Lilium confirms it is in discussions to create high-volume production facilities in France, creating up to 850 new jobs

Lil­i­um is in advanced dis­cus­sions with the French gov­ern­ment to expand its high-vol­ume pro­duc­tion capac­i­ty with an indus­tri­al foot­print in the coun­try, the com­pa­ny has con­firmed.

This fol­lows a French gov­ern­ment announce­ment of the talks at the Choose France Sum­mit, which took place in Ver­sailles today (Mon­day).

In a press release, Lil­i­um has said it was attract­ed to France due to the coun­try’s well-estab­lished aero­space indus­try, exper­tise in elec­tric mobil­i­ty, high­ly skilled work­force and sup­port­ive gov­ern­ment envi­ron­ment.

The com­pa­ny is cur­rent­ly work­ing with mul­ti­ple Tier 1 sup­pli­ers, includ­ing estab­lished French play­ers such as Saint-Gob­ain, Miche­lin, Expliseat and Rati­er-Figeac.

While an exact loca­tion has­n’t been con­firmed, Lil­i­um is cur­rent­ly eval­u­at­ing sev­er­al pos­si­ble sites in France. They include in the aero­space and bat­tery pro­duc­tion hotbeds of Nou­velle Aquitaine.

Dis­cus­sions, which include poten­tial gov­ern­ment sub­si­dies and loan guar­an­tees, is expect­ed to reach a con­clu­sion in the com­ing weeks.

If Lil­i­um does set up in France, these planned new high-vol­ume pro­duc­tion facil­i­ties will serve the glob­al mar­ket. By expand­ing its man­u­fac­tur­ing oper­a­tions in France, Lil­i­um expects to fur­ther lever­age France’s unique her­itage and vast sup­pli­er base in aero­space and elec­tri­fi­ca­tion. 

With an esti­mat­ed total future invest­ment of up to €400 mil­lion over sev­er­al years, Lil­i­um would have the poten­tial to cre­ate up to 850 new direct jobs with this expan­sion of its indus­tri­al foot­print.

Found­ed in 2015, Lil­i­um is cur­rent­ly the only man­u­fac­tur­er world­wide with a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion basis for eVTOL air­craft in both Europe and the Unit­ed States.

Ini­tial pro­duc­tion of its Lil­i­um Jet began in 2023 at the com­pa­ny’s head­quar­ter site close to Munich, Ger­many. With entry into ser­vice planned for 2026, Lil­i­um is prepar­ing for larg­er scale pro­duc­tion to meet expect­ed glob­al mar­ket demand.

As well as Europe, Lil­i­um has an order pipeline con­sist­ing of more than 780 air­craft. This includes bind­ing orders and MoU agree­ments from oper­a­tors in the Unit­ed States, South Amer­i­ca, Asia, and the Mid­dle East.