Evolito has acquired the business and assets of battery developer Electroflight, marking a key step in the motor specialist’s goal of delivering a full powertrain solution, the company told eVTOL.com.
The deal was announced in early July and will enable Evolito to expand its offering, said Chris Harris, director of Evolito and CEO of YASA. Evolito has “always had the ambition to become a full powertrain solution provider,” Harris said.
However, until now its focus has been on motors and their associated systems and components. “Adding battery technology capability enables us to provide a full powertrain offering, optimizing those solutions for whatever the particular application requires,” he said.
Evolito is a spinoff of YASA, a motor developer that was founded in 2009, and mainly focuses on the automotive sector. YASA was acquired by Mercedes-Benz in 2021.
Evolito concentrates on the aerospace market, developing axial flux motor technology. According to the company, this delivers higher power and torque densities, allowing for smaller motors — a key advantage in the aerospace domain where weight is a vital consideration. The company is targeting its solutions at both the general aviation and eVTOL markets.
Electroflight is a good fit because it also focuses on delivering lightweight solutions, Harris noted, with a goal of producing systems with very high levels of energy density. The battery producer has worked in the eVTOL space in the past, he said, though he could not provide further details due to business confidentiality.
The companies have also previously worked together, with YASA and Electroflight involved in the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Innovation project, which developed an all-electric aircraft in 2021, before the Evolito spinoff. Electroflight had provided the battery solution for the project.
This carried a wide range of demands, from providing the necessary power to ensuring it met weight and safety demands. Electroflight also integrated the technology into the aircraft, “so they have both battery development capability and a lot of integration capability,” Harris said. “That’s really interesting for us as we look to provide more integrated solutions.”
Electroflight’s capabilities will support Evolito’s efforts in the eVTOL market in particular, Harris said. The company aims to deliver the powertrain solutions at scale, he said, with the eVTOL market potentially needing thousands of motors annually in the coming decades. As part of this, it will invest in developing the next generation of batteries over the coming years.
“We want to invest in developing next-generation battery technology solutions, with much higher energy and power density, using next-generation cell chemistry,” he said. “We want to integrate those into solutions that can really provide greater range at lower weight, at a competitive price.”
