Volocopter and the global mobility technology group, Geely Technology Group, have presented Volocopter’s electric air taxi, the 2X, for the first time in China at Geely’s booth at the Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition 2021. The companies are highlighting their cooperation and aim to introduce urban air mobility to the Chinese market and give visitors the chance to learn more about this new form of transport.
Urban air mobility (UAM) is an emerging part of the aviation industry focused on aerial connectivity in and around cities. As a pioneer of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi technology, Volocopter has paved the way for creating the ecosystem needed to provide electric air taxi services within cities around the world. Together with Geely Technology Group, Volocopter is beginning the process of introducing these mobility services in China and creating a scalable model for production and operations.
Since announcing Geely’s strategic investment in Volocopter in 2019, the companies have been using their combined expertise in mobility to identify where electric air taxi services could be best introduced in China.
In 2019, the Volocopter 2X successfully flew over Singapore’s Marina Bay and showed that piloted electric air taxi integration in air traffic management (ATM) and unmanned traffic management (UTM) was possible. Today, the two-seater model, which has previously flown several test campaigns, represents the electric air taxi vision Volocopter and Geely Technology Group aim to introduce in China. For the future services, Volocopter will be using its fifth-generation aircraft, the VoloCity, which is currently in the certification process with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). It will have an increased speed of 110 km/h and longer flight duration of 35 minutes (after accounting for reserve battery and headwind).
