Air taxis: the latest on the flying electric cars bringing the Jetsons dream to life

Two years before German air taxi manufacturer Lilium promised to deliver its first two aircraft to customers, the air taxi pioneer has run out of money and will imminently stop making them. In a filing to the US SEC, Lilium says it cannot acquire the funding to continue operations in its subsidiaries (Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH), and is going into insolvency. We’ve been covering the company continually since 2017, when it successfully took its first flight in Germany.

Lilium had previously confirmed it had begun assembling its first two all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in Germany, while working towards certification from the EASA and FAA, but its first customer deliveries weren’t slated until 2026. The FAA had just finalized its rules for eVTOL operation requirements this week.

Toyota is investing another $500 million in Joby Aviation to support the air taxi startup’s certification and commercial production of eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft for use in a ridehailing service. The automaker has now invested a total of $894 million since 2018.

Toyota’s investment will come in the form of two $250 million tranches, the first of which will be completed this year and the second in 2025. The automaker will also establish a manufacturing alliance with Joby for the first commercialization phase. The companies had signed an agreement in 2023 to let Toyota make powertrain components for Joby’s air taxi.

The last time Hyundai brought an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) prototype to CES, it was 2020, and the South Korean automaker was talking bullishly about adding it to Uber’s forthcoming air taxi network.

Today, Uber’s air taxi network has been sold to another startup, the air taxi industry as a whole is still struggling to get a commercial service up and running, and Hyundai is unveiling a new “product concept” that it says will be ready for production by 2028.

Lilium, an electric aviation company based in Germany, said it wants to be the first to sell electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in the US. But it won’t be cheap.

Lilium struck a partnership with a full-service air brokerage and management company, Texas-based EMC Jet, to connect it to the private jet market in the hopes of attracting bigwigs who might be tired of noisy, polluting private jets. And it has secured the first handful of production slots for the aircraft that it will sell to private customers.

Life is amazing in 2023 — we have tiny computers with amazing cameras in our pockets; massive, dirt-cheap (or free!) TVs; cars that (sort of) drive themselves — but where are our flying cars and jet packs? The flying cars are at least in China, or that’s where they’ll get their first real commercial flights, anyway. EHang Holdings said last week that the government there issued it a certification to start actual passenger trials in the country.

The company will be allowed to take passengers on aerial tours, which Bloomberg reported it will offer through local partnerships in Xinjiang province and Shenzen. The “type certificate,” issued by CAAC, China’s aviation authority, signifies that its E216-S air taxi “fully complies with CAAC’s safety standards and airworthiness requirements.”

Delta Airlines will invest $60 million in Joby Aviation, a leading electric air taxi startup, to create a “home-to-airport” service using the startup’s five-seat electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the companies announced Tuesday. Delta said its investment in Joby could go as high as $200 million if the company hits certain milestones.

The service, which will launch first in New York City and Los Angeles with other cities to follow, will be “mutually exclusive” across the US and UK for five years, with the option to extend that exclusivity for longer, the companies said. The home-to-airport service will exist in parallel to Joby’s currently nonexistent airport service, transporting passengers from cities to airports.

Air taxi startup Wisk Aero unveiled its sixth-generation aircraft, an all-electric four-seater that can fly without a human pilot. The Boeing-backed company said it will seek approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to carry passengers as part of a commercial air taxi service.

Wisk, which was formed in 2019 as a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk, the flying taxi company bankrolled by Google co-founder Larry Page that recently shut down, is in a race to become the first so-called advanced air mobility company to get the green light from the FAA for passenger testing. Wisk claims that its sixth-generation aircraft is the first electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) candidate for type certification.

Kitty Hawk, the ambitious “flying car” startup funded by Google co-founder Larry Page, is winding down, which the company confirmed in a brief post on LinkedIn earlier today.

According to a report from Insider, sources inside the company said Kitty Hawk had already shut down work on the 100-mile-capable Heaviside vehicle. Insider also reports that Page had become increasingly hands-off from the company but said he was more closely involved with its shift to research and development after the end of the Heaviside project.

United Airlines is investing $15 million in Eve Air Mobility, an electric aviation startup owned by Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. As part of the deal, United will purchase 200 of Eve’s electric air taxis, which can seat four passengers and take off and land vertically like a helicopter.

This is the second major investment from United in the nascent world of electric air mobility after investing an undisclosed amount of money in Archer last year. These companies propose to develop small, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that can fly from rooftop to rooftop in a dense city as a taxi service. But so far, none have received clearance from federal aviation regulators to fly passengers.

Joby Aviation, a leading electric aviation company based in Northern California, announced that it has received its first certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The agency awarded the company with a Part 135 air carrier certification, which Joby will need to operate an on-demand air taxi service.

The certification was awarded ahead of schedule, with Joby initially targeting the second half of 2022 for its receipt. Under Part 135, Joby can officially conduct commercial air taxi services — though it still needs two more certifications, alongside type certification and production certification, before its aircraft can legally carry passengers. Type certification means the aircraft meets all the FAA’s design and safety standards, while production certification is the approval to begin manufacturing the aircraft.

Wisk Aero, the electric air taxi startup, raised $450 million from Boeing in a new funding round that it claims will make it “one of the most well-funded [advanced air mobility] companies in the world.”

In its announcement, Wisk highlights the fact that its “a privately-backed AAM leader,” setting up a contrast with a slate of similar startups that have gone public in recent months by merging with special purpose acquisition companies, also known as SPACs or “blank check” companies. Wisk Aero was formed in 2019 as a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk, the flying taxi company bankrolled by Google co-founder Larry Page.

NASA’s first electric plane is getting ready for takeoff. 

For the last five years, a small team of NASA engineers has been working to convert an Italian Tecnam P2006T aircraft so that it runs only on battery power. The X-57 Maxwell, named after 19th-century Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, recently began high-voltage functional ground testing at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., and is set to take its inaugural flight in the spring of 2022.