On Aug. 29, Volocopter successfully flew its 2X air taxi prototype in an air traffic management demonstration at Helsinki International Airport in Finland. Now, two weeks later, the company has also completed the first European demonstration of its eVTOL aircraft in an urban environment.
Volocopter flew the unoccupied aircraft in front of a large crowd at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, on Sept. 14. The demonstration was a highlight of the two-day event “Vision Smart City – Experience future mobility today,” which also presented carsharing and electric vehicle concepts from Daimler — a strategic investor in Volocopter — and its innovation incubator, Lab 1886.
“Our Volocopter air taxis open up a completely new dimension in urban mobility,” stated Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, which like Daimler is headquartered in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. “As Stuttgart has seen today, they fly safely, quietly, and are fast approaching the implementation stage. Volocopter air taxis are able to ease traffic congestion in major cities around the world, also here in Germany.”
Also attending the demonstration were the Minister-President of the state of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann; the chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, Ola Källenius; and Thomas Strobl, Minister of the Interior, Digitalization, and Migration for Baden-Württemberg.
“Our partner Volocopter shows how an air taxi is turning the dream of driving into the dream of flying,” stated Källenius, noting that Daimler aims to electrify its entire Mercedes-Benz portfolio by 2022, and to have electrically powered cars account for more than half of its sales by 2030. “The road to climate-neutral mobility is a joint effort of companies and politics,” he said.
Strobl added, “The mobility of the future must be intelligent, digital and clean, while remaining affordable. The transport concepts of major cities, medium-size towns, and rural areas will certainly take different forms. There will be no universal blueprint. But we are already actively, innovatively, and creatively working on mobility concepts for the future.”
The Sept. 14 demonstration comes shortly after Volocopter’s announcement that it had signed 50 million euros in the first closing of its series C funding round, bringing its total capital raised to date to 85 million euros.
