Urban air mobility is set to revolutionize transportation networks by introducing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) for commercial use in the very near term. The latest development in electric air mobility comes from Paris, where air-taxi pioneer Volocopter GmbH flew its two-passenger eVTOL ahead of commercialization.
Reuters published a video of Volocopter’s two-seater VoloCity air taxi completing its “first integrated flight in conventional air traffic outside of Paris” earlier this month.
Volocopter’s CEO Dirk Hoke wrote VoloCity “provides an additional emission-free transport option for the public. Every test is one step closer to commercialization in time for 2024.”
Earlier this month, the company raised $182 million in a Series E round, with a $1.87 billion valuation, according to TechCrunch.
Volocopter expects the European Union Aviation Safety Agency to certify VoloCity in the second half of 2023. Initial revenue-generating rides could begin as soon as 2024.
Chief Commercial Officer Christian Bauer, a former Daimler executive, told Bloomberg that Volocopter would be the ‘Tesla of the skies’ for eVTOLs once technology improves.
“Tesla started with a two-seater because the battery technology wasn’t there and now they are the most valuable car brand in the world,” he said. “That’s where we want to go.”
Ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Aeroports de Paris, which operates airports in the capital, will open eVTOL ports around the metro area.
“Two flying taxi routes are planned for the games, one from Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget airports to central Paris, where a vertiport will be positioned on a barge on the Seine river, the other from the Saint-Cyr aerodrome near Versailles into the city,” Bloomberg said. The world’s first vertiport was opened in the UK earlier this year.
