Volocopter establishes joint venture with NEOM in Saudi Arabia to develop world’s first bespoke eVTOL mobility system

Volo­copter has part­nered with NEOM, the smart and sus­tain­able region­al devel­op­ment in Sau­di Ara­bia, to design, imple­ment and oper­ate the world’s first bespoke pub­lic eVTOL mobil­i­ty sys­tem.

This includes a con­firmed order of 15 air­craft from Volo­copter — 10 VoloC­i­ty pas­sen­ger and five Volo­Drone logis­tics air­craft — with the aim to begin ini­tial flight oper­a­tions with­in the next two to three years.

Air taxi and ver­ti­cal logis­tics ser­vices will be ful­ly inte­grat­ed with the over­all mul­ti-modal and zero-emis­sion pub­lic tran­sit sys­tem in NEOM. The joint ven­ture will be the sole oper­a­tor of ini­tial pub­lic tran­sit routes across NEOM, while enabling an open eVTOL air­craft ecosys­tem for ver­ti­cal mobil­i­ty ser­vices includ­ing logis­tics, emer­gency response, and tourism.

Chris­t­ian Bauer, Chief Com­mer­cial Offi­cer at Volo­copter, said: “The part­ner­ship with NEOM and the new joint ven­ture we are cre­at­ing togeth­er is going to be an excit­ing jour­ney. It is a once-in-a-life­time oppor­tu­ni­ty to be an essen­tial part of design­ing and oper­at­ing a com­plete­ly new urban air mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem from the ground up with­out the con­straint of lega­cy infra­struc­ture or reg­u­la­tion, and as pio­neers in the indus­try, Volo­copter is hon­oured to be the trust­ed part­ner to con­tribute to NEOM’s ambi­tious vision.” 

The joint ven­ture will scale-up its activ­i­ties from the begin­ning of 2022 to incu­bate urban air mobil­i­ty in the region and seed a ver­ti­cal mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. The part­ner­ship deliv­ers on NEOM’s mis­sion to be a glob­al liv­ing lab for future mobil­i­ty and a cen­tre of excel­lence for eVTOL inno­va­tion and indus­try. The first sec­tion of NEOM expects to be com­plet­ed by 2025.

It is imple­ment­ing the first tru­ly sus­tain­able and seam­less­ly con­nect­ed mobil­i­ty sys­tem pow­ered by 100 per cent renew­able ener­gy, deploy­ing zero-emis­sion vehi­cles across all urban and region­al mobil­i­ty modes. NEOM will shape the future of mobil­i­ty by close­ly inte­grat­ing smart infra­struc­ture and advanced tran­sit sys­tems with active, shared, and autonomous mobil­i­ty solu­tions to over­come the adverse lega­cy of the car-cen­tric city.

Nadh­mi Al-Nasr, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer at NEOM, said: “In design­ing cities and urban infra­struc­ture for the 21st cen­tu­ry, mobil­i­ty is at the cen­ter of the equa­tion. Through this joint ven­ture with Volo­copter, we are demon­strat­ing to the world that NEOM is the ide­al region to imple­ment urban air mobil­i­ty rapid­ly and cre­ate a ful­ly inte­grat­ed ver­ti­cal mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. NEOM is on a mis­sion to become a glob­al liv­ing lab for future mobil­i­ty, and we are very excit­ed to see what the future holds as we grow.”

The col­lab­o­ra­tion between NEOM and Volo­copter will lead the design and devel­op­ment of a tru­ly three-dimen­sion­al pub­lic trans­porta­tion sys­tem, advanc­ing the tech­ni­cal, reg­u­la­to­ry, and infra­struc­ture solu­tions for eVTOL oper­a­tions across NEOM. The joint ven­ture will offer ver­ti­cal mobil­i­ty ser­vices as an inte­gral part of NEOM’s mul­ti-modal and zero-emis­sions pub­lic mobil­i­ty sys­tem, pro­vid­ing seam­less con­nec­tiv­i­ty for pas­sen­gers and goods.

Work­ing with a range of inno­va­tion part­ners, NEOM has ini­ti­at­ed shared elec­tric mobil­i­ty ser­vices, autonomous shut­tles, elec­tric boats, per­son­al eVTOLs, deliv­ery drones, and solar-pow­ered mobil­i­ty hubs.

Flo­ri­an Lennert, Head of Mobil­i­ty at NEOM, added: “We are incred­i­bly excit­ed and proud to part­ner with Volo­copter to make ver­ti­cal mobil­i­ty a real­i­ty here at NEOM. Volo­copter is inter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised for lead­ing inno­va­tion in the eVTOL indus­try and is a per­fect match for our ambi­tious goals to cre­ate the first tru­ly sus­tain­able, shared, and seam­less­ly inte­grat­ed mobil­i­ty sys­tem in the world.

“Volocopter’s exper­tise, expe­ri­ence, and vision will allow us to lead the design and imple­men­ta­tion of eVTOL oper­a­tions region­al­ly and glob­al­ly. I am tru­ly look­ing for­ward to joint­ly rev­o­lu­tion­is­ing mobil­i­ty.” 

NEOM will be the home and work­place to more than a mil­lion res­i­dents from around the world and include hyper­con­nect­ed, cog­ni­tive towns and cities, ports and enter­prise zones, research cen­tres, sports and enter­tain­ment venues, and tourist des­ti­na­tions.

As a hub for inno­va­tion, entre­pre­neurs, busi­ness lead­ers and com­pa­nies will come to research, incu­bate, and com­mer­cialise new tech­nolo­gies and enter­pris­es in ground­break­ing ways.

eVTOL air­craft are an essen­tial part of NEOM’s mobil­i­ty mis­sion, enabling trans­porta­tion of peo­ple and goods with­out exten­sive sur­face infra­struc­ture. Ver­ti­cal mobil­i­ty ser­vices will con­nect NEOM’s core urban devel­op­ment THE LINE, reimag­ined indus­tri­al city OXAGON and oth­er region­al des­ti­na­tions, avoid­ing intru­sive road con­struc­tion and thus pro­tect­ing its unique nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment.