After more than a decade, the market for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is on the rise, and its goal of making urban air mobility (UAM) for everyone personal, on-demand and carbon-free looks within reach.
Big money is backing air taxis. This year, at least four leading players will go public. All will reverse-merge into existing listed investment vehicles – or SPACs – which will receive funding from current and new investors.
The deals will take the companies’ resources beyond a $700m (£500m) threshold, defined by Lufthansa Innovation Hub as the “minimum estimated capital threshold needed for successful development, certification and industrialisation of air taxis”. Others look set to follow as the sector consolidates.
Of the four front-runners, two are American: Joby Aviation, considered eVTOL’s most advanced (raising $6.6bn), and Archer Aviation, which just unveiled its Maker technology demonstrator aimed at seeding certification...