Eve, an urban mobility startup born from Embraer’s innovation arm EmbraerX, will begin selecting suppliers to assemble the first prototype of its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. It aims to complete the selection process by the halfway point of this year and start building its full-scale eVTOL aircraft prototype in the second half of the year.
CEO André Stein told reporters during Embraer Media Day in Portugal that the company’s first eVTOL manufacturing unit will be in Brazil. About 300 engineers are currently working on the Eve project.
He said Eve has completed thruster testing to measure aerodynamic performance and sonic properties for modeling and developing its prototype. In addition, it recently began testing its vertical lift rotors on a new custom platform mounted on a truck.
At Web Summit Rio earlier this month, Embraer said it expects to conduct full-scale testing of Eve’s eVTOL vehicle by 2024 and have it certified by regulators by 2026.
With Embraer having decades of success producing new aircraft and working with Brazil’s civil aviation regulator ANAC, Eve believes it could be the first to get such certification. The idea is to engage with ANAC first, while also signing a bilateral agreement with the FAA in the U.S. and obtaining a follow-on certification from the EASA in European Union.
This step is crucial, as it is not enough to create a prototype that can fly; companies’ models must meet several industrial requirements and be replicable and marketable. Investors are optimistic about this possibility with Eve, even though the eVTOL aircraft does not yet exist. So far, the aircraft has undergone simulator tests that follow the parameters of flight laws, the same ones used in the development and certification of Embraer aircraft.
But no one is flying solo in this new industry. Every urban air mobility startup has dozens of partners and customers helping them get ideas off the ground.
Eve debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in May this year by way of a SPAC deal with Zanite that generated USD 377 million in gross proceeds. It disclosed its first earnings report in April, posting a net loss of USD 25.8 million in Q1 2023 versus USD 10.0 million in Q1 2022. The higher net losses were driven by higher R&D expenses, which are costs and activities that are necessary to progress the eVTOL design.
The startup forecasts revenue of USD 4.5 billion by 2030 when it also expects to see its first vehicles flying in autonomous mode. The projection is based on an expectation of capturing at least 15 percent of the total addressable urban air mobility market, expected to be worth around USD 31 billion by then.
Eve has non-binding letters of intent from 26 customers ordering 2,770 vehicles and expects to start converting the letters into firm orders in the next few years, when it also expects to start collecting pre-delivery payments for them.
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