11.01.2022
More and more new mobility concepts secure fundings and could change the future of mobility on a whole new level. How serious this threat develops remains to be seen. An Analysis.
With Volocopter - backed by Daimler - and Lilium - partly backed by the known german Investor Frank Thelen from “Die Höhle der Löwen” (A german start-up funding competition) - the upcoming industry of so called eVTOL’s has a fix place in Germany’s star-up landscape.
eVTOL stands for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. How these could look like you can see in the following video from Lilium:
We think that similar to what we have with cars today, this will be a standard means of transportation for our whole society. And it will become as normal for us in the 2030, ‘40, ‘45 time frame to use an eVTOL as we’re using cars today.
~ Daniel Wiegand - CEO Lilium
According to studies the urbanization is unstoppable. 2050 two third of the population will live in urban areas (Statista). Today’s road are full of vehicles and as cities think about new architecture to fit all in, urban mobility has to consider new spaces too. The air, as third dimension in movement, gives the possibility to empty streets and precious as well as useful ground square meters.
Air mobility could especially bring solutions to problems caused by nature. In big cities for example bridges are often traffic bottlenecks for all existing mobility solutions. Cars, bikes, scooters, buses and trains all have to pass them. eVTOL’s could really lead to a detention in that aspect. Technically it will probably find its way for mid range travel from 10-50km. For every distance under or above other concepts will most probably be more time efficient.
Where landing and take-off places will be installed and permitted in cities is still unclear. Likewise the acceptance of such a concept is questionable. The concerns that in the private sector it only will be a solution for the upper class are comprehensible. Therefore community purposes could be really interesting. Medical transports would be much quicker which leads to less traffic hold ups due to ambulances. Similar processes could be imagined for the police or fire/emergency services not holding up everyones commute. Next step would be parcel deliveries and distribution logistics for grocery stores that could prevent big trucks from blocking important city roads.
Example of possible inventions:
Why is this relevant for the Generation Z?
In my opinion it isn’t directly relevant for the Generation Z. It is still a long road until the air is buzzing of eVTOLS’s of all kind. The discussion probably shows best that we have to think about our perception of future cities. Should they be most time efficient, rather quite or maybe greener with less roads? The breakthrough of projects like air mobility have a lot of factors influencing its success. I’m convinced that from a technological point of view we should aim to use this possibility for the most useful applications like ambulances or for emergency doctors.
What does this mean for the automotive industry?
Since in my opinion air mobility will primally find its way in commercial use, it won’t effect the automotive industry very heavily in the next two decades. On the other hand due to the most various mobility concepts occurring, nobody will have to use a car to move from A to B. This could be the main message taken out of that mobility development. Therefore I am convinced that the automotive industry will have to concentrate on the clients that like to drive and like the car as mode of transportation out of other reasons - entertainment, relaxation, own space, personalization or simply car enthusiasts.
Written by: Maxime Schönberg
Sources: lilium.com; daimler.com