Indian startup ePlane Company plans flying taxi by 2023

Indigenous electric vehicle company The ePlane Company has revealed that its ambitions to build India's first air taxi is on track, with plans to launch flight trials soon. If all goes well, the company believes that it can be commercially certified by late 2023.

First reported by IANS, CTO and co-founder Satya Chakravarty said, "We are developing the full-scale prototype, the ePlane e200, and aim to have the e200 cargo variant built towards the end of 2022 and undergo the certification process through the next year for it to be ready for commercial deployment approximately by late 2023."

The ePlane Company's air taxi could make both passenger and cargo transport up to 10 times faster than current models. The passenger version is expected to undergo more rigorous certification tests, which would take up to 2024.

Chakravarty said that he believes that his company's eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) product is among the most compact being developed globally, and this can help India's traffic problems.

"One of our key differentiating factors is that we're focused on making the ePlane one of most compact eVTOLs in the world that would cater to the mid-mile and last mile urban air mobility market segments, thereby alleviating traffic congestion in cities," he said.

Earlier this year, the company raised $5 million in a pre-Series A round. Other companies worldwide that are working on building and certifying air taxis include Boeing, Hyundai, Airbus, Toyota, Uber, and Joby Aviation.