Apart from electric vehicles, the one area of technological innovation in the transportation sector is the advent of eVTOLs, or electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles, with companies like Air, Kitty Hawk investing heavily in the space. Now there is Volocopter which is bringing its eVTOLs to Japan with public tests in 2023. It announced this at the Osaka Roundtable and it will be showcasing its flight technology during Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai. It already has orders placed from its investor Japan Airlines (JAL).
Volocopter is a German urban air mobility company developer that functions as an aircraft manufacturer, an airport, an overall pioneer in the airline industry. It has over 400 employees and is backed by both Daimler and Japan Airlines.
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It already has plans of operating the service in Singapore and Paris
"We are honored to be seated at the Osaka Roundtable and take flight at an important milestone of the Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai. Japan's and Osaka's commitment to UAM commercialization and its open approach allows us to be involved in pioneering them into the future of mobility. As the world's first and only eVTOL developer with successful public flights on several continents and a family of multi-functional aircraft, we are confident that we will become an integral part of Japan's future UAM ecosystem. Together with our partners, we aim to improve lives in densely populated areas with our sustainable UAM services," said Florian Reuter, the CEO of Volocopter.
Volocopter has already been working on launching its eVTOLs in Singapore as an air taxi service within the next three years. It also has China's Geely which has ordered 15 Volocopter products within the next five years. Japan Airlines has announced that it will use Volocopter's electric air taxis and heavy cargo lift drones in Japan. It is already looking beyond eVTOL vehicles for Japan Airlines.
Volocopter will be showcasing its UAM tech at Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai which takes place in cities around the world every few years. Japan has also been working since 2018 to implement eVTOL's commercially and have heavy lifting drones.
