YASA Spin-Off Evolito launched to provide ultra-high performance, low-weight electric motors for urban air mobility aircraft

A new com­pa­ny has been launched in the UK to devel­op and man­u­fac­ture elec­tric motors and pow­er elec­tron­ics for aero­space appli­ca­tions, which includes eVTOL air­craft.

Evoli­to was spun out ear­li­er this year by YASA Motors, one of the world’s lead­ing pio­neers of auto­mo­tive axi­al-flux elec­tric motors which was acquired by Mer­cedes-Benz ear­li­er this year. It is set to exclu­sive­ly com­mer­cialise YASA’s next-gen­er­a­tion elec­tric motor tech­nol­o­gy and IP for the rapid­ly-grow­ing aero­space mar­ket.

Evolito’s ultra high-per­for­mance, low-weight axi­al-flux motors and pow­er elec­tron­ics are small­er, lighter and more robust than any oth­er com­pet­ing tech­nol­o­gy, open­ing up a range of new oppor­tu­ni­ties for fixed wing and dis­trib­uted elec­tric propul­sion appli­ca­tions in the urban air mobil­i­ty mar­ket.

Gareth Mor­ris, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor, Evoli­to, said: “Elec­tri­fi­ca­tion in aero­space is some ten years behind that of the auto­mo­tive indus­try, but the mar­ket poten­tial is huge.

“Elec­tric ver­ti­cal take-off and land­ing, elec­tric heli­copter, fixed-wing and urban air mobil­i­ty air­craft need high pow­er den­si­ty, low weight elec­tric pow­er­trains with inher­ent­ly high safe­ty fac­tors — a com­bi­na­tion of attrib­ut­es that are unique to our axi­al-flux elec­tric motor and pow­er elec­tron­ics.

“By lever­ag­ing YASA’s unique IP in the aero­space mar­ket, Evoli­to will fast-track the com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion of elec­tric flight and trans­form mobil­i­ty as we know it.”

The unique seg­ment­ed topol­o­gy of the Evoli­to motor is inher­ent­ly more robust than oth­er elec­tric motor approach­es, mak­ing it ide­al­ly suit­ed to the demands of the aero­space mar­ket where safe­ty is para­mount.

Evolito’s axi­al-flux elec­tric motors and pow­er elec­tron­ics offer the high­est pow­er and torque den­si­ties in class – the com­pa­ny says they are inher­ent­ly more robust than com­pet­ing tech­nolo­gies. The pri­vate­ly-held com­pa­ny is based in Oxford, with its investors include Way­point Cap­i­tal and Oxford Sci­ence Enter­pris­es (OSE).

Cyrus Jil­la, Part­ner and Board Direc­tor at Way­point Cap­i­tal, said: “At Way­point, one of our the­mat­ic inter­ests is in ener­gy tran­si­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty, includ­ing elec­tri­fi­ca­tion. We look to invest in busi­ness­es with unique dis­rup­tive tech­nol­o­gy led by out­stand­ing teams.

“Evoli­to is a per­fect fit for us and we look for­ward to back­ing the team as they devel­op their game-chang­ing elec­tri­fi­ca­tion solu­tions for the aero­space mar­ket, mak­ing emis­sions-free flight a real­i­ty.”

Alex­is Zer­vog­los, Senior Part­ner at OSE, added: “The elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of flight is one of the most excit­ing mar­ket oppor­tu­ni­ties of our time. Real­is­ing this poten­tial will require inno­v­a­tive new tech­nol­o­gy and an abil­i­ty to scale to meet the fast-emerg­ing demand. OSE is delight­ed to be sup­port­ing Evoli­to on its mis­sion to accel­er­ate the adop­tion of elec­tric flight.”