Energy
Saturday, July 9th, 2022 11:01 am EDT
Making more moves in the electric aviation arena, electric propulsion company Evolito has acquired aerospace battery company Electroflight.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the news, though, is that the two young companies previously collaborated under the name YASA. “Having previously worked together, as YASA, we successfully powered the worlds fastest electric aircraft, the Spirit of Innovation to break the world speed record.” With such success under their belts, they’ve joined forces in order to try to accelerate the transition to electric aviation. “Now as a wholly owned subsidiary of Evolito, we look forward to accelerating the possibilities for emissions-free air travel together with Electroflight.”
“We are very excited to complete the acquisition of Electroflight today. The combined capabilities will enable us to deliver flexible solutions for our customers, from best-in-class motor and controller subsystems to fully-integrated electric powertrains,” said Ajay Lukha, COO of Evolito.
Image courtesy of Evolito.
What the two companies combined will be offering are electric aviation powertrains with fully integrated battery solutions. The case they are making is that they are offering high performance, low weight and size, and thus highly competitive electric aviation solutions. “Our high-performance, low-weight axial-flux motors and controllers are smaller and lighter with a higher safety factor than any other competing electric propulsion technology. Evolito’s products enable a range of new electric propulsion applications, helping to accelerate the industry’s move towards net zero.”
It’s a compelling pitch generally speaking. We are of course not fit to evaluate the competitiveness of Evolito or other electric aviation supplier companies in this nascent, fast-changing market. However, the history under YASA working with Rolls-Royce is another strong addition to their CV. Does that mean they offer the most cost-competitive electric airplane powertrain solutions? Certainly not — who knows which companies lead in that respect? However, if I was trying to get an electric airplane or aviation company off the ground (pun somewhat intended), the Evolito team would have my ears and I’d be asking to see more details.
Note that YASA is now a fully owned subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz, while Evolito was spun out of YASA in 2021.
“Electroflight have a proven track record of delivering safety critical, innovative battery solutions for the electrification of aviation,” Evolito says. “Evolito’s investors include B-Flexion and Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE).”
You can learn more about Evolito in the video below.
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We wrote about the Rolls-Royce electric aviation project powered by YASA a few times in recent years. In January 2019, Nicolas Zart covered the announcement that Rolls-Royce would attempt to build the world’s fastest airplane. In December 2019, he followed that up when the electric airplane was unveiled. In January 2020, Rolls-Royce claimed that its electric airplane battery, developed by Evolito and Electroflight, was the world’s highest energy density “flying battery.” In October of 2020, I reported on the news that Rolls-Royce thought it was developing the fastest electric airplane in the world. Rolls-Royce then did set the electric airplane speed record in November 2021, less than a year ago.
Where Rolls-Royce will go from there and where Evolito will go from there, we’ll wait and see. For now, though, it is clear that the dream of better, faster, more efficient, and more cost effective electric aviation is the ongoing goal of the Evolito team, which now includes the Electroflight team they collaborated with at YASA.
Featured image courtesy of Evolito.
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