DENSO and Honeywell Aerospace extend partnership to develop electric propulsion units for urban air mobility

DENSO has signed a long-term agree­ment with aero­space leader Hon­ey­well as both com­pa­nies work on devel­op­ing new elec­tric propul­sion units for the urban air mobil­i­ty mar­ket, with a focus on eVTOL air taxis and deliv­ery vehi­cles.

This lat­est agree­ment fol­lows on from the ini­tial col­lab­o­ra­tion signed back in 2019. Both com­pa­nies are in advanced dis­cus­sions with cus­tomers as they intend to begin flight test con­fig­u­ra­tions of the elec­tric propul­sion sys­tems with­in the next year. Addi­tion­al­ly, the alliance’s elec­tric propul­sion sys­tems will inte­grate seam­less­ly with Honeywell’s fly-by-wire, avion­ics and actu­a­tion sys­tems.

Jiro Ebi­hara, Senior Exec­u­tive Offi­cer and Head of the Elec­tri­fi­ca­tion Sys­tems Busi­ness Group at DENSO Cor­po­ra­tion, said: “Mobil­i­ty needs are chang­ing and this col­lab­o­ra­tion rep­re­sents how DENSO is evolv­ing to meet them.

“While we have com­mit­ted to achieve a car­bon-neu­tral soci­ety, we still need to reduce traf­fic and offer eco-friend­ly move­ment in pop­u­la­tion-dense areas. Work­ing with Hon­ey­well will help address both these issues and fur­thers our goal of cre­at­ing mobil­i­ty that is green and offers peace of mind.”

DENSO is a glob­al mobil­i­ty sup­pli­er that devel­ops advanced tech­nol­o­gy and com­po­nents for near­ly every vehi­cle make and mod­el on the road today. With man­u­fac­tur­ing at its core, the com­pa­ny pro­duces ther­mal, pow­er­train, mobil­i­ty, elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, & elec­tron­ic sys­tems,

Hon­ey­well is one of the world’s lead­ing mak­ers of elec­tron­ics, engines and mechan­i­cal sys­tems for air­craft. Its sys­tems fly on vir­tu­al­ly every air­lin­er in the sky, along with thou­sands of busi­ness jets and light air­craft.

Dave Marinick, pres­i­dent, Engines & Pow­er Sys­tems, Hon­ey­well Aero­space, said: “Hon­ey­well tech­nolo­gies have helped pow­er human flight for more than 100 years, and as elec­tric propul­sion for air­craft takes shape, Hon­ey­well will be at the fore­front with part­ners like DENSO.

“DENSO’s lead­er­ship in auto­mo­tive tech­nol­o­gy com­bined with our expe­ri­ence in Aero­space will help bring about clean­er and smarter ways for peo­ple to move through­out the world.”

The alliance with Hon­ey­well enhances DENSO’s Sec­ond Found­ing, the company’s strat­e­gy to pro­vide val­ue beyond a vehi­cle-cen­tric focus and pro­duce the core tech­nolo­gies for future mobil­i­ty.

It also will help both com­pa­nies in their pledge to be car­bon neu­tral in its facil­i­ties and oper­a­tions by 2035.