ABB to fast charge Lilium’s regional air networks and develop the infrastructure needed to fly its eVTOL aircraft

ABB E‑mobility will pro­vide the charg­ing infra­struc­ture for Lilium’s high speed region­al air net­work, which will see the com­pa­ny devel­op, test and sup­ply the MegaWatt fast charg­ing sys­tems nec­es­sary for the quick turn­around need­ed for elec­tric avi­a­tion flights.

As part of the agree­ment, which was announced yes­ter­day (Wednes­day), the ABB charg­ing points are designed to be capa­ble of ful­ly charg­ing bat­ter­ies in about 30 min­utes and charg­ing up to 80 per cent in 15 min­utes. This will enable the 20–25 flights per air­craft per day planned across Lilium’s glob­al ver­ti­port net­work, which cur­rent­ly spans Brazil, Ger­many and the USA.

The ini­tial range of its sev­en-seater Lil­i­um Jet is expect­ed to be 155 miles with a cruise speed of 175mph.  

Frank Muehlon, Pres­i­dent of ABB’s E‑mobility Divi­sion, said: “Com­bin­ing Lilium’s mis­sion to grow sus­tain­able avi­a­tion with ABB’s glob­al mar­ket exper­tise and lead­er­ship in e‑mobility and charg­ing infra­struc­ture is a win for the envi­ron­ment and a win for pas­sen­gers.

“More­over, we see this planned part­ner­ship as an impor­tant com­mit­ment to all rel­e­vant charg­ing stan­dards that are adopt­ed by mul­ti­ple elec­tric ‘vehi­cle’ man­u­fac­tur­ers. By sup­port­ing the new MegaWatt charg­ing stan­dard, ABB E‑mobility is paving the way for the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of all modes of trans­port, from cars and trucks to marine ves­sels, min­ing vehi­cles, and now, avi­a­tion.”

ABB is a glob­al tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny which ener­gis­es the trans­for­ma­tion of soci­ety and indus­try to achieve a more pro­duc­tive, sus­tain­able future. By con­nect­ing soft­ware to its elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, robot­ics, automa­tion and motion port­fo­lio, ABB says it is push­ing the bound­aries of tech­nol­o­gy to dri­ve per­for­mance to new lev­els.

Its MegaWatt Charg­ing Sys­tem (MCS) will also allow direct cur­rent (DC) charg­ing of up to 1000 kW and can also be used for elec­tric heavy-duty vehi­cles, such as trucks and bus­es.

CharIN, the orga­ni­za­tion that pro­motes inter­op­er­abil­i­ty based on the Com­bined Charg­ing Sys­tem (CCS) as the glob­al stan­dard for charg­ing vehi­cles of all kinds, ini­ti­at­ed the Task Force ‘Megawatt Charg­ing Sys­tem’ in 2018 to pre­pare inter­na­tion­al charg­ing stan­dard for com­mer­cial vehi­cle high pow­er charg­ing.  

Daniel Wie­gand, CEO and Co-Founder of Lil­i­um, added: “We believe that the decar­bon­i­sa­tion of avi­a­tion is both urgent and inevitable. Mak­ing sure we have the right charg­ing infra­struc­ture will play a cru­cial role in enabling our high-speed region­al air net­work by allow­ing quick and effi­cient charg­ing. We are proud to be work­ing with ABB, who bring decades of expe­ri­ence in elec­tri­fi­ca­tion and soft­ware, to set the charg­ing indus­try stan­dard for elec­tric avi­a­tion.”

In 2019, glob­al CO₂ emis­sions from all com­mer­cial air oper­a­tions reached 918 mil­lion tons, an increase of 29 per cent since 2013.. With pas­sen­ger trans­port respon­si­ble for 780 mil­lion tons, or 85 per cent, of the total emis­sions from air oper­a­tions, decar­bon­i­sa­tion of trans­port is a vital step in the fight against cli­mate change and build­ing a more sus­tain­able future.