VIDEO: Telling the founder story of Dr Tim Woolmer, YASA Motors founder and CTO and Evolito director
Innovation and passion for the challenge of transforming air flight are in the blood of Tim Woolmer! Tim’s engineering hero as a child was his grandfather Sir Bob Feilden, who was a member of Frank Whittle’s Second World War team which invented the first jet engine.
As a student at Oxford, Tim invented a new type of electric motor based on the axial-flux approach and spun the technology out as YASA, growing the company to multiple automotive OEM deals, a record-breaking project with Rolls Royce to build the world’s fastest electric plane and acquisition by Mercedes-Benz in 2021.
Tim spun out YASA’s aerospace division in 2021, just prior to the Mercedes-Benz acquisition, as Evolito to bring his innovations to the skies — where he is also a Director. In the air the power-to-weight ratio becomes even more important!
Evolito develops and manufactures electric motors and power electronics for aerospace applications, which includes eVTOL aircraft. It was spun out earlier this year by YASA Motors, one of the world’s leading pioneers of automotive axial-flux electric motors which was acquired by Mercedes-Benz earlier this year.
It is set to exclusively commercialise YASA’s next-generation electric motor technology and IP for the rapidly-growing aerospace market.
And last month, Evolito announced the acquisition of the business and assets of Cheltenham-based aerospace battery solutions company Electroflight.
Electroflight has a proven track record of delivering safety critical, innovative battery solutions for electrifying the aerospace industry. Following the acquisition, Electroflight will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Evolito and will focus on delivering next-generation battery technology to complement Evolito’s motors and controllers.