The aviation industry is struggling to go green — and while there are many companies in the world trying to develop electric aircraft, getting them in flight is no easy feat.
Amid challenges with funding and getting certified, many of Europe’s electric aircraft companies are struggling. German airtaxi startup Lilium recently filed for bankruptcy; Italian aircraft manufacturer Tecnam put its electric nine-seater P-Volt on hold last year after three years of intense research; and Lilium competitor Volocopter warned of imminent insolvency in spring, but may be saved by Chinese manufacturing titan Geely.
There are startups, however, that are still trying to make electric air travel a reality. One of them, Munich-based Vaeridion, is building an electric microliner for short-haul commercial flights which can carry nine people and travel 400km (plus reserves), roughly the distance between Munich and Frankfurt.
The company is today announcing a €14m Series A led by climate VC World Fund, with participation from Project A Ventures, Vsquared Ventures, Andreas Kupke, Schwarz Holding and InnovationQuarter.
It aims to deliver its first plane to an airline in 2030 — but will it meet that timeline?
Customers
Vaeridion’s microliners are designed specifically for regional air travel. Tickets to fly on its planes will first be sold to business customers, and later other consumers, for a similar price as a ticket on Germany’s long distance intercity express (ICE) trains, according to estimates from the company. That means for a 350km trip, the ticket would be €150-300.
The company says it is targeting several types of customers, including airlines which operate small planes today, like so-called ‘island hoppers’ in the Scottish Islands, and those operating 50-seater planes for regional routes.
“Those airlines could trade a 50-seater that flies once a day to maybe five nine-seaters that fly four times a day,” says Ivor van Dartel, cofounder and CEO of Vaeridion.
Vaeridion says its tech differs from that of competitors in that its batteries are integrated into the wing. This has benefits “from a weight point of view, reducing bending moments and shear forces in the wing root,” says van Dartel.
The company already has partnerships with ASL Group, Copenhagen AirTaxi and Aero-Dienst, that it is collaborating with on the development of the aircraft. Vaeridion says it is in talks with the three companies about first sales and purchase agreements, as well as with several other customers.
The market
There are other companies developing small aircraft. But many of them, like French company Aura Aero, which is building a 19-seater aircraft, and Swedish company Heart Aerospace, which is building a 30-seater, use hybrid-electric propulsion systems to power their planes; Vaeridion’s is fully electric.
There’s also Israeli company Eviation Aircraft, which was founded in 2015, which was reported as the first to launch its all-electric plane called the Alice in 2022.
Heart Aerospace began life building a fully electric 19-seater plane for short-haul flights but scrapped those plans as it found that, with 30-seater hybrid planes, the business upside was greater.
So is the market big enough for nine-seater planes for commuters?
Van Dartel says that capturing Germany’s domestic business travellers who travel regularly by plane or car is the “biggest opportunity.” Though statistics from this year show that the number of domestic air travellers in Germany is far lower than it was before the Covid pandemic.
“We extensively researched the right size and product-market fit, and we clearly came to the conclusion that the nine-seater is the right size, if only because the existing nine-seater market worldwide comprises 15k aircraft that are on average 40 years old, that need to be replaced,” says van Dartel.
“Also, the battery technology isn’t yet ready for pure electric 19-seat aircraft,” he says. “The certification effort of a 19-seater is much closer to a commercial airliner than a nine-seater, so we are in the sweet spot in terms of certification, technical feasibility and business case.”
Two weeks ago Vaeridion concluded a so-called “pre-application contract” with EASA, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, which means the microliner commits to meeting the certification standards for commercial passenger aircraft. The company aims to do test flights in 2027, and by 2030 sell its first planes to customers.
Capital and role of the state
A big challenge facing electric aviation manufacturers is attracting enough capital to see them through the research and development phase — as well as the certification phase, which can often take years, says van Dartel.
Lilium was unable to secure funding from the German government, which led to it registering for insolvency. It sparked debate in European circles on whether the state should support flailing companies working on strategically important technology.
Van Dartel says the total initial development cost of Vaeridion’s electric aircraft is €100-200m. He says Vaeridion will need to raise more capital in order to build the first prototypes — that conform with the CS-23, level 3 regulatory standard — before the test flights in 2027.
Beyond offering grants, van Dartel thinks that European governments could help electric transportation startups scale by being their customer. Norway is an example where this has worked well, he says. A public-private partnership saw the development of MS Medstraum, a zero-emission electric ferry which is now operating a major commuter route in Norway. The country is also looking into similar co-operations for air travel.
“I think European governments that invest a lot of money in public transport […] could use a lot of existing instruments to basically create a market,” says van Dartel.
“It’s not about giving this or that company a grant. It’s about taking the money you have reserved for public transport and investing differently so your citizens get better connectivity emissions-free.”
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/vaeridion-raises-14m-series-a-news/
