Aeromobil wants to become the Tesla of flying cars. It has announced that its flying cars will be available to buy, and legally fly, from 2017.

The announcement, made at SXSW, follows the unveiling of the Aeromobil 3.0 flying car last October. Since then the Slovakian company has been in talks with EU officials to make sure it will meet the regulatory requirements to have the car on the roads, and in the air, by 2017.

Initially Aeromobil plans to follow Tesla's delivery model and create high-end "flying roadsters" that will sell to rich enthusiasts for hundreds of thousands of euros. Then, once some money and experience are attained, the company plans to release a more mass-market flying car.

The first flying car will be a carbon fibre two-seater, have a 430-mile range, feature Garmin avionics and a two-axis autopilot.

The second, or flying car for the people, we imagine will be like a Tesla Model S equivalent. This will be a four-seater hybrid with double the range of the first model. But more importantly it will be totally autonomous. Whether this means the driver won't need any flying qualifications isn't clear yet but we'd hope so.

One of the key features of these cars will be their ability to land on grass. This will mean small eco-friendly landing strips are all that will be needed alongside roads to allow driver-pilots to take to the skies or re-join roads.

Expect to see the first model arrive in 2017 followed by the more people-friendly version in the following years.

READ: Aeromobil 3.0 is the flying car that fits on the road and can travel 500 miles