Japan: SkyDrive Begins Production of SD-05 eVTOL Aircraft with Partner Suzuki Motor Corps

Sky­Drive announced last week it had begun pro­duc­tion of its SD-05 eVTOL air­craft at Suzu­ki Motor Corp’s man­u­fac­tur­ing plant in Iwa­ta-city, Shizuo­ka, Japan, reports a press release. This is a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in SkyDrive’s mis­sion to be fly­ing pas­sen­gers to and from the Osa­ka Expo in Kan­sai dur­ing 2025.

The cer­e­mo­ny took place on Wednes­day, March 6th, attend­ed by Toshi­hi­ro Suzu­ki, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Direc­tor and Pres­i­dent of Suzu­ki, Tomo­hi­ro Fukuza­wa, CEO of Sky­Drive, and all employ­ees from Sky Works and oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Found­ed in Sep­tem­ber 2023, Sky Works is SkyDrive’s man­u­fac­tur­ing arm and along­side the col­lab­o­ra­tion with Suzu­ki, this is a sig­nif­i­cant step towards achiev­ing the Osa­ka mis­sion. With the capac­i­ty to pro­duce up to 100 eVTOLs per year, Sky­Drive is poised to meet the grow­ing demand for Urban Air Mobil­i­ty.

Man­u­fac­tur­ing Plant

Tomo­hi­ro Fukuza­wa, CEO of Sky­Drive, com­ment­ed, “Part­ner­ing with Suzu­ki is a momen­tous occa­sion. It is the begin­ning of a new phase. We share a goal of qual­i­ty, inno­va­tion and cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion, mak­ing the com­pa­ny an ide­al part­ner in our quest to rev­o­lu­tionise Urban Air Mobil­i­ty.”

Nobuo Kishi, Pres­i­dent of Sky Works,  added, “We are thrilled to begin pro­duc­tion of the SD-05 with Suzuki’s man­u­fac­tur­ing spe­cial­ists. This facil­i­ty allows us to pro­duce high-qual­i­ty eVTOLs effi­cient­ly and effec­tive­ly, ensur­ing we meet the needs of our cus­tomers.”

Back­ground

Sky­Drive was ful­ly estab­lished in July 2018 after test­ing fly­ing car con­cepts and pro­to­types from 2014 onwards. The com­pa­ny suc­ceed­ed in the first crewed eVTOL flight tri­al in Japan in 2019 and its elec­tric air­craft is in the process of acquir­ing the Japan Civ­il Avi­a­tion Bureau (JCAB) cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. 

SD-05 eVTOL Air­craft

Sky­Drive has been select­ed as a major com­pa­ny to par­tic­i­pate in Japan’s Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) project dur­ing the six month dura­tion (April-Octo­ber) of the Osa­ka Expo in 2025. 

For more infor­ma­tion

https://en.skydrive2020.com/

(Top image: Front row cen­tre: Toshi­hi­ro Suzu­ki, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Direc­tor and Pres­i­dent of Suzu­ki, Nobuo Kishi, Pres­i­dent of Sky Works, and Tomo­hi­ro Fukuza­wa, CEO of Sky­Drive, at The First Riv­et­ing Cer­e­mo­ny

For the lat­est news, insights and con­tent regard­ing the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty mar­ket, please join the fol­low­ing eVTOL Insights chan­nels: What­sApp, Sig­nal, Face­book, Insta­gram, Spo­ti­fy, Apple Pod­casts, YouTube, X and LinkedIn.