Companies Eying Inchoate Indian Air Mobility Market

In June, 2023, SkyDrive Inc., an eVTOL concern based in Toyota City in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture, and the Suzuki Motor Corporation entered into a partnership by which a SkyDrive-designed eVTOL aircraft known as the SD-05 will be built by Suzuki in a Japanese plant owned by the multinational mobility manufacturer.

Per the provisions of the partnership agreement, the aforementioned plant will manufacture up to one-hundred SD-05 eVTOLs per-year. Production is slated to commence in spring 2024.

SkyDrive and Suzuki have been collaborating, also, on business and technology R&D, planning of manufacturing and mass-production systems, and development of overseas markets with an initial focus on India.

SkyDrive is developing suitability use cases in India, particularly in historically-significant sea- and river-side locales frequented by tourists. Routes to subject locales are heavily traveled by Indian religious pilgrims and of interest, therefore, to companies in the business of regional mass-transportation.

For purpose of addressing social mobility and health issues the likes of air pollution, vehicular emissions, and urban roadway congestion, SkyDrive has entered into talks with local Indian stakeholders vis-à-vis the feasibility of an Urban Air Mobility (UAM) system predicated, in part, upon the company’s eVTOL aircraft. Over the last decade, Suzuki has contributed to mobility solutions throughout India—a fact beneficial to SkyDrive’s overtures.

SkyDrive will exhibit a one-fifth-scale representation of its SD-05 eVTOL at Suzuki’s booth at the Japan Mobility Show, which will be held at Tokyo’s Big Sight International Exhibition Center from 28 October through 05 November 2023.

FMI: https://en.skydrive2020.com