KEPCO Signs MOU with Vertical Aerospace for “Joint Development of eVTOL Charging Facilities”

Kan­sai Elec­tric Pow­er Co. (KEPCO) and Ver­ti­cal Aero­space (VA), announced last week the sign­ing of a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MOU), to estab­lish a joint work­ing group “to study, define and research elec­tric charg­ers and infra­struc­ture stan­dards in Japan and oth­er rel­e­vant Asian mar­kets,” reports a press release.

UK-locat­ed VA will pri­mar­i­ly coor­di­nate the spec­i­fi­ca­tion and require­ments for eVTOL charg­ing facil­i­ties, while KEPCO is to devel­op DC fast charg­ers, bat­tery cool­ing sys­tems, ener­gy man­age­ment sys­tems etc., based upon the infor­ma­tion gath­ered.

Out­line of MOU

: Joint­ly define the require­ment, design and oper­a­tions of elec­tric charg­ers for the VX4 eVTOL, lead­ing to the devel­op­ment of charg­ing facil­i­ties for eVTOLs (DC fast charg­ers, bat­tery cool­ing sys­tems and ener­gy man­age­ment sys­tems).

: Research and define the charg­ing infra­struc­ture required for oper­a­tion ser­vices of eVTOLs along­side col­lab­o­ra­tion with relat­ed com­pa­nies and min­istries.

: Research on spec­i­fi­ca­tions and reg­u­la­tions of charg­ing facil­i­ties for eVTOLS.

: Study on car­bon-neu­tral oper­a­tions ser­vices for eVTOLS.

: Efforts to con­tribute to social accep­tance and aware­ness of Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty.

The knowl­edge obtained from this project will be used at the Osa­ka Expo in 2025 for those eVTOL indus­try mem­bers involved, as well as for inte­grat­ing their imple­men­ta­tion in Asian coun­tries.

Found­ed in 2016, Ver­ti­cal Aero­space is a lead­ing UK eVTOL man­u­fac­tur­er with its HQ in Bris­tol. Its full-sized VX4 had a major impact when dis­played at the Farn­bor­ough Air­show in 2022. The com­pa­ny aims for com­mer­cial cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from the UK Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty by the end of 2026. Mean­while, it aims to fly the Air­craft at the Osa­ka Expo.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://vertical-aerospace.com/

https://www.kepco.co.jp/english/

(Top image: Ver­ti­cal Aero­space)