BEYOND THE CAR: eVTOL

The electric revolution has spilled over into other forms of mobility and our daily lives. Falling battery costs, increased power density and improving battery management sophistication has spawned new mobility possibilities. Electric kick scooters, mopeds, drones, even flying cars and electric commercial aeroplanes are all now possible, and in some cases, already a reality.

Electric Scooter Charging On-Street

Advancements in battery technology, apart from in electric cars, may have gone largely unnoticed. Just walk into your local hardware store and you'll see everything seems to be going electric now. I was recently struck to see some public park gardeners using weed hackers and hedge trimmers that were electric. I recently replaced an old petrol push lawnmower with an electric 18 Volt dual battery lithium-ion powered mower. This technology spillover has been happening in part because of the advancements in batteries led by the electric car revolution.

It can be argued that lithium-ion advancements have even changed the way modern society views car ownership and personal transport. So called Mobility-As-A-Service (MAAS) has created multi-billion-dollar industries in on-street electric scooters for example, made possible by lithium-ion batteries delivering 20 plus miles of range. On-street electric bicycles have also become popular in many cities, again due to lithium-ion advancements. MAAS is disrupting the very concept of owning a car. The use of shared mobility platforms is growing in cities worldwide. Micro mobility, car sharing, car rental and mid-term leasing will replace direct car ownership in many cases. This trend is accelerating.

Let's look at some of the incredible possibilities now reshaping the world of propelled movement for the first time in nearly a century.

eVTOL

VTOL, Vertical Takeoff and Landing is not new, fossil fuel-powered helicopters and military jets have had this capability for decades, but replace combustion with batteries and you get eVTOL. Remote control battery-powered drones became popular in the early 2000s and began to find commercial uses on a wide scale in recent years.

Traditional Fossil-Fuel Powered Helicopter

Electric-powered drones are being used to deliver medical supplies in some parts of the world, for example by US-based, Zipline in Africa. Using drones for parcel delivery has been piloted and tested by Amazon and Wing in the US. Even three-minute food delivery by drone from startups like Irish company Manna is now a reality.

Piloting lightweight small-scale drones with batteries is one thing but what about electric-powered aircraft for human transport? When I was a kid and watched the Back to the Future films, I expected

my DeLorean-like car to be able to fly, just powered by waste food in my portable Fusion reactor, by the time I was an adult. This was of course science fiction, but drone-like passenger eVTOL aircraft are being pioneered by several startups for commercial launch in the very near future.

German startup, Lilium, has developed a working five and seven-seater eVTOL short-range aircraft that can recharge just like an electric car from a standard 220/240/110 volt plug. They’ve dubbed it as an all-electric air taxi in what they state will be an air mobility revolution. Echoing Tesla’s philosophy, they focus on simplicity of design and user interface combined with safety. In 2019 the Lilium jet became a reality when its first maiden prototype flight was successful. Lilium’s target is 300 kilometers per hour in level flight and a range of 300 kilometers.

Electric Drone

eVTOL requires high power to lift even this lightweight machine off the ground before it begins level flight. Liftoff and landing, therefore, consume 10 times more energy than vertical level flight. To achieve this, it has rotating wings containing 36 electric ducted fan motors (EDFs). The design, inspired by a manta ray, gives a highly efficient drag ratio and flight performance.

Like small electric drones, manoeuvrability can be controlled by the individual electric fans. These fans produce low noise making this not just a sleek lightweight aircraft, but Lillium will be a relatively quiet object in the sky. With higher battery density technology improving, it is estimated the jet will have 300 kilowatts of total stored energy, about four times that of a typical electric car.

It’s not just new players, big established commercial airline companies, like United Airlines, are working on their own eVTOL aircraft.

Announcing an order for eVTOL aircraft from Californian startup Archer Aviation, United's plan is to fly passengers from one airport to the next over short distances for connecting flights. Planning for over 200 eVTOLs with an investment worth over $1.5 billion takes the concept from dream to serious reality. United’s eVTOL is expected in 2025.

With the near exponential rate of change in the 21st century, many 20th-century business models simply won't survive in this century and no industry is immune. The big players don’t plan to be left behind like the auto carmakers were by Tesla; Airbus is developing an all-electric multi-copter as an air taxi. Other startups like Joby Aviation, Japanese Skydrive and German Volocopter (a multiple rotor helicopter) aim to make hailing an eVTOL taxi as cost-effective as hiring an Uber today. Uber itself developed its UBER Elevate platform and later handed the business to Joby Aviation. This is now serious business. In Korea, over $20 billion has already been invested in air taxis, hub locations and technology. Regulatory aviation issues need to be overcome, air corridors need to be created, safety and necessary landing and takeoff hubs need to be agreed upon, but this isn't some vague distant future, this is happening.

The American Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has already published some concepts for future urban eVTOL operators. Once again China is trying to take the lead, with its EHang eVTOL aircraft which also focuses on delivering an autonomous experience. The global market could be worth more than a trillion dollars by 2040.

eVTOL is repeating a similar pattern to the electric car revolution. Elon Musk himself has even said he would love to do an eVTOL aircraft. From teenage dreams of flying cars to working eVTOL prototypes that are about to enter mass production, your children will almost certainly be commuting routinely in electric-powered short hop aircraft.