Air passenger taxis, air ambulance and cargo transport are seen as the three areas of the eVTOL market that will see the biggest growth over the next five years. This is according to new research from Horizon Aircraft with private equity and venture capital professionals.
Horizon Aircraft, a leader in hybrid electric VTOL aerial vehicles, commissioned PureProfile to survey 100 senior private equity and venture capital professionals.
Horizon Aircraft said key to growth of the eVTOL market will be the development of battery technology making longer flights of more than 100 miles more practical and sustainable. Four out of ten (40%) private equity and venture capital professionals believe battery technology will evolve enough over the next two years to make this achievable, and 29% believe this will be the case by 2025. A further 22% say this will be achieved by 2026 or 2027.
Overall, from an investors point of view, 97% of the private equity and venture capital professionals believe that it is important that an eVTOL can be used in different transport markets – from air passenger taxi services to military operations.
“The versatility of eVTOLs is what makes many of them attractive to investors,” said Brandon Robinson, CEO of Horizon Aircraft. “We designed our unique aircraft to target early use cases that are underpinned by solid economics. Our aircraft doesn’t require significant regulatory changes, huge battery improvements, or new types of power systems; it is designed with current technology to do useful work today across a wide variety of missions.”
Horizon Aircraft, and its Cavorite X5 eVTOL, have progressed with several grants, a USAF contract award, and a flying large-scale prototype.
Horizon Aircraft is currently running rigorous testing of its 50%-scale prototype and developing a detailed design of a full-scale prototype as it pursues the next phases of the AFWERX HSVTOL challenge that could offer up to $35m in non-dilutive financing over the next three years.
