Re:Airbus electric air taxi makes its debut
by proee on Friday March 08, 2024 @10:39AM
(#39642048)
This looks similar to aircraft from Joby Aviation. I wonder if this will crush their market opportunity now that a much bigger company is playing in the space? How can Joby compete against Airbus?
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Re:Airbus electric air taxi makes its debut
by hef19898 on Friday March 08, 2024 @10:46AM
(#39642130)
If there is a market, I am not convinced yet, I think they can. Because one OEM is not enough, there is place for at least a second one. Boeing has nothing, nor does any other major aerospace OEM. Which leaves a slot for Joby, potentially. Maybe someone else, Autoflight maybe. They are Chinese, meaning endless money for the time being, have a decent team and progress steadily and very quietly.
Personally, I'll count out all the other contenders.
Re:Airbus electric air taxi makes its debut
by sumantsharma on Friday March 08, 2024 @10:59AM
(#39642270)
Boeing owns a significant portion of Wisk and also has some stake in Archer.
Re:Airbus electric air taxi makes its debut
by hef19898 on Friday March 08, 2024 @11:02AM
(#39642315)
Didn't they devest Wisk? I could be mixing things up, didn't check.
Wisk and Archer have nothing to show so at the moment. Nor does Volocopter, besides some cargo drones.
Getting an aircraft certified and then scaling up manufacturing is extraordinarily difficult. The most likely exit plan for Joby and other eVTOL start-ups has always been to demonstrate technical viability and then get acquired by Airbus or one of the other big aerospace companies for the IP.
Re:Airbus electric air taxi makes its debut
by hef19898 on Friday March 08, 2024 @10:54AM
(#39642206)
Or automotive, the large aerospace OEMs could do it themselves. Bad news for those start-ups is the push to EVs really heated up by now, automotive OEMs have their hands full.
Those IP acquisitions are tricky so. The IP has to be really advanced and good, say A220 good, and even then the question remains if the price will even close to the total funding those companies got.