We were promised flying cars at the Paris Olympics and all we got was Papa Smurf in a speedo tripping on poppies. Repurposing Peter Thiel’s famous quote about the failures of technology to deliver on its biggest promises never gets old. In this case, the oft-used refrain is particularly apt. One of the leading flying car manufacturers, a German firm called Volocopter, was supposed to hold the first public demonstration of an urban air mobility system in action at the high-profile games. Instead, just one of the company’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft took flight for about five minutes on the last day of the Olympics.
It’s been about a year since our last article on eVTOL stocks and the flying taxi business. Much has happened (despite the flop in Paris) in the interim, but are we any closer to investing in the urban air mobility (UAM) thesis?
Air Mobility Market Gets Crowded
Regular readers will recall that the basic idea behind UAM is the creation of a high-flying highway of life-size, drone-like aircraft silently buzzing above busy metropolitan areas, ferrying passengers to and fro. Ideally, these flying taxis will be autonomous and electric, and able to compete economically with the Ubers and Lyfts of terra firma. In the near term, while regulations and technology catch up with this futuristic vision, most eVTOLs will require pilots and cater mainly to the ultra-wealthy among us. Maybe that’s why the eVTOL passenger market is expected to be relatively modest