ZeroAvia has announced plans to establish a major manufacturing facility for its hydrogen-electric powertrains at the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland, located near Glasgow Airport in Renfrewshire.
The new hydrogen centre of excellence will serve as the company’s main site for powertrain production and testing. It will also house the primary manufacturing operations for advanced high temperature PEM (HTPEM) fuel cell stacks and associated systems. With nearly 3,000 full engine and component pre-orders already secured from airlines and OEMs – representing more than US$10 billion in potential future revenue – the facility is a key step in scaling production to meet growing demand.
This Scottish site will complement ZeroAvia’s propulsion centre of excellence in Washington State, which is focused on electric motors and power electronics. Additionally, the company is planning an expansion of its R&D and aircraft testing centre at Cotswold Airport in Gloucestershire.
The project in Scotland, which is expected to unlock millions in private investment and support hundreds of jobs in the coming years, has been supported by a £9 million Regional Selective Assistance grant from Scottish Enterprise. This follows a £20 million equity investment from the Scottish National Investment Bank as part of ZeroAvia’s Series C funding round, which also included a £32 million investment from the UK’s National Wealth Fund. The round was led by Airbus, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital and the NEOM Investment Fund.
In addition, the UK Government awarded ZeroAvia and its consortium partners £10.5 million in 2024 through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) programme – in partnership with the Department for Business and Trade and Innovate UK – to support development of the advanced HTPEM fuel cells. Since 2019, the company has received £18.5 million in total UK Government R&D funding for its fuel cell and powertrain technology.
This public and private backing, exceeding US$250 million, has enabled ZeroAvia to achieve several significant milestones: flying the world’s first hydrogen-electric commercial scale aircraft in 2020; more than doubling its power output to fly the world’s largest hydrogen-electric aircraft in 2023; manufacturing and shipping fuel cell systems to customers; and advancing towards regulatory certification of its powertrains. (£1.00 = US$1.34 at time of publication).
