Europe’s flying taxi aspirations collapse as finance runs low.

During the Paris Olympics, Volocopter proposed its business case for an electric flying taxi service, but instead of launching operational flights, the company carried out demonstration flights. This choice was made due to the harsh realities the company was up against in its quest to raise new funds to support its operations.

In a bid to raise funds, Volocopter was in talks to borrow €100 million from the government, but these talks broke down in April. The unsuccessful attempts of this economic scheme now mean that the hopes for the company’s future again rest upon the possible cash infusion of Geely – the Chinese multinational that is currently negotiating to purchase 85 percent of Volocopter for 95 million dollars. Should this deal happen, the manufacture of the aircrafts for Volocopter may be relocated to China.

Volocopter is one of many players in the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft industry. These advanced machines are meant to provide the advantages of helicopters but will not have some of their drawbacks such as : high prices, noisy operation and pollution. Yet, the size of regulatory framework for such novel aircraft and cost of building a manufacturing plant in turn has made some investors maintain their distance with the project. One such composure is the case of Lilium which had its eyes set on an audacious eVTOL design with 30 electric jets, all of which would be tilting to shift between vertical lift and forward flight.

Vertical Aerospace, a promising eVTOL company based in the United Kingdom, has made some progress; nevertheless, it is still facing financial constraints. The company aims to provide a total of 150 aircraft to its customers by the end of this decade while announcing production capacities of up to 200 aircraft a year.

Despite the aforementioned issues affecting the eVTOL sector globally, one European project seems to be progressing without any hitches. It seems that the eVTOL project being worked on by Airbus is set to move forward without major delays. Moreover, in the U.S., some other well-funded newcomers, like Joby and Archer, also appear to be quite optimistic and, presumably, will go on with the production of their aircraft.

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to follow my whatsapp channel