Reuters posted a video of the electric air taxi VoloCity taking flight in Paris, touting it as the Tesla of the skies.
In the very near future, electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) will be available for commercial usage, revolutionising transportation networks with urban air mobility. Paris is home to the most recent advancement in electric air mobility, where air-taxi pioneer Volocopter GmbH tested its two-passenger eVTOL plane before it was commercially available.
A video of the two-seater VoloCity air taxi from Volocopter doing its “first integrated flight in conventional air traffic outside of Paris” was published by Reuters earlier this month.
Dirk Hoke, the CEO of Volocopter, said VoloCity “provides an additional emission-free transport option for the public. Every test is one step closer to commercialization in time for 2024.”
According to TechCrunch, the company secured $182 million in a Series E funding earlier this month, valued at $1.87 billion.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency is anticipated to certify VoloCity in the second half of 2023, according to Volocopter. Initial revenue-generating rides could begin as soon as 2024.
Former Daimler executive and current Chief Commercial Officer Christian Bauer predicted to Bloomberg that once technology advances, Volocopter will become the “Tesla of the skies” for eVTOLs.
“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.”
Aeroports de Paris, which manages airports in the city, will open eVTOL ports around the metro region prior to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
“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.