In 2022, I used to be on a rooftop overlooking a runway surrounded by olive trees within the south of Spain. An aircraft hovered within the sky and zipped off into the gap.
It was my first up-close encounter with an electrical vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle, popularly often known as flying cars or air taxis. Because the name suggests, these aircrafts are all electric and take off and land vertically, slightly than requiring a protracted runway, as do business planes.
Proponents of the aircrafts see them as viable alternatives to travel in urban environments or between nearby cities.
There are dozens of firms which might be making eVTOLs globally, from China to the U.S. and Europe. One in all them is Lilium, whose jet I’m referencing. Earlier this yr, I visited the corporate’s headquarters in Munich, Germany, to see what progress has been made since 2022. The corporate has begun manufacturing its jet.
The eVTOL market might be price $1 trillion by 2040, in response to JPMorgan, and several other firms are attempting to take the lead.
In the most recent episode of CNBC Tech’s “Beyond the Valley” podcast — which you may hearken to above — Tom Chitty and I explore the world of eVTOLs, from regulation to consumer acceptance, and sit up for when these vehicles might take off in an enormous way.
You may subscribe to “Beyond the Valley” by clicking the links below to your chosen platform:
Here’s a transcript of the episode of “Beyond the Valley” released on Mar. 27, 2024. It has been edited for clarity.
Tom Chitty: When you commute to work in a city, likelihood is you spend a part of that journey on a train of some sort traveling through an enormous network of tunnels. You could be on one at once. That is because within the last 100 years, much of the infrastructure for city transport has developed underground, however the ways we get around our urban areas may soon change with innovators looking not only above ground, but up within the sky. I’m looking forward to this episode because I do not know where we’re at, where the landscape for, you are gonna say the word
Arjun Kharpal: eVTOLs. What does that mean?
Tom Chitty: I do not know. I do not like it.
Arjun Kharpal: I just generally am not a fan of acronyms on the entire.
Tom Chitty: Who comes up with acronyms? Who’s the, you understand, who’s responsible?
Arjun Kharpal: Well, they only put the words together after which you understand, whatever letter they begin with.
Tom Chitty: Also nightmare to type out since it’s lowercase E, for anyone that does not know after which it’s capital letters for every part else.
Arjun Kharpal: Electric vertical takeoff and landing. Electric. Vertical, that is the V. Takeoff — “T”, “O”. Landing. That is the “L”. That is eVTOL. That is what it stands for. An eVTOL aircraft. Do you wanna hear a fun plane story before we we start this episode? I’ve got lots. Do you should hear the funnest one? After I was on holiday recently, I took a plane ride. It was a 12 hour plane ride. And it was a plane ride from hell is how I describe it. So you understand, we get onto the plane. And there is already an hour and a half delay. After which the the pilot over the tannoy says, oh, we have got one other 20 minutes delay. We have just found any person vaping in the lavatory, which after all is unlawful. So plane hasn’t taken off, three people kicked off the flight. You understand, I’m sat with my friends. And there is a large group of men about 20 of them kind of surrounding us. And so they’d gotten to the the flight quite inebriated and got progressively more inebriated they usually were kind of walking up and down the aisles. There was a fight in between their very own group.
Tom Chitty: Physical fight?
Arjun Kharpal: Almost turned physical. You understand, there was squaring up, almost. I’m going to the back of the plane and ask for a bottle of water, and a gin and tonic. That was my nightcap. Well, it was the afternoon but I used to be ready for sleep so I could adjust to the times where I used to be going. They said no, we have shut your complete bar for the plane for this reason rowdy group of of individuals. Anyhow, I get back to my seat, I noticed this group of individuals had opened the duty free bottle of alcohol, again, something you are not speculated to do, bag needs to stay sealed until your destination. So again, progressively more inebriated. Second fight broke out. I’d also learned from the flight attendant that somebody had lit up a cigarette in the lavatory. Again, illegal. One in all their group was head butting a chair, threw up. Then one among his mates began a fight with one among the flight attendants. Anyhow, all settled down. And eventually, we landed, and the pilot publicizes oh, we will we will just stop here for a minute for the regular check from the local authorities. The regular chair after all, there’s a daily check. There’s not. Nine police.
Tom Chitty: Nine arrests?
Arjun Kharpal: No, no nine police got here onboard. There have been roughly 13 people taken off that flight.
Tom Chitty: Essentially being arrested.
Arjun Kharpal: They were arrested. Yeah, they went peacefully. I mean, you’ll.
Tom Chitty: Probably in hangover mode.
Arjun Kharpal: They were definitely in hangover mode. Anyhow, that was my vacation. I’d love to listen to if our listeners have had any form of experiences like that.
Tom Chitty: Possibly you were on the flight as well. When you do wish to tell us your trips from hell, then you definately can email in beyondthevalley@cnbc.com and we would love to listen to from you.
Arjun Kharpal: Thankfully, these eVTOLs aren’t sufficiently big to have a bunch of 20 people occurring a bachelor party
Tom Chitty: Before we get into the important topic for today. Let’s do Arjun’s stat of the week.
Arjun Kharpal: $35.8 billion.
Tom Chitty: $35.8 billion. Okay. Arjun, we have explained the acronym eVTOL stands for but give us just a little bit, a temporary overview of what exactly we’re talking after we say eVTOL.
Arjun Kharpal: So these are these are electric aircraft, principally, often possibly with space for two-to-six passengers. And so they don’t take off and land like aeroplanes, they take off and land because the name suggests, vertically, which obviously is great for space. It’s totally much like a helicopter, what a helicopter does, though the technology is a bit different. So no runways, and that is effectively what they’re. They’re passenger aircraft, run on electric and designed I believe for kind of inside cities, but additionally in between cities, too. So we’re not talking about long distance, you understand, 12 hour flights like I took, nevertheless it’s more shorter distance, form of flights, perhaps in between cities in the identical country, and even inside a city itself.
Tom Chitty: Why not call them flying cars?
Arjun Kharpal: I call them flying cars. But you understand, the industry likes to reject such populist terms, I believe. They’re flying cars, they’re flying cars,
Tom Chitty: These vehicles aren’t necessarily actually cars with wheels, either, because I do know that you have done you have a program coming up soon about eVTOL. And there’s one automobile, which is definitely a automobile that turns right into a flying.
Arjun Kharpal: So there’s also that idea. One in all the interesting things, as we’ll speak about, and in the event you watch that episode, you will see is there’s so many alternative designs and ideas at once for what one among these vehicles should appear to be, each from a design perspective, but additionally from a technology perspective, what form of system are you using, to propel the aircraft. So I believe you will see a few of those automobile designs appear to be cars, possibly even in the long run, there will be a kind of hybrid, can drive on the road, wings come out, and off it goes situation. But a whole lot of them now are looking form of like a hybrid between, you understand, a drone, as you understand it, one among those handheld remote control drones, but on a much larger scale crossed with form of an aircraft.
Tom Chitty: There’s 4 of them. And there is a whole bunch of various designs for eVTOL. But there’s 4 major ones. Take us through them.
Arjun Kharpal: I’ll offer you a handful of them. Multicopter is one among them, a variety of design where you will see almost like helicopter propellers, but quite a few them across the aircraft. In order that they’re great for takeoff and landing very similar to a like a helicopter vertically. But they’re really not efficient at long distances. In order that’s one style. You have the lift and cruise design. This combines his multicopter approach with more of a kind of traditional aircraft approach. Again, good for the up and down. But additionally good for longer distances. You have this, what’s often known as a ducted vector thrust. And one among the businesses that uses this type of system is Lilium, which, you understand, speak about visiting the sites a few times over the past couple of years. They use multiple individually controlled electric ducted fans that push the vehicle upwards, principally.
Tom Chitty: Like a hover?
Arjun Kharpal: It’s great for hovering, they’re quieter, they will fly long distances, they will take off and land vertically. So I mean, those are a number of the kind of important, there’s many, many more sorts of technologies, as well. The lean rotor is one other one, which has, because the name suggests, these kind of rotors, these almost propellers which might be on a tilt to assist it form of go forward and back as well. And up and down. So there’s all these different systems.
Tom Chitty: A few of those designs are literally already in use for I believe military helicopters.There is perhaps some listeners, including myself, who is perhaps pondering, a vehicle, flying vehicle, which takes us short distances, I believe there is perhaps one in existence, it’s called a helicopter. So why do we want these when we have now helicopters already?
Arjun Kharpal: I believe there’s quite a few reasons. One, the security record of helicopters has been called into query quite a few times, you understand, versus aeroplanes. The incontrovertible fact that they don’t seem to be electric. And you understand, we’re attempting to move towards a greener and more sustainable world. In order that’s one other thing in favor of this. Helicopters are noisy, very noisy, versus a few of these these aircraft, but additionally, the value point of helicopters, they’re inaccessible, mainly to, to you and I. You understand, we won’t just kind of rock up. And the best way that a whole lot of these firms are positioning these these, these kind of eVTOL is that they’ll run a form of Uber system, almost a kind of ride hailing system, obviously, they don’t seem to be going to return to your own home, but you may go to and we will speak about that, what is perhaps often known as this kind of micro airport or a vertiport, you may go there. But effectively, you may book an app. And the thought is there’s going to be a fleet of those run by an operator. And so they should generally be quite inexpensive to run.
Tom Chitty: But premium, still comparative to. So like your Uber Lux but possibly a step up from that.
Arjun Kharpal: Yeah, still barely premium, but the value point will look to return down and it’s looking, you understand, I mean, we live in London, right? I’m sure a lot of our listeners live in other cities where traffic’s bad. Traffic is bad. I mean, we’re thankful in London to have a superb public transport network, which helps, you understand, you may definitely get to a whole lot of places in the town quicker on a train than you may on in a automobile, that is obviously and even sometimes walking. But there are numerous cities where that is not the case public transport is not there, infrastructure is not there, cars are heavily relied on, the traffic’s bad. You understand, take into consideration this. Now you are taking that out the equation you fly above the traffic. That is one other point that’s in favor of why individuals are investing a lot within the eVTOL.
Tom Chitty: Once you say investing a lot. Where are we at after we speak about kind of the market situation, and these early stages of this industry?
Arjun Kharpal: Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars have been invested. Numerous VC, enterprise capital money has gone into these firms, just a couple of of them, you bought Lilium, they’re based in Germany, you bought EHang, they’re out of China. They have been around for some time as well. Even Airbus, you understand, Airbus, the corporate that makes the large jets even they’re investing on this space, Archer Aviation, Joby, the list goes on. There’s quite a few names, and a whole lot of them are the startups have. Numerous the startups have gotten VC money, backing them, because they feel it is a big area. Now, let’s be honest, it is a bit of a gold rush at this point. And never all these firms are going to survive, have viable business models, their technology won’t win out. But that is I believe the stage we’re at at once, there’s a whole lot of investment getting in due to the promise of the technology. And we see that in so many areas, right electric vehicles and various other areas. And that is where we’re at at once. Infrastructure non existent.
Tom Chitty: Well, that was going to be my next query. But before we get to that, just on the expansion element 2021 report from Morgan Stanley predicted the marketplace for eVTOL might be price $1 trillion by 2040 and $9 trillion by 2050. I mean, that’s a whole lot of money.
Arjun Kharpal: What what makes up that $9 trillion? You have the businesses which might be making the aircrafts, and selling those. There’s that. And then you definately’ve got all of the bits around that. Right. What concerning the you understand, you’ve gotten airlines as of late, right? You could have all of the airlines on the planet, they usually buy the planes from Airbus and Boeing, right? I believe you will see the same model you’ve gotten you’ve gotten airlines, to some extent, whatever they may appear to be in the long run running these fleets of air mobility vehicles, urban air mobility vehicles, eVTOLs, I believe that is how they may work. So you understand, they’ll charge you, they’ll charge a fee, they’ll should buy the hardware, after which there’s all of the servicing that comes all the businesses that service after which you understand. What do this stuff appear to be in the long run?
Tom Chitty: Exactly. I believe the designs are still to be determined, or what’s probably the most effective. You talked just a little bit about infrastructure. And I’d also wish to speak about regulations. Because today, in the event you desired to take a helicopter ride over a significant city goes to cost you a whole lot of money. And you do not see it actually because it’s extremely difficult to do and the airspace is restricted. So something is drastically going to should change to accommodate, essentially, a whole bunch of those eVTOL flying around above our heads.
Arjun Kharpal: Yeah, there isn’t any there isn’t any infrastructure. You have alluded to this feature program we have got coming out the long run of those, these flying cars, principally in these eVTOLs. As a part of that I went to Munich to go to an organization called Lilium, went to their headquarters, their production facility is large. So there’s infrastructure there happening, they’ve this huge, multiple hangars, where they’re testing. And so there’s infrastructure within the sense of the businesses constructing the product, that is happening. And truly, in 2022, I went to the south of Spain, where they’d a testing site. So there’s some testing sites world wide happening. One in all those, Lilium, is within the south of Spain. You understand, EHang, which is a Chinese company that makes these passenger drones. They’ve a testing site in Guangzhou, where I used to live. That was interesting. I visited that as well. I mean, that was before anything was happening in Europe, they were well ahead of the sport, the test flights, all sorts. In order that infrastructure is there. The subsequent step is how do you then go from yes, you may construct them yes, you may sell them to how do I get from A to B?
Tom Chitty: And where are this stuff going to land.
Arjun Kharpal: What was fascinating about EHang was they were they were taking these off into the sky from what was effectively a shopping center.
Tom Chitty: Like a carpark, or above a small carpark?
Arjun Kharpal: It was a small area of a shopping center. There was a strip of restaurants on this outdoor area, there was an office, an enormous office constructing and right round the corner, they were doing test flights. So I believe that was great since it showed you truly how little space that you must do it.
Tom Chitty: This stuff aren’t as big. Do not have the obligatory the wingspan of a helicopter.
Arjun Kharpal: And I mean, a few of them do. Yeah, I believe Lilium’s was like 14 meters or something, it was huge. But you do not need the runway, right? You do not need an enormous strip of land for this stuff to take off, they only go up, I believe what’s gonna occur is you are gonna see these, whatever latest modern type of helipad, micro airport vertiport, they call them effectively, you understand, from one from A to B. So, there is perhaps one, as an instance you are in London, there is perhaps one, you understand, in the middle of the town somewhere, that takes you to I do not know, Heathrow Airport, or one among the large airports, or possibly there’s, there’s one pad here in London and the opposite ones in one other city, say Birmingham. You understand, and that is perhaps, you understand, point to point, just as you’ve gotten a train station point to point, but this stuff must be lots smaller. They’re just just a little area of land. So the hot button is going to be what these appear to be.
Tom Chitty: Just on the regulation front. Yeah. I mean, these firms surely should kind of have that within the front of their mind, because why would they proceed pumping all this money in if someone’s never going to permit, you understand, a whole bunch of flying vehicles within the air at anyone time? So can we know form of where we’re at, like, the early discussions on that?
Arjun Kharpal: What’s been, I believe, really interesting about this area is the regulators have been quite on board with all of it. Yeah, so I’ll undergo a number of the kind of major jurisdictions which might be attempting to make big movements of this. You understand, China, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, they’ve actually given a, what they call a sort certification, to one among EHang’s vehicles. I believe it is a two seater passenger vehicle. In order that they can actually now perform in the event that they wish to business operations. Well, yeah. Very interesting, I used to be telling you concerning the shopping mall experience, takeoff and landing. So the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, additionally they have a program for certifications, as well. In order that they’ve set out clear guidelines, that is what you would like, for us to feel comfortable to operate these. So of their view, they have things just like the aircrafts have to pass a certain variety of certifications, the pilots must be certified. And so they consider operations might be at scale, at a number of sites by 2028, it is not a great distance off. You do not often see regulators kind of give a timeline to form of say, you understand, we wish these in operation by then. They’re quite forthcoming.
Tom Chitty: Is that because they’re trying to only be the leaders in a latest tech industry? Well, it’s an aerospace industry, but with a whole lot of tech.
Arjun Kharpal: I believe so. I believe so partly to be the leaders, but additionally, with the advantages you may. There’s a whole lot of tech we speak about, do we want it? But actually, this might be quite game changing. Really, in the event you give it some thought, think concerning the way travel time cutting down, higher for the environment.
Tom Chitty: You understand, I had a conversation once with, I believe it was my dad. But anyway, he said, imagine, you understand, an alien got here from one other planet, and checked out our, the best way we travel, they usually can see us on roads, driving in vehicles going really fast right past one another. And, you understand, when there’s all this space, they usually’re going, you are crazy, like, why are you limiting yourself to those roads slightly than simply going where you should go? When you think like that, then it form of is sensible. And the way we have now been traveling, possibly it is not one of the simplest ways for us to get around.
Arjun Kharpal: I do not think it is not one of the best technique to get around. I mean, using that airspace, from a practical perspective, I flew one among these aircrafts myself, in virtually reality. So I used to be there. And I used to be piloting one among these aircrafts over London. I used to be like, That is great.
Tom Chitty: So was it only a joystick?
Arjun Kharpal: Yeah, I had my headset on my virtual reality headset. I’m not like an aerospace expert, nevertheless it was up and down, go, stop.
Tom Chitty: Stop. Mid-air?
Arjun Kharpal: Hover.
Tom Chitty: Hover?
Arjun Kharpal: Yeah, just just hovering over the River Thames, and looking out around and spotted the London Eye. Big Ben. Flew past CNBC’s offices. But that is quite nice. I just land on the roof.
Tom Chitty: So it was easy to operate.
Arjun Kharpal: Yeah, I’m sure they’ve simplified it. But I believe actually also it’s. Yeah, it’s pretty easy.
Tom Chitty: Because that may be my next query is who’s going to fly these? You understand, obviously, in the event that they’re like a taxi kind of operation, then you definately’re gonna get a license, but are you going to want it a helicopter license and a pilot’s airplane license?
Arjun Kharpal: I believe there will be special licenses. You understand, the the the U.S. aviation administration has already said that there is going to be special pilot”s license. So that you must that you must. So there’s gonna be a whole lot of that. I mean, you understand, I do not understand how lucrative that is going to be when it comes to would you understand, a pilot quit their airline job to fly these or or could you and I train?
Tom Chitty: I imagine they’d be super excited that, you understand, latest types of employment opening up because pilots seemingly are losing their jobs. And again, we go on to autonomous aircraft because to me having a pilot in there seems redundant, particularly as you understand, we move towards a world where planes, business planes, it is not unfeasible to think that they might be pilotless
Arjun Kharpal: However the pilots should be in there at once. And I believe that you understand that pilotless … once I was chatting with the CEO of Lilium, on that trip, I said, you understand, what about autonomy. He’s like, not at once. We want to get these within the sky, we want to prove they’re secure. We want to prove the viability of them to the general public. Autonomy is down the road, it will possibly be done. But he goes not right off the bat. So I believe autonomy goes to be a stretch. I mean, it’s the identical thing as autonomous cars, right? We’re now we have been talking about for ages, but we’re no closer to having them out on a mass scale. Well, in China, they’re. But we’re no closer to essentially having them out on a mass scale.
Tom Chitty: Because what we have had some incidents.
Arjun Kharpal: Yeah. And while the tech’s there, it’s that the regulators must be, this must be watertight, even these with the pilots must be watertight?
Tom Chitty: Well, that I mean, the security element goes to be goes to be paramount. After we speak about aircraft safety in business aircraft, the security protocols checks are extensive, hence why it’s extremely rare to have an accident on a business aircraft, very rare. Private aircraft’s are barely more dangerous, but still, there are safety checks. But these are happening. You understand, that is also why, you understand, it costs a lot because there’s so many individuals involved in checking each time a plane lands, going over the plane, checking all of the settings checking that, you understand, every part’s in working order. And if eVTOLs are a several flights a day, are we going to have those safety checks happening? And that, again, goes to ramp up the price. Because you are going to need people to try this, you understand, this stuff are going to must be on the bottom to be them re-checked.
Arjun Kharpal: There’s lots. Yeah, there’s all those practical considerations, I believe that are not necessarily being spoken about at once. I believe, possibly there will be less safety checks, than aeroplanes. I’m undecided they’re that, you understand, large jets have so many alternative parts to them, right? These almost feel, or no less than they’re being marketed as you form of step in, off you go, you understand, pretty easy,
Tom Chitty: Since you speak about cars, right? Yeah, you’ve gotten an engine failure and a automobile, you pull it over to the side of the road. If you’ve gotten an engine failure in an eVTOL.
Arjun Kharpal: That is why a few of these models are talking about individually controlled fans or propellers
Tom Chitty: In order that if one fails?
Arjun Kharpal: They use this term redundancy. So if one fails, you have backups. And it could take a whole lot of them to fail to bring the aircraft down. And so there’s all of those. I mean, the opposite thing is, that is one giant computer, principally, flying within the sky. So there does bring that element of risk in into it, you understand, computers can fail, but then on the flip side, they will also be monitored remotely. And so there’s all of that, too. You understand, the security elements just going to be so key. And can the general public go on it?
Tom Chitty: You are leading into it beautifully
Arjun Kharpal: Would you go on it?
Tom Chitty: I believe I’d, obviously at a price that felt right, but at once it appears like it could be still the preserve of the uber wealthy. So yeah, but when it became something like, you understand, that we have now a ferry that goes down the River Thames, Uber clipper. Yeah, you understand, it’s, it’s costlier. It’s probably the costliest public transport you may take. But, you understand, you are taking it on occasion. And it’s a pleasant experience, nevertheless it’s not outrageous.
Arjun Kharpal: I praised London transport earlier because I believe it is vitally good. Transport around the remainder of the country, nonetheless, is lacking. I feel prefer it’s so expensive to get a train within the U.K. I’m wondering, you understand, given provided that, how much the price of those this, say I desired to go from I do not know we get London to a different city to possibly Birmingham to Manchester, which actually a few of these eVTOLs can try this distance. And that is sensible, right? Since it might be quicker. And you only you only form of sit on this aircraft for a brief period of time and also you’re there, slightly than kind of getting in to love a train station, after which you understand, getting on training and all that way. Those journeys as of late are really expensive. So I’m wondering how much kind of an eVTOL would cost as compared since it could bring some competition to the train operators, because if the train operator is already so expensive, and these eVTOL operators are going to be pricing, you understand, on the premium end, but possibly that appears very much like a train ticket. You’d go for the eVTOL possibly.
Tom Chitty: But that could be where it’s only and most practical as well. Because actually, in the event you take into consideration going to a location throughout the city to then go to a different location, but you have to get to the vertiport, get on the, you understand, you are waiting for a couple of other people to get into your eVTOL, after which land and, and the checks and whatnot. Actually, it is perhaps quicker simply to take the tube. But your to your point, actually, between cities, those are the journeys, which you understand, it might be rather more.
Arjun Kharpal: I am unable to imagine the purpose of them flying around a city like London, for instance, and even a number of the other European cities where there’s public transport networks in place, I am unable to see the purpose of it. While I used to be in virtual reality flying over London, I used to be pondering like, realistically, there’s tall buildings here, there’s tall monuments, how are you going to operate something like this at scale across this airspace. Whilst London is sort of a sprawling, a big city, it’s still quite tight. It’s still quite packed even up within the sky, there’s lots more skyscrapers going up as of late. So I’d have an interest to see whether in the long run what takes off, is the use really about that longer distance tthat currently we’d drive to over three to 4 hundred miles? Or take a train? Or is it actually inside cities? And I feel like, for me, what makes most sense now, and I assume it is going to depend country by country as well on their infrastructure. But for me within the U.K., obviously, it’s about it’s about those city to city journeys.
Tom Chitty: I do know that one analyst called it the mother of all aerospace bubbles, which I believe you quote on this system. Is that’s that a rare dissenting voice on this? Or are there a whole lot of people questioning the viability of this?
Arjun Kharpal: I believe, the mother of all aerospace bubbles, I believe it’s true within the sense that there is a whole lot of firms doing this. And as I discussed earlier, not all are going to survive, there might be collapses, there might be consolidation, there might be some failures, firms that just don’t quite make it who’ve possibly raised, you understand, thousands and thousands of dollars of cash. That’s where we’re at at once. But that happens on a regular basis with these these cycles, right? We have seen it already in electric vehicles, you understand, every company trying to lift money, and a few have already collapsed, not quite made it. We see it in AI, at once. Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, forming firms raising money. But that is what happens with tech cycles, when there’s some hype around technology, you frequently see a whole lot of money invested, you understand, enterprise capitalists and others betting on who’s going to win, who’s going to win out. Nevertheless it could be very difficult for all of those firms to survive which have raised money. And so there might be collapses in that sense. But when it comes to as we expect through the technology, and as we expect through the use, I feel like during this discussion, it’s change into clear that you understand, there might be a marketplace for it. But that just must be discovered. And there is so many hurdles here. Like, we’re talking about certifications being handed out and firms doing test flights and every part. But one issue with this with any aircraft, right, this thing could get grounded to a halt. After which secondly, you understand, it’s public acceptance, is not it? Would you get on one? Would you’re feeling secure getting on one, even when, you understand, you have all the security checks and stuff, are you going to be an early adopter? Are you not? Are you going to attend a couple of years see how this pans out? There’s all of those questions as well. The value point, is that this going to be reserved for the super wealthy, all of those things? So I believe simply to rightfully throw some some kind of balance and skepticism around the expansion of eVTOLs, there are a whole lot of limiting aspects and potential that I see that would pop up at any moment that would really decelerate the expansion of the industry. And so whilst it’s extremely exciting, whilst it could be cool to have I believe there’s a whole lot of things that must be worked out, from infrastructure to safety to regulation to then public acceptance and other people saying, you understand what, I feel secure enough to leap on one.
Tom Chitty: Before we finish, just desired to flag the history of flying cars or you understand, the Nineteen Forties, the Nineteen Fifties that was sort of wonderful the U.S. had their their very own secret program attempting to develop these, it looked like a flying saucer. So I’m sure the conspiracy theorists were loving that. And in addition, we won’t finish this episode about flying cars and eVTOLs without talking about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the OG. And clearly, you understand, a detailed affinity with Chitty Bang Bang.
Arjun Kharpal: That is your nickname is not it?
Tom Chitty: Was for a time for a time for a time. I’m attempting to bring that back actually. Yeah. That may be nice.
Arjun Kharpal: Nice musical.
Tom Chitty: Yeah. Yeah, it is a classic. Before we finish the episode, we have now after all, got to do stat of the week, which is
Arjun Kharpal: 35.8 billion U.S. dollars, Tom.
Tom Chitty: $35.8 billion. The market value of eVTOLs in 2030.
Arjun Kharpal: Close. 2032. eVTOL market size 2032. Well, you are right. You are right, though. You are right. Just take the complete credit. You principally got it.
Tom Chitty: Okay, I’ve got to stat the week for you. How much money do you think that it costs to take the 15 minute journey in a personal helicopter from Battersea in central London yet to Heathrow airport.
Arjun Kharpal: In kilos?
Tom Chitty: In kilos.To rent a six seater helicopter.
Arjun Kharpal: Six seater helicopter. Battersea to Heathrow, £350.
Tom Chitty: £2000
Arjun Kharpal: No. No. Yes. That’s wild. That is almost same price because the underground here. I joke. I jest that was clearly a joke. Yeah, no, that is, that is very surprising.
Tom Chitty: Well, I’ve really enjoyed that. And I’m sure our listeners have and if you’ve gotten any questions on eVTOLs, or you only want to present your opinions on this burgeoning industry, then please email us at beyondthevalley@cnbc.com. Thanks, Arjun.
Arjun Kharpal: Thanks, Tom.
Tom Chitty: We’ll be back next week for one more episode of beyond the valley. Goodbye.