Despite much fanfare and promises of Parisian skies filled with visions of electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) machines carrying passengers to Olympics events across the City of Light, Volocopter may be left in the dark.
A Double Blow
eVTOL Insights reported a double blow to Volocopter’s plans late last year. “On Friday (November 17th), news broke that Volocopter’s plans to begin a 15 minute air taxi flight in the Marina Bay area of Singapore, early next year, alongside the hiring of key staff, has been put on hold – indefinitely – as the German company cannot secure local partners to share the large funding required for such an enterprise.”
As though though that were not enough, On November 19th, Volocopter’s future “jewel in its crown” flights over Paris during the Olympic Games, next July and August, were sharply downgraded. Local politics seem to blame.
Not Paris, but Osaka. Volocopter aims to fly its VoloCity air taxi at EXPO Osaka Kansai 2025.
eVTOL Insights reports, “The French Capital’s councillors have reacted to the idea with a stunning negative reaction, calling the plans as “Absurd” and an “ecological aberration.” A Deputy Mayor of the Consul de Paris, described the planned flying taxi operations as “a totally useless, hyper-polluting gimmick for a few ultra-privileged people in a hurry.”
For those of us interested in giving electric aviation a reasonable trial for public approval, these seem like overblown critiques.
Many seemed ill-considered, ignorant of the facts, or simply political. One councillor, for instance, commented, “To save a few minutes for a few wealthy people in a hurry, who are ignorant and contemptuous of the climate emergency, we would be polluting the atmosphere and destroying the sound environment.” This was to be a demonstration of a new technology, and the electric flight vehicles would certainly be more environmentally friendly than the Diesel cars recently banned from city streets.
The Deputy Mayor of Paris was at odds with the French government’s approval of such flights. Feeling only the rich would benefit, he explained, “130 euros for a journey of 35 kilometers is absurd. We are really in an abnormal situation and despite everything, despite the opposition of the Paris Council, despite the fact that this government no longer has any legitimacy, it is proceeding vigorously to please some lobbies.” There seems to be some friction between the French government and the Paris City Council.
Your editor normally tries to avoid taking sides, but the Deputy Mayor may have forgotten the $181 three-course lunch on the second floor restaurant of the Eiffel Tower, or the $140 to $224 offerings on the first floor. A seven course tasting menu at the Jules Verne (Michelin two stars) costs 320 euros ($348.70) without wine. One does get an elevator ride, though. For that matter, you can climb the 704 stairs to the top for a mere $42.46, or take the elevator to the second floor for $73. Even climbing stairs in Paris is expensive.
Nonetheless, members of the city council threw out some numbers to impress their constituents. Councillor Claire de Clermont-Tonnerre calculated, “The consumption of these flying machines, nearly 190 kWh per 100 [kilometers], is two to three times higher than that of a combustion-powered car to transport a single passenger. It’s a new use that we absolutely don’t need…, just as we’ve seen with self-service scooters.” Tesla claims 14.1 kW-hr. per 100 kilometers for its model 3, for instance, and a Quora respondent calculated his 2019 Nissan Leaf returns 100 miles (160.9 kilometers) on 28kW-hrs of electricity, or 17.4 kW-hr. per 100 km. M. Clermont-Tonnerre’s estimate for “these flying machines” is 10 times that of electric cars and roughly equivalent to a gas-powered vehicle getting around 11 mpg.
While Communist councillor Jean-Noël Aqua pointed out that passengers would have to pay “the modest sum of EUR140 for 35km.” If an avowed communist can think of the cost as “modest” what are the others complaining about?
The Aéroports de Paris (ADP) group, along with German manufacturer Volocopter and the Ile-de-France region, have always stated the plans “are an experiment with a new mobility offer in very dense urban areas.”
One Final Blow?
Another, perhaps fatal blow to the plan comes today.
The Autorité Environnementale Française (full title: The Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion) disparaged an impact study for an experimental vertiport on the Seine, at the quai du port d’Austerlitz, as “incomplete.”, The Authority also expressed concerns “over sound and visual pollution, energy consumption and ground and airborne safety risks.”
Santos Dumont in his Number 6 airship rounds the Eiffel Tower
According to planners, The original intention was to fly five to ten eVTOL aircraft during the 2024 Olympics, (consisting of three connection journeys and two round-trip tourist flights) in and around the capital, including a shuttle service from the airport to the city center, cutting a 45-minute journey to 10 minutes, for a price of EUR110 per person. Another flying taxi will be taking off and landing from a barge on the river Seine.
The resistance to the plan is strange for a city that once welcomed Wilbur Wright and his public demonstrations of the Wright Flyer in 1908, or which applauded Santos Dumont’s dirigible perambulations around the Eiffel Tower.
Wilbur Wright with the Wright Flyer at Le Mans in 1908
Even though the French government seems all for it, Paris is not happy with the idea, and it may take too long resolve the conflict before the Olympics are gone forever.
eVTOL Insights ended its report with this plea: “Education, education, education.
“Surely, what Volocopter and its supporters must now do is to invest a large sum of money to intensely educate both the Paris councillors and public. The Olympic Games is just eight months away. The notion that the city will ban Volocopter from flying at the Games will be a major setback for the industry. Yet, despite the present scale of opposition, the scheme could still go ahead. The Ministry of Transport is set to make a decision “at the beginning of 2024.” It is likely they will be more favorable to the idea.”
NEOM and Points East
If things don’t work out in France, after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Volocopter plans to take Volocity to Rome, Osaka, and NEOM, Saudi Arabia’s “giga-city.” That planned utopian enclave might be more accepting of high-tech flight, ostensibly encouraging high technology, entrepreneurial development, and future visions.
While Saudi Arabia may be open to such thing NEOM’s The Line, a 75-mile long horizontal “skyscraper” seems to be having issues of its own. Whether these will interfere with Volocopter’s plans remains to be seen.
NEOM’s Line City will stretch 75 miles across the Saudi desert and provide a more welcoming environment for sky taxis
One wonders whether future visions will be delayed or even abandoned, it would seem the sky taxi business will always have a place in a future economy.