Founded In IIT-Madras, This E-Plane Company From India To Join The Race For The World’s First Functional E-Air Taxi

An ePlane company based in India has now joined the race for the world’s first functional Electric Air Taxi. Co-founded by IIM professor Satya Chakravarthy and his student Pranjal Mehta in 2017, the ePlane Company expects to launch India’s first-ever electric air taxi cum cargo transport aircraft!

Founded at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M), The ePlane Company has begun production on the country’s first eVTOL (Electric Vehicle Take-Off and Landing) within the next two years. The aircraft is designed to be small enough for last-minute deliveries without any resistance. The firm’s aircraft design and prototypes now only need to go through the standard certification process.

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India’s Traffic Crisis Will No Longer Affect Deliveries

The e-VTOL project, if successful, will not only be an innovative technological milestone but will also solve a dynamically growing traffic crisis in the nation. Travel time will be reduced as well and it will come at only 2-3 times the cost of regular cabs. It has been estimated that the eVTOL project’s delivery timing will be up to 10 times less than the delivery timings of normal transport!

The startup raised USD 1 million in 2021 and will begin the hiring process of pilots in early 2023. “ePlane Company will start with 20-25 aircraft initially to offer a credible urban aerial mobility service before spreading to other cities and adding more aircraft per city progressively,” says Satya Chakravarthy.

The initial operation areas of the eVTOL will comprise Mumbai and Bengaluru and will incur expansion after successful runs.

Is The e-VTOL Project Possible? 

An innovative and stunning project like such gives birth to the curiosity about its success and how it could be possible in reality. Evidently, FLYING will be more challenging than driving, and since most of the country’s transport handlers aren’t pilots, this will be a big challenge. The requirement of experienced pilots for the functioning of the eVTOL service foreshadows a costly delivery experience for customers.

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Adding to that, the rising safety concerns of a growing Electric Vehicle (EV) sector only raise concern over the eVTOL’s success. Responding to such concerns, Chakravarthy expressed, “The EV industry is still mostly following an ownership model, whereas this is going to be based on a ride-share model for mass adoption. So, the nascency of the EV industry does not have much to do with electric planes. They are parallel efforts. Planes go through a stringent certification process. There is quite a good deal of maturity in understanding the limitations of Li-ion batteries that inform the standards adopted for electric aircraft certification today.” 

According to him, the designs of his company's eVTOL aircraft are based on extensive simulations and battery testing of internationally used cells. Chakravarthy also predicts that traditional aviation players in India will soon go electric.

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