A commentary by McLaren Applied — eVTOL Aircraft in 2022: Revolutionising the Aviation Industry

By Dr. Stephen Lam­bert, Head of Elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, McLaren Applied

eVTOL tech­nol­o­gy has exist­ed in con­cept for over a decade but every avail­able met­ric – from patent­ing activ­i­ty to invest­ment – sug­gests com­mer­cial activ­i­ties are rapid­ly ramp­ing up.

In 2021, we saw sig­nif­i­cant growth in the indus­try, with many com­pa­nies over­com­ing the bar­ri­ers to entry into this mar­ket – secur­ing fund­ing, devel­op­ing new tech­nolo­gies and part­ner­ing with oth­er com­pa­nies to strength­en their offer­ings. Last year, there were more than 150 man­u­fac­tur­ers and start-ups devel­op­ing eVTOL air­craft across the world. It’s been pre­dict­ed that the eVTOL mar­ket will be worth 30.8 bil­lion by 2030 – but how does it get there?

Although eVTOL devel­op­ment is on the rise, how quick­ly the indus­try moves depends on tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ments and demand. While eVTOL does not yet have the order vol­umes need­ed to dri­ve down costs, there is already a well-estab­lished sup­ply chain for elec­tric vehi­cle com­po­nents. The syn­er­gies between eVTOL and auto­mo­tive there­fore cre­ate an oppor­tu­ni­ty for the eVTOL indus­try to look at adapt­ing com­po­nents used in auto­mo­tive to expe­dite prod­uct devel­op­ment.

For exam­ple, our IPG5 800V Sil­i­con Car­bide invert­er, designed for auto­mo­tive safe­ty, but builds on our motor­sport knowl­edge, is a proven and cred­i­ble option for aero­space appli­ca­tions, as it helps to over­come some of the key chal­lenges of bring­ing an eVTOLs to mar­ket.; improv­ing effi­cien­cy, dri­ving down costs, reduc­ing weight, increas­ing range and designed for use in safe­ty crit­i­cal appli­ca­tions. 

McLaren Applied’s cut­ting edge tech­nol­o­gy is accel­er­at­ing the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of trans­port. Tech­nolo­gies and mate­ri­als that orig­i­nat­ed in For­mu­la One are now trans­fer­ring across to oth­er modes of trans­porta­tion that rely heav­i­ly on effi­cien­cy. 

Why the need for an 800V Sil­i­con Car­bide Invert­er?

In 2022, McLaren Applied is look­ing to build on the appli­ca­tion of our IPG5 800V Sil­i­con Car­bide invert­er, to under­stand how it can fur­ther dri­ve elec­tri­fi­ca­tion across oth­er indus­tries. 

After years in devel­op­ment, we have built an invert­er that uses advanced mate­ri­als to ensure low weight and high effi­cien­cy dri­ve­trains that can deliv­er faster charg­ing, longer-range and high­er speeds. We know that two of the key chal­lenges the eVTOL indus­try faces are air­craft weight and poor range, which is why we believe our IPG5 800V Sil­i­con Car­bide invert­er is a proven and cred­i­ble option for avi­a­tion pow­er­trains. 

The eVTOL indus­try is now look­ing at har­ness­ing the pow­er of auto­mo­tive tech­nol­o­gy to improve air­craft devel­op­ment. The invert­er allows aero­space man­u­fac­tur­ers to cre­ate lighter, small­er com­po­nents that enhance per­for­mance, pri­ori­tise safe­ty and speed up charg­ing times. 

Com­mer­cial adop­tion of eVTOL 

Car man­u­fac­tur­ers are accel­er­at­ing their elec­tri­fi­ca­tion strate­gies, in a race to stand out in today’s com­pet­i­tive elec­tric vehi­cle (EV) mar­ket. This year’s CES event is a prime exam­ple, with a num­ber of tra­di­tion­al automak­ers announc­ing their plans for new EV’s, in what is set to be a year of growth for EV inno­va­tion, pro­duc­tion and adop­tion. 

Avi­a­tion appears to be tak­ing a sim­i­lar route, with com­mer­cial­ly-oper­at­ing eVTOLs antic­i­pat­ed as soon as 2022 or 2023. We’re see­ing large com­pa­nies and start-ups under­go­ing joint ven­tures in an effort to advance com­mer­cial adop­tion of eVTOL. Even tra­di­tion­al car man­u­fac­tur­ers are look­ing to take advan­tage of this com­pet­i­tive mar­ket. Both Hon­da and Hyundai revealed their plans to dis­rupt the eVTOL indus­try at this years’ CES event, and we can expect to see more of this over the com­ing years. 

Key con­sid­er­a­tions for the indus­try

There are a num­ber of key con­sid­er­a­tions the eVTOL indus­try must take into account if it is to be suc­cess­ful­ly com­mer­cialised. 

Aero­space man­u­fac­tur­ers have sig­nif­i­cant­ly less vol­ume than auto­mo­tive, which means that com­po­nents must be cost effec­tive and effi­cient if they hope to ensure wide­spread adop­tion. This is where adop­tion of com­po­nents and tech­nol­o­gy from the auto­mo­tive indus­try can help. How­ev­er, the issue of the dif­fer­ence in auto­mo­tive and aero­space safe­ty strate­gies becomes very rel­e­vant.

In auto­mo­tive appli­ca­tions, in the event of a fail­ure, it is assumed a vehi­cle can be bought to a safe stop.  How­ev­er, air­craft can­not be brought to a safe stop in the same way, they must keep going until it is safe to land and so the focus is on increased avail­abil­i­ty of func­tion. Here, auto­mo­tive sup­pli­ers with expe­ri­ence in motor­sport have the edge. They are famil­iar with the demand that fail­ures should be man­aged with­out neces­si­tat­ing the car’s imme­di­ate retire­ment. 

It is this expe­ri­ence that enabled us to meet the needs of Roll’s‑Royce’s ‘Spir­it of Inno­va­tion’ project. We were able to pro­vide ele­ments of the BMS (Bat­tery Man­age­ment Sys­tem) that were orig­i­nal­ly used in motor­sport and fol­lowed the same premise – the vehi­cle must keep trav­el­ling as far as pos­si­ble. 

At McLaren Applied, we are dri­ven by inno­va­tion and new tech­nolo­gies that can help dri­ve the future of elec­tri­fi­ca­tion. Our work in this are­na, from devel­op­ing the motor and invert­er for the world’s first hybrid hyper car, the McLaren P1, through to our posi­tion as a sup­pli­er of the stan­dard For­mu­la E bat­tery since 2018, posi­tions us as lead­ers in the mar­ket, with a clear focus on deliv­er­ing ben­e­fits across indus­tries that are focused on evolv­ing future prod­ucts.