerging market for drones, air taxis and other aviation services aimed at the airspace below 1,000 meters. Local rivals, governments and supply chains have moved faster than the legacy giant with its culture of deliberation and compliance safeguards.

VW’s stumble serves as another example of older automakers rapidly losing business to Chinese competitors.