German aviation startup Lilium signed an agreement with the Orlando, Florida government last Wednesday, which will launch the first flying taxi transportation hub in the United States.
The company plans to spend US$25 million to design and build a 6,000-square-foot "vertical port" in cooperation with local real estate company Tavistock Development in Lake Nona near the Orlando Airport. The ultimate vision of
Lilium is to build an air taxi network in various cities and provide an application similar to Uber to establish a complete ecosystem. The price of
is comparable to that of "business class"
. Previously, the company was committed to the development and production of vertical take-off and landing unmanned aircraft. Its five-seat electric Lilium Jet launched last year has two wings and 36 engines. It is expected to reach 300 kilometers per hour. And in a demonstration last year, the speed of this aircraft has reached 100 kilometers per hour.
Lilium plans to build a complete transportation network in the United States by 2025 and start commercial flights. But this requires the approval of the Federal Aviation Administration, Florida Department of Transportation and other regulatory agencies.
In addition, the price of the flight rental is not very expensive. Lilium's chief operating officer Remo Gerber once said that their products are comparable to the aircraft's "business class" price.
In terms of employment, Gerber stated that the project will create more than 100 jobs in Orlando, and the Orlando City Council is also considering granting the company a tax deduction of $831,250 in 9 years, and estimates that the transportation hub will generate $1.7 million in 10 years Economic output value.
Since then, the Orlando hub will become Lilium's second hub in the world. Prior to September, Lilium had announced that it would open its first hub in Germany. The latest round of financing of
led by Tencent
It is worth noting that Lilium has received a total of US$375 million in investment from companies such as Tencent, Tesla’s early investor Baillie Gifford, and venture capital firm Atomico. The latest financing of
Lilium occurred in March this year. This round of financing was led by Tencent, followed by other existing investors such as London-based venture capital firms Atomico, Freigeist and LGT. The valuation of Lilium is between US$750 million and US$1 billion.
Regarding the use of this financing, Lilium will prepare for the mass production of its 5-seater electric flying taxi. The company intends to use this aircraft to provide inter-city taxi services from 2025.
Lilium is not the only company entering the flying taxi track. There are currently more than 100 types of electric aircraft under development worldwide, including Joby Aviation, Volocopter, Ehang and Wisk Aero, as well as Hyundai, Toyota, Airbus, Boeing and Bell in cooperation with Uber. The future of
is still uncertain
Despite the promising industry prospects, Lilium and its competitors have to overcome many serious technical obstacles, as well as financial and regulatory obstacles.
Currently, Lilium has not publicly proven that their electric aircraft is safe enough, and the power-to-weight ratio of its aircraft is also facing challenges.
In electric aircraft, energy density is a key indicator of success or failure, but most of today’s batteries do not contain enough energy to get the aircraft off the ground, and jet fuel provides about 43 times the energy of batteries of the same weight. It is even more difficult for electric aircraft to replace jets in the short term.
