By Bjorn Fehrm.
November 4, 2022, ©. Leeham Information: It is a abstract of the article Half 44P, eVTOL working prices. It discusses the operational prices of a typical eVTOL flying a feeder mission from a metropolis middle to an airport.
The dominant value components aren’t those eVTOL firms love to debate, just like the electrical energy payments.
Determine 1. The Vertical Aerospace VX4 in an early rendering with comparable seems to be to the eVTOL we focus on. Supply: Vertical Aerospace.
Mission operational prices
We now have analyzed the operational prices for airliners and feeder plane for nearly a decade with our plane efficiency mannequin. An eVTOL just isn’t that totally different; the associated fee components are the identical, however their content material differs.
We used the mannequin to research the vitality, crew, upkeep, airport, underway, and capital prices. The overall value for a typical city-to-airport feeder mission of half-hour, together with procedures, can be simply over $200.
The attention-grabbing half is what value components dominate. Determine 2 exhibits the associated fee distribution for the mission.
Determine 2. The distribution of the operational prices for our eVTOL. Supply: Leeham Co.
We see that the vitality prices symbolize 2% of the associated fee mass and upkeep of the airframe with its methods, motors, and rotors 9%. The issue areas are the battery renewal prices at 32%, the price of utilizing the heliport, the airport, and the in-between airspace at 25%, and the price of the pilot at 23%.
The conclusion is the associated fee eVTOL OEMs love to debate; the vitality value is non-relevant to the operations prices of eVTOL air taxis.
The battery prices deserve particular consideration. We want greater than 5 batteries per 12 months, and you’ll’t base the renewal value on the prices within the automotive business. It produces some 5 billion energy-oriented cells this 12 months. Finish of this decade, the eVTOL business will demand lower than 0.1% of the automotive business amount of its particular, power-optimized cells.
Subsequently, we’ve primarily based the battery prices on what the producers have instructed us would be the renewal value for a 144kWh eVTOL battery on the finish of the last decade.
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